Platform shift

We're in the process of rolling out new blogging software that we developed in-house. It replaces Six Apart's Movable Type, which we started using -- originally as just an experiment -- back in April 2003.

There are many reasons behind the change, but one of the main drivers was that we wanted blogware that could interface directly with the content management system we use for managing the rest of SeattlePI.com. That was also developed internally and we couldn't find any off-the-shelf products that played nice with it. So, Mike Thompson, our developer, elected to write his own.

We'll be migrating existing blogs, like Buzzworthy, to the new software in the near future. For the most part, you won't see much of a difference (hopefully) although you'll finally be able to search through old posts and comments. I don't plan on deleting any of the old pages so any URL you've bookmarked or blogged should still work.

There will be one prominent change: our new blogware will require registration to post comments. This makes it easier for us to moderate comments and fend off comment spam. The registration applies sitewide on SeattlePI.com and also gives you full access to the archives, and lets you post to the forums, comment on individual stories through the SoundOff feature and sign up for e-mail alerts. We have plans for some other registration-related services later on.

Mike has already started using it on his Mariners blog. His readers share some initial thoughts and responses about it on the comments for this post.