This past weekend, I decided to switch The Apheus Blog over to the IntenseDebate comment system. I first seen ID in use on WSBT-TV’s website and it peaked my curiosity. As it turns out, IntenseDebate has a lot of features that I was looking for in a comment system. While the default comment system that comes with WordPress is OK, I wanted something a little extra. Plus, I don’t want to have to manage users on my blog – I’ll leave that up to IntenseDebate.
Importing Comments
I did a little research on IntenseDebate and made the decision to switch over to their comment system without much hesitation. I was worried about losing all of my existing comments, but I was elated to find out that ID imports all of the old comments. I will admit, that the first time I ran the plugin, I skipped the import process because I was scared it would overwrite my existing comments (next time I’ll read the documentation). Fortunately, ID comes with a “factory reset” that let me redo the install process. The second time around, I was able to import all of my comments without any trouble. I connected everything together between the ID website and my blog and everything worked great.
The Future of Commenting
One of the things I have never really liked about the concept of comments is that I usually end up leaving them on blogs that I will probably never visit again. Yeah, I have a few blogs that I frequent from time-to-time, but most of them are one-hit wonders. I’ll do a search on Google, find an interesting topic, leave my comment and away I go to the next blog – completely forgetting what I’ve written and where I’ve been. I know a lot of people do that same thing and I see it all the time on The Apheus Blog.
IntenseDebate solves that problem by consolidating all of your comments into one place – so long as the blog you’re commenting on uses their system. Will I make it my new goal in life to get every other blogmaster to switch over to the IntenseDebate system? No. But, I did write this blog article with the hopes that other blogs will make the switch to IntenseDebate like I did.
Well, it's been a month and a half and I'm still using IntenseDebate comments… apparently, I must really like the system, otherwise I would have already deleted it!
Just wandering around Google looking for opinion on ID, probably more so a justification of my research and decision to use across 3 blogs and wondering why it is that I love it so much
I was also hesitant in doing the import process but just did a quick database backup for peace of mind. The entire process was quick and painless and I have the confidence that I can ditch ID and still retain any and all comments that were made with it so that's a huge plus for the system.
Thanks for your own reassurance it was indeed the right choice. I love the interface and moderations choices it has too – better handled than the bog WP comments.
Unfortunately, WSBT no longer uses IntenseDebate after they launched their new website this week.
Then the World Wide Web and the popularization of the Internet hit in the mid 90s, changing the engineering of software once again. Distributed systems gained sway as a way to design systems, and the Java programming language was introduced with its own virtual machine as another step in abstraction. Programmers collaborated and wrote the Agile Manifesto, which favored more lightweight processes to create cheaper and more timely software.
I started with Disqus and set up dozens of clients with it. Then, I tried IntenseDebate and fell in love with its ease of managing CSS, embedding images, embedding YouTube video, and the overall GUI and user-environment.
Its like you learn my thoughts! You seem to understand so much about this, like you wrote the e book in it or something. I think that you just can do with a few percent to pressure the message home a little bit, however other than that, that is magnificent blog. An excellent read. I’ll definitely be back.
The issue of software patents is a subject of intense debate as of even now, I guess. What I don't understand is the whole idea behind it. I just think the whole justification for patenting is questioned. However, I would want to know the pros and cons of software patenting.