Rodent Regatta

• Blogger 3,780,000 results
• Movable Type 1,590,000 results
• TypePad 1,550,000 results
• WordPress 778,000 results
• pMachine 503,000 results
• Drupal 493,000 results
• Textpattern 33,700 results

In any case study of a company under pressure or making major announcements, there is a set of phases in what’s happening. These phases often proceed very rapidly, but they generally take the following form and sequence:

1. Pre-information
2. Customer comment, rumors and speculation
3. The Announcement
4. Customer reaction and misunderstanding
5. Company Response and Clarification <----You are here!
6. Customer comment, rumors and speculation – Round 2 and beyond
7. The company responds well and recovers/flourishes…....OR
8. Customers stay away in droves and the company’s history is rewritten

The early stages of this sequence largely determine whether a crisis forms and must be ”handled.” Properly done, a crisis never ensues and the announcement is questioned, answered and the company preserves its reputation.

• * * UPDATE * * * Brad Choate has some comments about the MT 3.0 announcement(s). My perception is that Brad has been a rather prolific producer of plugins for Movable Type, and has done a great deal to educate the Movable Type user community. His thoughts belong in the list provided yesterday.

The folks at pmachine are giving away 1000 copies of ExpressionEngine to the first folks who follow the rules. Another example of how customers will ultimately win!

The comments regarding Movable Type’s communication and pricing continue. Here’s a selection of thoughts:

• Simon at Webmink
• Susan at LilacRose
• PC World via Kadyellebee via Anil
• Mark at diveintomark [”It’s not about money; it’s about freedom.”]
• Paul at Whitespace
• Tim at Tima Thinking Out Loud
• Lauren at Anyway [Product Management 101]
• Jay at MT Blacklist/Comment Spam Clearinghouse
• Sam at Intertwingly
• and then, there’s this

These folks understand that the whole brouhaha is not about the money. It’s about the marketing communications.

Scriptygoddess anticipates a probable move!