It's both interesting, and typical, that I change my content management system to MoveableType at the same time their company growth demands it is no longer free for developers and commercial installations.

This, of course, sent a fairly unhappy ripple through MoveableType users. Reading a lot of the posts concerning this one theme has shown up time and again, that US$69/US$120 is "too much to pay for a hobby".

I beg your pardon?

I know many people with hobbies - I'm one of them - and they invest thousands of hours AND dollars on their hobby. Heck, I was at the Gaming Workshop on Saturday and there were people in there parting with hundreds of dollars for metal figurines and fake model trees, paints and all sorts. Women on shoe-string-budgets used to be able to sqeeze incredible amounts of money out of their budgets to buy fat-quarters and liberty fabrics when I was patchworking. Wanna try stamp collecting on less than US$69 per year?

Hobby's aren't free - never have been.

MoveableType have developed this wonderful tool and ask for a fee - annual I am guessing - that seems extremely resonable to me, and I live in New Zealand where the exchange rate demands I part with $130 for the lowest tier of developer licensing. They still have a free version for the everyday *hobby* blogger so I'm not entirely sure why so many panties are in a bunch.

And for all those who have a wad of pantie fabric up their whazoos, don't forget Blogger is still free and wonderful - you can have as many authors/blogs as you like and is has Google backing it so might remain free a while longer.

And, while I'm on the subject - I hate the word "hobby". It insinuates something that's not so important, a sideline interest or activity - something to do to fill in the time when everything else is done. I used to be insulted when people mentioned the "number of hobbies" i had/have. The way I express my creativity is not a lightweight sideline activity for me. It's the reason. It's the reason I work, it's the reason I squirrel money away each week, it's the reason I read technical books in bed at night, buy coloured pencils one at a time, have a dedicated area in my home to work at my art, go out on raining wet nights to night classes clear across town to draw. My creativity is who I am, and if it were to cost me US$69 per year I'd be happy to get really creative in finding the cash on a shoestring budget.