Hey, folks!

As some of you might know, IntenseDebate is part of a bigger family of services on the web, brought to you by Automattic. We work on many projects on the internet, from supporting bloggers around the world at WordPress.com to supercharging self-hosted websites at Jetpack to fighting spam at Akismet — and much more.

If you’re interested in getting involved and joining a team dedicated to making the web a better place, consider joining us — we’re currently hiring. Take a look at the available positions, including developers, engineers, designers, and other wranglers. Maybe you will be next to join us — and contribute to awesome projects like IntenseDebate!

So, don’t be shy — come work with us.

Posted by Cheri Lucas Rowlands in community,News

Over the next couple of weeks Blogger will gradually roll out redirects to country-code URL’s (or ccTLD’s) for all Blogger sites. Per Blogger’s support page:

If you’re in Australia and viewing [blogname].blogspot.com, you might be redirected [blogname].blogspot.com.au. A ccTLD, when it appears, corresponds with the country of the reader’s current location.

This update will unfortunately cause a major issue with our Blogger Widget installation, where the same post will show different sets of comments depending on which ccTLD your readers visit.

The good news is that Blogger sites using our Template installation are all set and will not be affected by this change. You don’t have to do anything, so kick back and relax.

The not-so-good news is that if you are using our Blogger Widget installation, you will need to switch over to our Template installation to ensure that everything runs smoothly. It really is essential that you do this. If it weren’t, we wouldn’t bother you. Don’t worry, we’re here to help and we hope to make this as painless as possible.

Please note:

• You won’t lose any of your existing comments if you follow the instructions below.
• Custom domains are not affected by this change. However, we would ideally like to discontinue our Widget installation. The Template install is much more stable, and future backend updates will most likely only apply for Template installations. We realize that it’s a pain, but it will be worth it in the long run.

Here’s how you can switch over to the Template installation:

1. You will first need to uninstall the Widget from your site. The following instructions are for the updated Blogger interface. If you are using the old Blogger interface, please switch over to the new interface temporarily. You can do that by selecting the “Try the updated Blogger interface” link at the top of your Blogger dashboard.

 

2. Go to your Blogger account and find the blog that you have the IntenseDebate Widget installed on in your blogs list. Click the down arrow, then click Layout.

   

 

3. Locate IntenseDebate in the sidebar and click the Edit link.

   

 

4. Select Remove from the edit screen, then select the orange Save arrangement button at the top of the page.

   

 

5. Next your will need to reinstall IntenseDebate using the Template installation method. To do that go to your Blog Tools tab in your IntenseDebate account. Select Reinstall and follow the installation instructions. You should be all set.

 

6. If you want to switch back to the old Blogger interface, click on the little gear symbol on the right side of the page below your profile picture. Then select the option to switch to the “Old Blogger interface” and you’ll be all set.

Again, we’re here to help. If you come across any issues, you can contact us here. Make sure you include the URL of your blog when you contact us.

We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your understanding. For more information about Blogger’s ccTLD redirect change please check out their support documentation here.

Posted by Michael Koenig in Blogger,News

Just a quick note. If you are using our Facebook Connect integration, please update your Facebook Connect API Key in your Comment Settings and use your Facebook APP ID instead.

Complete instructions are available in your Comment Settings page, and you can access your Facebook APP ID at https://developers.facebook.com/apps.

You may need to clear your browser cookies and cache when you’re done. We have some great instructions on how to do that here.

That should do the trick! Feel free to leave a comment with any questions about this change.

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Update – If Facebook Connect still doesn’t work after you update your API Key to use your APP ID, then it’s likely that you will need to refresh cache for your comments. The easiest way to do that is to post a new comment and that should force the cache to refresh.

Posted by Michael Koenig in News

Update 1-31-11: Upgrade complete! If you were running CommentLuv on your blog, then the plugin will automatically be reactivated. Thanks for your patience!

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Update 1-28-11: You can add a URL field for Guest commenters in the comment form by enabling the option in your Comment Settings. Make sure you disable CommentLuv in your Plugins page to ensure that the URL field shows up properly.

We will have this updated and back in action soon! We appreciate your patience.

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Howdy! It’s time for an upgrade to the IntenseDebate CommentLuv plugin.

We have temporarily deactivated CommentLuv on IntenseDebate while we change the tapes and switch over to the new version.

We will post a status update once the new version is installed. Our apologies for the inconvenience.

Posted by Michael Koenig in features,News

We’re very excited to help spread the news that Thelonious, the latest version of WordPress, is available for download. Read the full announcement on WordPress.org. Even better, IntenseDebate is compatible with WordPress 3.0.

Hats off to all contributors, including Beau Lebens (you know him as the code ninja behind the IntenseDebate WordPress Plugin and Gravatar Profiles).

Major new features in this release include a sexy new default theme called Twenty Ten.

Theme developers have new APIs that allow them to easily implement custom backgrounds, headers, shortlinks, menus (no more file editing), post types, and taxonomies. (Twenty Ten theme shows all of that off.) Developers and network admins will appreciate the long-awaited merge of MU and WordPress, creating the new multi-site functionality which makes it possible to run one blog or ten million from the same installation.

As a user, you will love the new lighter interface, the contextual help on every screen, the 1,217 bug fixes and feature enhancements, bulk updates so you can upgrade 15 plugins at once with a single click, and blah blah blah just watch the video. (In HD, if you can, so you can catch the Easter eggs.)

via – WordPress.org

Posted by Michael Koenig in News