My one complaint is that when I’ve had issues that couldn’t be resolved searching the archives and I turned to the WP community for help, the most knowledgeable people were quite condescending and unwelcoming. But I’m guessing that’s not specific to WP.

Edward

Frontier Blog
http://www.hwswworld.com/wp

Why do it? Why is WP (or TP, or MT) so great? What can they do that Blogger cannot for the non techie that wants more? I will have to find out more info, but am not sure where to go (or stay) with this.

WP was a clear winner. But when pushed about security, even those that praised WP admitted security was an issue and getting ‘hacked’ was likely if you had a high traffic blog. Again, this wasn’t coming from MT users – but from WP users.

In the end – we decided to stick with MT and their new community solution version 4.23 Pro. Is it tougher? Yes. Do I need to know some CSS? Yes. Do I have to learn some Perl? Yes. Have I evern been hacked or lost Data? No!

And that’s what won for me.

Like you said SIX APART offers Movable Type (MT) and Typepad…. I currently use Typepad for my company’s site, but if you want an advanced template or advanced CMS solution using MT, GOOD LUCK trying to find a 3rd party designer!!! The MT designers Sixpapart lists on their site won’t talk to you unless you have around $40K to spend. YES, $40K is typical project price!! SixApart’s team can do in house design but in the end their pricing is very similar.
Bottom line, unless you are Conde Nast with deep pockets or don’t mind the basic Typepad Template or know how to do CSS, Forget about SixApart’s offerings!! And, yes, after all this research I’m moving my Typepad site to WordPress. (just my opinion but wouldn’t be surprised if MT goes away in the distant future: too closed, too expensive, large media co’s in decline with shrinking budgets so declining project revenues, etc. etc.) Lastly, Obama’s campaign site was done in MT, but Change.gov is now using Expression Engine

WORDPRESS: Best blogging system as it’s open architecture allows for a lot of different apps and widgets; lot’s of advanced templates out there for pennies in comparision to MT…..you can also get a quality level customized theme designed comparable to MT quality for just a couple thousand dollars!!! See their showcase page: http://wordpress.org/showcase/

I also noticed sites in WP load a LOT faster than MT; for instance, see how long it takes Huffpo’s MT based site to load.
Btw, ThePioneerWoman is done with WP not Typepad per her source code (didn’t check other sites.)
Read WordPress for Dummies, there’s a revised edition coming any day. WP also launched v2.7 which really improved the system too. Like Jim stated, WP can be used for CMS versus just a blog platform.

Drupal: Can be expensive unless you can do your own coding. Doesn’t have a hosted version. I’d stick with WP.

Blogger: used it years ago, easy to use but prefer WP.

I’ve been following your blog for a while, and I think this is absolutely the right move for you.

Welcome to the WP neighborhood!

Many are going to WordPress to develop traditional web sites as well as blogs.