We're moving to our new place on the 15th. I'm so not ready.

At work, I've got a manual that probably needs to go to the printers on the 16th. It's so not ready.

Meanwhile, I spend far too much of last night chasing around a stupid bug in Movable Type. I read the relevant sections of the manual. The manual was no help. For some reason, every time I go to Six Apart's web site, I end up chasing myself in circles. I could not, for the life of me, find the user support forums, where I was fairly sure the issue would have been discussed. I couldn't access the knowledge base, because Six Apart doesn't recognize me as a paying customer.

But I am a paying customer, dammit! I pay a monthly fee to Media Temple, a recognized Movable Type hosting partner, to install and maintain Movable Type for me. So, I log into Media Temple's account center and open a support request, asking, "How do I obtain support for Movable Type? I am unable to access all of the support features on Six Apart's web site because I don't know how to get their site to recognize me as a paying customer."

In less than three minutes, I got back a polite, professional, and nearly completely useless response. I won't reproduce it here, but it boiled down to:

1. If you tell us what your problem with Movable Type is, we can tell you if we provide support in that area.


2. In spite of the fact that you have not told us what your problem with Movable Type is, we are fairly sure that it is a bug or feature of Movable Type itself, which is not our problem. Get support from the makers of the software.


3. Here is a link to a document that explains exactly what we do and don't support.

I read the document, and it confirmed what I suspected: Media Temple can help me if it's an installation issue, or if I completely screw up my MySQL database, but other than that, I need to go to Six Apart for help.

Meanwhile, Daniel found a complete description of the problem, confirmation that it's a bug, and a fix. Posted on those Movable Type support forums that I can't seem to find. He used Google.

So, I've sent a response back to Media Temple, explaining that while I have resolved the particular issue that prompted me to seek support, I would really like a straight answer to the question: Does my purchase of Movable Type services through Media Temple entitle me to support as a paying customer of Six Apart?

Because if it doesn't, I'm not entirely sure what my monthly fee is paying for.

Sigh.