We’re constantly working on improving the speed and usability of Intense Debate, and just thought we’d post something about our most recent achievements.

Firefox 3 Support!

We’re extremely stoked about this! We now support Firefox 3, so if ID was keeping you from giving Firefox 3 a try, you’ve now got no excuse!

Intense Debate Comment Restoration

There’s a new feature in the Intense Debate comments that you’ll hopefully never use. If, for some reason, you browse away before posting your comment, or you login as you’re posting, you won’t lose your comment. Just open the page again, and you’ll find your comment right where you left it.

Widget Update

Some of you didn’t like the way the Intense Debate logo was implemented in the last revision of our widgets (by widgets we mean the Recent Comments, the Blog Stats widget, etc). We’ve now changed this to a non-intrusive text link.

Bugfixes and updates

• We’re happy to report that Intense Debate now works perfectly in the NetNewsWire RSS reader.
• Logging in, displaying the user menu, and voting have all been optimized and are now much faster.
• The error messages within the Intense Debate comments have been looked over, and we’ve updated a big chunk of them to make them more clear.
• And more…

People-Powered Customer Service

Ask a question, share an idea, report a problem, or just talk…

Service and support by Satisfaction

If you have any suggestions for us, things you think could change or if you have new ideas, please contact us ASAP! You can always reach us on the Getsatisfaction forums.

Posted by Isaac Keyet in News

Do you know a lot about how Intense Debate works? Like helping bloggers? Got some spare time? Want to make some money?

We’re looking to add one or two people in the very important role of Intense Debate support staff (part-time). It doesn’t matter where you live—you can work from home. You need:

• An enthusiasm for blogs, comments, and Intense Debate
• Great (and speedy) written English skills
• At least 15 hours a week of focused availability
• To be a highly proficient user of the web, a heavy blog reader, a blog author, a software aficionado, and a quick learner

The job consists, basically, of answering emails from people who write in who are having trouble with Intense Debate and helping them out as quickly as possible.

Pay will be hourly. Inquire for more details.

Send your resume and Intense Debate user name to jobs AT intensedebate.com

Posted by Jon Fox in News

Many of you have told us that while you like the design of our comment system you want more control over the styling. Well, we’ve heard you and we’re excited to give you documentation of how the CSS classes work. Want to know how you can alter the look and feel of Intense Debate? For key elements, we have provided some useful examples to get you started. There are also uncompressed versions of the CSS files supplied, so you can check them for reference. Customize Intense Debate to better fit the design of your blog with your own custom CSS!

Check out the guide here!

Posted by Isaac Keyet in News

Here at Intense Debate we’re growing quickly…so quickly in fact that we’re looking for a couple new additions to our team. We’re based in Boulder, CO and participated in the TechStars program this past summer. We’re looking to fill 3 new positions, a brief description of each follows:

Technology Evangelist (full time)

We’re seeking a real web maniac who enjoys reaching out to publishers and engaging them in conversations about how to make our product better for them.
The ideal candidate will be a strong communicator, web savvy, and be capable of handling basic technical support for our important customers.

Software Engineer (full time)

We are looking for an outstandingly talented developer with an in-depth knowledge of PHP and Javascript. You must be fast, flexible, and very self-motivated, and have a passion for startups! Familiarity with blogs/blogging and MySQL databases are pluses.

Bookkeeper / Accountant (part time)

See the full description here.

If you’re interested in any of these roles please email us at jobs@intensedebate.com.  Also be sure to keep an eye on our new jobs page to see these and future postings.

Come join our team, and be a part of this exciting adventure, as we build the best comment system on the web!

Posted by Jon Fox in News

Today we’ve got a bunch of exciting new stuff for you. We’ve gone through and revamped our comment system, it is now faster, prettier, more usable, and easier to understand. Let us highlight some of the things that are new/changed.

User information box

The menu button is gone, but we’ve replaced it with something much better. Say hello to what we call the “userbox”, a popup that appears when you hover a person’s avatar. It has all the information you need in it: Ways of contacting the person on other sites, a link to their Intense Debate profile, and a personal message that gives you more information about the person. It’s all about giving your commenters an identity. Go ahead, let the world know who you are! It’s easily done on your “Edit profile” page.

Comment system redesign

We’re all about user feedback and improving over time. We saw that the comment system had become too cluttered, and so we cleaned up the structure and gave it a new appearance. We want to make sure that your blog has got the most sleek, useful, and cool comment system around. We’ve raised the bar again.

Post new comment section

While we’re all about improving, some of you felt like the “Post new comment” section was a bit too different from the ones seen on standard blog platforms these days. To help new commenters, and to give the comment system an even cleaner look, we’ve taken it back to the roots. You’ll now find that the fields for credentials are stacked on top of each other.

Intense Debate has never looked better. Look out, though. We’re not even close to being done.

Posted by Isaac Keyet in News