[ From the WordPress Publisher Blog ]

We’re excited to see that Microsoft installed IntenseDebate on the Microsoft Partner Network to power comments and develop their community.

They’ve used our Generic Install process to add our JavaScript directly to their template, and have a unique (and pretty cool) configuration: all posts and comments are mirrored on http://digitalwpc.com.  So if you comment on a post at microsoftpartnernetwork.com, it will also be posted at digitalwpc.com.

About Microsoft Partner Network

Community is the Foundation of the Microsoft Partner Network
With our more than 640,000 partner organizations worldwide, the network offers real-time connection and support through communities that spark innovation and help you discover opportunities. You can build the relationships that best serve your business and customer needs. Connect and collaborate with other great minds to deliver innovative solutions.

[ Visit Microsoft Partner Network ]

Posted by Michael Koenig in News

We’re excited to welcome Scott Beale and the Laughing Squid blog to IntenseDebate. Scott installed our WordPress plugin over the weekend, and we’re excited to have him and his readers join our community.

In case you’re not familiar:

Laughing Squid is a resource for art, culture & technology and independent web hosting company. It is run by primary tentacle Scott Beale, who is also the publisher & editor of the blog and is joined by the occasional guest blogger.

Swing by and check out the latest and greatest over at Laughing Squid!

Posted by Michael Koenig in News

It’s time for American Thanksgiving! We will be closing IntenseDebate email support on Thursday, November 26 so we can celebrate the holiday with our families. We’ll be back bright and early on Friday morning to answer your questions while we eat our Thanksgiving leftovers though.

Happy Thanksgiving,
The fellas at IntenseDebate

Posted by Michael Koenig in News

Bonjour!  We spent last week in Quebec with our fellow Automattic colleagues for our annual company meetup, and we had an amazing time.  This was the first time Jon, Isaac, Beau, and I have been in the same room, so it was a pleasure to work side-by-side and kick around some ideas together.

We also got the chance to collaborate with the rest of the Automattic crew to look at how IntenseDebate can integrate with other Automattic projects, and learn how to apply their scaling knowledge to our systems.

While some of the projects aren’t ready to be disclosed yet, here are some general details about what we’re working on (please note that these include long-term projects):

• Backend Loading Optimization: We’re really excited about this project.  We are currently working on a new method for optimizing how we load comments and trackbacks.  This will improve load times even as the volume of comments on your blog continues to increase, as well as correct a couple of bugs.  Loading IntenseDebate will be even more seamless!
• More Sync Improvements: We had the opportunity to pick the brains of our brilliant WordPress system engineers about the inner-workings of WordPress. We will be adapting some of the code and principles they use to improve the quality of our syncing engine.  This is going to be huge for our plugin and will correct those pesky sync discrepancies that have been floating around affecting comment counts and backups.
• WordPress Plugin Overhaul: The core of our WordPress plugin was written prior to joining Automattic.  Since then our understanding of the WordPress codebase has drastically improved.  We have now identified significant portions of the plugin code that can be simplified or optimized making it much more lightweight and perform better.  The principles that we are applying in this overhaul will eventually be applied to our integrations with other platforms across the board.
• Moderation, Moderation, Moderation! Bug fixes aside, optimizing moderation is high priority.  The main moderation project that we’re currently working on is reworking your moderation page.  We will be minimizing the time you spend moderating comments and filtering spam, and simplifying your user experience.
• Support Documentation and Forums: We’re beefing-up our FAQ and support resources for end users, publishers and developers. This will help  everyone to find the answers they’re looking for.  More info to come on this one soon.

It’s an exciting time here at IntenseDebate!  We’re looking forward to pushing out loads of new code, and we will be depending on you for your feedback.  Keep an eye right here on our blog for the latest news.

Posted by Michael Koenig in News,WordPress Plugin

As Matt mentioned in the September Wrap-Up, we are heading to Québec City with the rest of the Automattic crew for our biannual meetup to work on some top-secret projects.

Here at Automattic we are spread across the world, and are in a sense a distributed company.  For instance, Beau is located in San Fransisco, CA; Jon is in Boulder, CO; I’m in Chicago, IL; and Isaac is in Veddige, Sweden.  So we relish the opportunity to get together to kick-it, toss around some ideas, and collaborate with the rest of the Automattic team.

Past meetups have yielded some super-cool features and enhancements for IntenseDebate like our PollDaddy Polls plugin, Gravatar integration, localization, backend integration, and some top-secret projects that are still underway.  We’ve also contributed to WordPress.com features like Reply-By-Email which was a product of our time with the Automattic crew last October in Breckenridge, Colorado (picture below).

The Automattic family has grown since our last meetup so we’re excited to have the opportunity to meet and trade ideas with our newest colleagues. With that in mind, while support will still be readily available and answered daily, please allow for some extra-time in the upcoming week as we might take slightly longer to respond. We greatly appreciate your patience.

You can expect great things to come!

Posted by Michael Koenig in News