MT4: Making It Read Like A Blog

It seems obvious: Your blog's content is easier to read when it's presented the way it is on your blog. But somehow we've all been struggling to read through entries and comments in blogging tools that make a list of recent activity on your site look like an email inbox. So with Movable Type 4, we've redesigned the dashboard display of your entries and comments on the system's main screen, making it easier to skim and digest.

It might seem like a little thing -- who'd even notice if the Dashboard just used a regular listing of your blog's comments? Well, we think these little details matter: The benefits of showing blog information in its native format are both subtle and profound. It's only logical that you'd want to read the complete text of a comment before replying to it or when choosing whether to publish it on your site. After all, isn't getting the whole picture exactly what blogging's about?

But even more importantly, there's the psychological or even emotional context to maintaining a community; When you get used to seeing the names of your commenters, or the names of the other authors on your blog, and they're in the context of their own words and thoughts, it makes it a lot easier to connect with them as real people, instead of as just names on a screen. After a while, you start to recognize the names and writing styles of the most active members of your blog's community.

In creating Movable Type 4, we've worked hard to remember that we're making social software. That means we have to make sure the choices we make in creating the user interface and data presentation encourage constructive interactions between a site's publisher and its community. And that starts right from the first time you see entries and comments when you log in to MT4.