A month ago, we launched the Movable Type 4 beta with word that we’re on a mission. The good news is that, since then, hundreds of thousands of you have joined us in the effort, downloading the beta or trying out various demos or just blogging about what you’ve seen.

Each week since the announcement, we’ve been releasing new beta versions with significant updates — hundreds of bugs fixed, and tons of new features along the way. So we’re excited to announce that we’ve reached the next phase of the beta test: It’s time for you to give MT4 a try.

Now, this is still not production-ready. There are still rough edges and improvements to make, so you shouldn’t run your real blog on it. But the fundamental changes we were making based on your feedback have settled into a fairly stable base; You can get a good sense for how MT4 is going to feel by working with the beta now.

There are a few ways to try out MT4, with some of the most exciting ones coming from the energetic MT4 community.

• Download the MT4 beta for free, and refer to the getting started guide.
• Install the MT4 instance on Amazon’s EC2 service. If you aren’t using the Elastic Compute Cloud service, sign up and then check out the smart work done by community member Tim Appnel.
• Log in to a demo version of MT4, provided by community member Mihai Bocsaru. (Username/Password is demo/demo)

Once you’ve chosen one of those options, some key steps:

• Review What’s new in MT4, a partial list of what to expect in the new version.
• Send us your feedback. One of the most consistent things we’ve heard is that our community’s been delighted at how their thoughts and ideas are being reflected directly in the MT4 product. We know you’ve got insights that we should be learning from, too.

If you’re testing a migration from an older version of Movable Type, swing by the Works with MT4 wiki page to see the status of which plugins are tested to work with MT4. (Your templates should work as-is.)

Now, as we move from the fundamental re-architecture of MT to the fit-and-finish phase of the beta process, we’re seeing more and more people joining the community. It’s time for you to join as well. If you’re new, or you haven’t had a chance to check in, be sure to check out movabletype.org and subscribe to the feed to see the latest information about what the community is up to.

And most of all, thanks to all of you who’ve brought your ideas and inspiration to the MT community.