Technology, business and change
IntenseDebate Review – Let’s comment
I recently tested IntenseDebate on my other blog because I have a crazy post with over 900 comments that needed a decent comment system. I had the choice of course to go with WP 2.7 threaded comments or with a third party plugin, but honestly I didn’t want to spend a day tweaking the CSS and all that to make it work properly. Also, I wanted to introduce “reputation”, so that people could rate comments. On top of that, I had the problem that I couldn’t possibily fit 900 comments on one single page, they had to be splitted on different pages. All of that my friends, is IntenseDebate.
What is intense debate?
IntenseDebate is a comment system that works in a different way than most comment systems. To use the comment system, you have to signup at IntenseDebate.com for an account, install a wordpress plugin on your blog and then sync your comments between IntenseDebate and your blog. This means that your comments will both be on your own WordPress database and on IntenseDebate server. This is for the simple reason that IntenseDebate offers so much more than what you can normally do with WordPress like rating comments, user profiles, Ajax threaded comments, approve comments by email and all of this require some external code to function properly. Implementing all that through WordPress plugins would be a pain for sure.
Depending on another website
What I didn’t like about IntenseDebate is that I had to rely on a thrid party website and not just a third party plugin. I did a bit of reasearch and there are some other services like IntenseDebate, but ID have a HUGE, extremely huge strategic advantage: Automattic bought them. Who is automattic you ask me? Automattic is the company behind WordPress so you can expect WordPress to enventually support IntenseDebate natively. That was enough for me to install it and try it. I knew that it wasn’t a “just for fun” project run by three geeks in their basement, IntenseDebate is a solid platform backed up by Automattic.
Approve comments by email
I have to say that my favorite feature is to be able to approve comments by email. When someone comment on your blog, you receive a traditional email saying you have a new comment on your blog, but the particularity of this email is that you can reply to it to approve, delete or mark as spam the comment. For me, this is so much easier as I don’t have to log into wordpress admin to approve the comment and it’s also much more easier from a mobile device on which you have email access. It’s as easy as replying “approve” to the email and boom, comment approved.
Look and feel
The look and feel is great to be honest and it is sober enough to work with most designs. You have an option to override the default CSS, but honestly I haven’t tried it as I think it fits OK for now. Here is an example of the look and feel:
So as you see, it supports multi-level threards and also some nice feature like collapsing the threads, rating comments and reputation.
Widgets
IntenseDebate offers some nice widgets you can put in your sidebar like top commentators and most popular posts. The top commentators of course rank people by reputation and not by comment count, which is totally what I want to achieve. I haven’t put it up yet, put planning to in the near future.
Build a profile
One of the nice thing of building a profile on IntenseDebate.com is that when you comment on other blogs running IntenseDebate, people have access to your profile which contains a lot more than your website’s URL, it contains your twitter account and all other social networks you want to link. The bad thing is that I don’t think it links your website directly, but for that, we have KeywordLuv which is 100% compatible with IntenseDebate.
It’s live on Ben Tremblay
IntenseDebate is running on frogstr so feel free to test it right away. If you like it, why not install it on your blog and start the trend? As I said, I’m sure this will eventually become mainstream as the company behing WordPress, Automattic, bought IntenseDebate. If you install it and want to talk about it, feel free to link this post! 
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IntenseDebate is pretty cool, I am installing it on my blog and probably other blogs. I didn't know it was bought by Automattic – that's good to see, soon it'll probably be integrated into wordpress without 3rd party service like it is now.
How long did it take for your comments to import? I don't have many comments, but it's taking longer than an hour to import and show the comments on the blog. It must have taken a long time to import 900 !
It didn't take long and I probably have something like 2000 comments on frogstr. It took maybe 15 minutes and about the same for my other blog. That's weird it's taking so long!
Oh, it hasn't even begun to import as it is still in Que to be imported, must be busy. I noticed that with IntenseDebate it doesn't utilize CommentLuv – but this does look much better & you can edit comments !
Yeah, it doesn't used CommentLuv when you're logged in your IntenseDebate account, otherwise if you logout and enter your details manually, it'll use it. It's both good and bad. But yes, you're right it's much cleaner!
Oh that is cool about how Comment luv is still working with it. But that also counter acts against already being signed into IntenseDebate and being able to comment on any blog without submit details again.
But I thought of a good idea, a wordpress theme centered around conversations! Using the IntenseDebate as default comment system and put more focus on comments. It's an interesting idea, something I will be working on in my free time.
Just trying to find a good name to start – IntenseBabble ? haha
My prediction was correct. I predict that you will make an article about that IntenseDebate. Haha. Well, great move. Thinking of using this too in my blogs. I have also seen this tool in some blogs I am commenting on.
Hussein's Recent post…Goal Setting For My New Tech Blog
hehe good, I'll keep you all posted on how well it goes!
I dislike external comment systems.
1. They are overcomplicated. All these votings, points, sortings, columns, etc, etc just screw usability in my opinion.
2. They don't degrade well. At best browser shows regular WP comments, at worst comments simply poof.
Overall as reader I am less likely to comment (especially with one of systems that makes effort to not remember name/email/link unless you register with them).
As blogger I see no reasons to use it at my blog.
Rarst's Recent post…null
Well, I don't think IntenseDebate is overcomplicated to say the truth. To be honest, it works really great on dailycomonsense with non-techie people.
I have to agree. There is an aweful lot of clutter going on. You're killing the "rule of thirds".
I had never heard of this before- but I like the look of it. I am going to keep and eye on your blog for a while and see how it is working before implementing it. Thanks for the review
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That's great and no problems for the review!
Welcome to IntenseDebate Ben. The whole Automattic thing was what convinced me to leap aboard too!
Thanks Chris! That is exactly what convinced me as well, I know there is a future for this comment platform!
Cool for you. I get most of it with my not tweaking threaded comments plugin…happy is me.
Dennis Edell's Recent post…<a set="yes" linkindex="166" href="http://www.directsaleswebmarketing.com/wordpress-…Promised Now You Can Edit Comments Too!
Man Dennis, how are you always one blog ahead of me?
Slow poke, heh. I'm usually last lol, as at least for the time being I just wait for the feed in my email, which is usually the next day.
Thanks for the write up. I've been wondering what the big deal was with this Intense Debate that I'm seeing on so many blogs lately. I think I'm going to stick with my own thought and threaded comments for the one reason you mentioned, that being that I don't want to have to sign up for another website and then add another plug in. I also don't have any worries at the moment about 900 comments on a post. lol
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No problems Mitch. I understand you don't want to make the move if you don't have to. I don't have that 900 comments problem on frogstr, but still..I like this system
hehe nice for you. I tried the plugin you use a while ago…I have to agree it does not too bad of a job
i now notice one very bad attribute to this. retyping name email URL for each and every comment is a real slow go…no longer can zi just double click the filed and paste in what's saved.
I like the threaded comments feature of ID, but I wouldn't use it for my blog.. I don't like the idea of rating comments, though it adds to the usability of the blog.
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Yes I know it's not everyone who seem to enjoy being able to rate comments. I personally like the feature, but it depends a lot on the type of blog I think…
I think the rating comments tends to stifle the debate a bit. Depending on the topic, of course. If it's a political discussion or criticism of a post it's likely. Who wants to decent if they get lots of thumbs down? For a tech blog, I think it works better though.
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Yeah, we'll see how this rating thing goes, but I won't focus too much on it.
I agree – and it seems to add another bit of extra uneeded junk. Still, lots of benefits I can see and being bought bu Automatic is huge.
hey Ben, I'm now in IntenseDebate. The plugin is now importing my comments in my blog
Oh that is shaweet!!
IntenseDebate is a great way to gain more exposeure for your sites.
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Wow, 900 comments?! Which post was that? I haven't seen the comment rating feature used too much- I'll have to get used to it before I can give my opinion. I do like that IntenseDebate includes Twitter info- something I don't see often enough!
MLDina's Recent post…null
Well, it's taking forever to import the comments from my site.
Nice review Ben. I've seen IntenseDebate before but never took the time to look into it. I might try it on a blog or two. I would install it on Extreme Ezine if I wasn't worried about Comment Luv and if it didn't disable the ability to 'recall' the form entries (name, email and URL) by double clicking the box. It seems like many people just wont bother. Other than that it looks like a great blog tool.
I think IntenseDebate is great, except for when it goes down, it will slow your site down drastically.
Wow – I would love to see the post with 900 comments – that's amazing
Anyway, I don't have that kind of problem so I don't really need it, but its a great tool none-the-less
Strong Review, Froggy. You do work, son! Intense Debate is popping up everywhere and they are running with. Sounds good and may check it out.
Wow! it seems that this tools got some real value as i have read a lot bout it in previous days. I guess its time to install it at my blog too.
great review, i'm trying it on my blog. Let's see if WordPress integrates it natively so we don't have to rely all the times with another web service.
Great review, I wish there was a review like this on the net when I was trying to find info on IntenseDebate. I've got IntenseDebate running on my blog but unfortunately, I've been having problems with it syncing to WordPress lately.
http://gsfn.us/t/31v8
Freddie Taylor recommended your write-up on this plug in, and boy was he right. Thanks to both of you!
Hi! I feel that intenseDebate has all to provide. However, are there any other special features of intenseDebate? I have come across another commenting system which has the same features.
I run IntenseDebate on one blog, but my new one doesn't have it – and it's likely to stay that way. I really like IntenseDebate, but tweetbacks are more important to me than pingbacks, and there are no solutions for displaying tweetbacks (that I have found) for IntenseDebate. Very nice product and some great capabilities, but I'm now waiting on their development and creativity instead of getting to flex my own.
Hopefully, they will resolve this quickly. I do enjoy the conversation it facilitates….
I have installed it on one of my wordpress blogs. Lets hope it works as it promises. The features are quite interesting and as stated in this article its really useful
Cool! I saw "comments by intensedebate" on your other posts and wondered what it was. It's actually a really cool commenting system. I think I should definitely try it out on my wordpress blog. Seems very useful, especially the e-mail approval ability.
I like the post and the tool you described.No doubt it has many advantages and one can see them having installed it.
you're right..when the sum of comments rise quickly….need more effective tools
Thank you, this is really interesting. Can’t wait to try it!
I always thought that this may yet be another comment system but you've provided a very useful insight about ID. Their look is very professional and keeping comments sync on both servers is fantastic, just incase if we lose our data, can we get the comments restored? plus the benefit of it which site has ID system, the person doesn't have to sign up again because his one user id will give him the power.
interesting commenting post ! it helped in sharing information , i feel sharing the importance of concierge services , concierge is today's need , if you are busy , concierge is at your service to help you .
Nice idea. These is so nice tool to filter comments that are out of topic on has an explicit content.
The Intense Debate Commenting System is not all it’s cracked up to be. For one thing, the I.D. points system seems very flaky. Wonder if anybody else has noticed this?
After all the crap that ONE PARTICULAR blogging site (to remain unnamed for now) and Intense Debate put us through, forcing us to sign up if we wish to make comments there, and forcing us to open up our systems to Cookies & Javascripting (and God knows what else) so they can monitor/surveill/dossier everything we say, you would think they would consider it a priority to give us “our rightful comment-points” as a friendly little enticement to keep us participating. Apparently not the case…
Not that the “points score” is a big deal in anybody’s life, but why even have it if you can’t make it work accurately? It seemed odd that the score associated with our sign-on handle would keep bouncing around the way it has done, so we took time to mull through the various pages of postings and individually add up the points for each comment, then compared that total against the total points being published on the Profile page: Total for individual postings is 97, whereas the points showing on the Profile page are 59. WHAT IS UP WITH THAT?!
Intense Debate is basically a surveillance/censoring system that provides a blog-owner more databasing & censoring or deleting of people’s comments, with a lot of self-promotional HYPE from I.D. about how great the I.D. system is, but so far all we’ve seen has been: bogus point-scoring system, a helluva lot of hidden scriptings & ads & cookies going in and out of our hard drives, and unbelievably kludgey & slow page-loading because of aforementioned scripting, cookies, snooping, and oddball stuff. In the old days of the internet, we could just TURN OFF graphics, cookies, scripting, popups, and whatever else we did NOT want to be encumbered with, and just load the “meat” of the webpage and read what interested us. Not so with this new Intense Debate system! Intense Debate does not even try to load comments until all the aforementioned KLUDGE & CLUTTER is done coming and going, loaded and nosing around in our machines. You can try to block things like google’s or akamai’s endless snoops, but good luck at receiving page loads if you do so. And God forbid that you should have to RELOAD the page if the first time around failed–because you’re going to have to go through all that slow loading crap all over again. Or maybe you need to check something offsite before you finalize a post: Be careful about turning off Javascripting and cookies so you can traverse the Net without other sites trailing your every move, because when you come back to the posting site, ready to make your post, you probably will find your “log-in has expired,” so you’ll have to re-log in and reload the page all over again. Talk about wasting time and energy!
Furthermore, Intense Debate is rather heavyhanded in not allowing a poster to make his Profile private if he prefers. Not everyone thinks it’s a good idea to be “followed” (stalked?). Not everyone WANTS their comments to be “universal” across the entire worldwide web just because they felt moved to comment on a story on a particular site. Why isn’t there an option given for Public or Private participation? As for improving the quality of comments on a site, when I.D. is used, that’s debatable. Seems the points system mostly invites people to assault each other and compete with each other at least as much if not more than the older system where people merely commented on things and moved on. All this seems to be a distraction away from the content that the site is trying to provide.
One last irritant is that the SIGN IN and SIGN UP links are mixed up on the site. Instead of having a simple way to LOG IN, I.D. has at least three different methods and they’re all mixed up, with no clear solution until you waste hours and finally learn your way through their illogical maze.
For a company that claims to be among the “best” blogging and commenting sites on the planet, this I.D. system seems very unwieldy and aggravating. The original idea to provide content and allow folks to comment on it was pretty brilliant, and we’ve enjoyed using the “particular site in question” for quite some time, but this latest twist of forcing Intense Debate as our “gatekeeper” is pretty annoying… and may force us to go elsewhere to make our pithy remarks–which, regardless of which “Points Score” you use, seem to be pretty appeciated by other visitors of “the site in question.”
WE HATE INTENSE DEBATE. ESPECIALLY THE “POINTS” SYSTEM, WHICH ONLY GOADS PEOPLE INTO “DINGING” EACH OTHER AND DETRACTS FROM ANY REAL “DIALOGUE” ON THE TOPICS PRESENTED.
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I am glad you took the time to write this since it was really helpful
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