Today we enter an open beta where any publisher with a Typepad, Blogger, Wordpress, or website can add an Intense Debate comment system to their site. Over the past few months we have made many site upgrades and bug fixes to get to where we are today and, while not perfect, we felt pushing a launch now would put Intense Debate in a great position moving forward.

While we open our site, we also make new features available that make Intense Debate truly special. We have heard from our critics that to be a true friend to the publisher and user we must use OpenID. We agree. Intense Debate will now make an OpenID sign up available to users. OpenID will make it easier for users to sign up for our service and also makes us not “another login.”

We have also made a great upgrade for our publishers in how our comments display. Now someone can click on their comment link and see the comments drop down from the actual post. This keeps the reader from having to go to a separate page to view and make comments. For readers who want to read the comments in a new window, we are now making this functionality available as well. Many users on video sites enjoy this so we felt compelled to build it.  You can adjust this feature from the blog settings page in your Intense Debate admin panel.

With all the new features you might overlook our new design elements. The new homepage is almost entirely redesigned with a new header that runs throughout the site and an intro video to spotlight our most important features. The new design makes better use of space and will help with usability.

We have also added some options for those with Typepad or Blogger blogs. We now offer an install on all of your posts or just those with no comments. Previously, we only offered an install on posts with no comments.

Sometimes it isn’t easy to know all that we offer. As mentioned before, we now have an intro video. To be even more clear, we have created a features page with some lengthier descriptions. Check it out!

And as if all this wasn’t enough, we’ve also included a completely new user dashboard.  Find out all kinds of great statistics about you and your friends.  See the latest comments from you, your friends, or all of Intense Debate.  Also get the latest news and updates on what’s happening with Intense Debate.  We put everything you need in one convenient location.

Along with the new features several bugs have been fixed. The most notable pertains to our login system which has been completely rebuilt to make it more scalable and solve some firewall issues.

We continue to search out feedback. Please feel free to drop us a line anytime at contactus@intensedebate.com

Posted by Isaac Keyet

We are happy to announce the release of our updated Wordpress plugin.

Like our recent Blogger release, the new Wordpress plugin incorporates both an importer and an exporter into the mix. With the importer, bloggers will be able to bring all of their previous blog comments into Intense Debate comment format. This is made very easy by simply clicking one button in a blogger’s Wordpress control panel. The exporter is also simple and also allows our Wordpress publishers the ability to give our system a try risk free. They can always deactivate our system and have all their ID comments exported to their Wordpress system.

We will be notifying our Wordpress publishers of this upgrade.

Along with the Wordpress plugin upgrade we have release a series of bug fixes and optimizations. This includes a rewrite of the login system and optimizations to make our system load faster.

You may also notice some changes to our design as we make improvements based upon feedback. This includes some small changes like the collapse button within the comments and the RSS button.

Over the last week we have also released our new anonymous avatars. This is based on open source code found here http://digitalconsumption.com/forum/180. These avatars are generated according to a user’s ip address and uses a combination of shapes and colors to create a unique avatar for each commenter. The problem this helps to solve is where one anonymous commenter tries to impersonate another by using the same screename and url. With each user having their own different avatar, it is also nicer to look at because there is no longer the empty box with a question mark for each user.

As always, if you have more suggestions for how we can get better you can leave a comment on this post or leave a note in our forums.

Posted by Isaac Keyet

Saturday Release

While many Americans are watching their favorite college football teams we at Intense Debate are making a release. So, what’s inside?

A new installer for generic websites (and other platforms we don’t offer specific support for yet). This enables people without a blog (or on a platform other than those explicitly supported) to place a piece of code onto their web pages and take advantage of the best comment system in the world. I should also mention it is connected back to our network allowing members to track each other not only across blogs, but also across websites.

We are also releasing our advanced template installer for Typepad. This opens up a whole other market for us and also allows many of our friends to join us.

One of our more important releases this go around is our Blogger importer/exporter. This means the publisher now has the capability through their settings page on their profile to import all previous comments into our system and convert them into Intense Debate comments. With our exporter for Blogger, publishers can now export their comments out of Intense Debate and into their former blog commenting system. To our publishers, ask and you shall receive. These were both highly requested features.

Something you will also notice is our marking of blog admin comments and friend comments. With this, people can quickly peruse a comments section and immediately tell where the comments are for the people they care about.

Another marking you will notice is the blue star next to Josh, Jon, and Isaac’s names. We believe that people will enjoy knowing when we are around and can ask a question if they see fit.

Finally, we have released updaters/re-installers for each platform so that if you switch themes or moved from classic to advanced templates in Typepad, our users have an easy way to do this. This is available in the blog settings page.

If there are any questions, feature requests, or feedback, feel free to contact us in our forums or “contact” page.

Posted by Isaac Keyet

We are iterating fast and furiously over here at Intense Debate. Our latest release includes a healthy list of updates and features.

First, what you will immediately notice is our site remake. This new look is complements of Isaac and features new button as well as other improvements.

For publishers, a primary concern with their comments is data control. We will be taking steps to show that we are genuine in our intentions and allow publishers access to their comment data. The first solution we are providing was released last night and allows publishers to download an xml file with their comment data whenever they feel like it. We want to be a friend to publishers and this solution will keep with that theme.

Last, but certainly not the least, for all you widget lovers we are making another available. It is a top commenters widget that displays the users that make the most comments on your blog. It displays an avatar, screename, reputation, and their rank. Best of all, the widget includes “Chameleon” capability and will adapt to the surrounding blog colors and fonts, just like the other widgets.

As always, feedback is welcome anytime. You can visit our forums and also contact me directly: josh at intensedebate dot com should you have any questions or feedback.

Posted by Isaac Keyet