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 in Blogger,News,TypePad,WordPress Plugin