The wait is over! We’re pleased to announce that IntenseDebate has emerged from temporary invite mode and is now available for the taking.

Since joining Automattic, we have been hard at work scaling our infrastructure and preparing IntenseDebate to deliver super-charged comments across the web.  You can finally inject some hi-octane conversational mojo into the standard comment system on your blog and website!

So what’s comment mojo magic all about? Have a look below (or at our Features page)!

WordPress Beta Plugin
We have also made our shiny new WordPress beta plugin available for download.  As a collaborative effort between both our IntenseDebate crew and the Crowd Favorite team, taking this beta plugin live marks the culmination of several months of hard work.  Hats off to everyone for a job well done and endless thanks to our alpha and beta testers!

So what’s the new plugin all about?

Two-Way Comment Sync

Comments made in IntenseDebate are automatically backed-up to your WordPress comment system, while your existing WordPress comments are automatically imported into IntenseDebate. You always have all of your comments so uninstalling is a one-click process if you change your mind.

Admin Panel Integration

Moderate and reply to IntenseDebate comments from your WordPress admin panel using our custom moderation page that looks and feels exactly like the WordPress page that you are used to. The only difference is the extra IntenseDebate zest we have added by including IntenseDebate avatars, reputation points, profile links and all of our other metadata gravy that you’ll love.

Search Engine Optimization

IntenseDebate outputs the standard WordPress comments enabling your comments to still be indexed by search engines that ignore JavaScript, while ensuring that visitors surfing with JavaScript disabled will be able to interact with comments made in IntenseDebate.

Trackbacks

Your trackbacks and pingbacks are all automatically synced to your IntenseDebate account so you won’t have to sacrifice one bit of link love by installing IntenseDebate.

Profile Sync

Create an account and login to IntenseDebate directly from WordPress! Syncing your accounts enables auto-login so logging into WordPress automatically logs you into IntenseDebate. Profile sync also means that comments you make are synchronized to both profiles so you maintain ownership of your profile.

Post Settings

WordPress admin settings like closing and opening comments on a post, and even changing your post titles, are automatically recognized and reflected in your IntenseDebate settings.

And even more feature goodness that we don’t have room for here. Interested in learning more about our WordPress beta plugin?  Have a look here!

It’s time to kick your old comment system to the curb and give IntenseDebate a try!  For more information please visit our help center.

It’s good to be back!

Posted by Michael Koenig in News

We’re extremely pleased to announce that IntenseDebate will now be joining the Automattic team! This is a big day for us and we couldn’t be more stoked about what it means for the future of IntenseDebate.

So what does this mean for you, our valued users? A couple of things:
1.) We will be temporarily going back into an invite only system. This won’t affect our current users, but new installs will require an invite code. This is just to give us a little time to ramp up the hardware and get our ducks in a row as we join the Automattic team.

2.) You’ll be seeing IntenseDebate a lot more often. We’re really excited about the distribution possibilities this opens up, so expect to see our comment system and use your IntenseDebate profile on a lot more blogs.

3.) You can look forward to tighter integration with some of the other Automattic joints including Akismet and Gravatar.

But don’t worry!
You will still be able to use IntenseDebate on Typepad, Tumblr, Blogger, Movable Type, and other platforms with more to come! We will continue to improve our comment system and your commenters’ experience. IntenseDebate will continue to enhance and encourage conversation on your blog and build your reader community.

It’s business as usual except we will be ramping up in size and features, and integrating more closely with other Automattic properties to provide an even better commenting experience. The IntenseDebate name and logo isn’t going anywhere – it’s just going to get way more Intense! It’s been a long road to get here, but we’re just getting started…

Posted by Jon Fox in News

At IntenseDebate we’re all about shaking hands, kissing babies, and contributing to the community. I may be stating the obvious here, but IntenseDebate cares (period). With that in mind we are extremely pleased to pledge one percent of our overall equity to the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado.

EFCO (as it’s known in the halls of many a Colorado high school) is a philanthropic program with the mission of assisting entrepreneurs and start-ups in giving back to the community. I can’t explain it better than how the good folks at EFCO describe their mission:

Rather than wait for success to encourage philanthropic activity, at which point the successful entrepreneur is likely to be besieged by requests, we decided to create a new program to help all entrepreneurs contribute early in the creation of their companies to the long term health and sustainability of Colorado.

Along with our fellow EFCO members, we are delighted to have the opportunity to contribute and become involved at this stage in our company.

Yeah that’s right, we’re IntenseDebate and we bring change you can believe in.

Posted by Michael Koenig in News

Today we are announcing that Josh is leaving Intense Debate for personal reasons.  We all feel this is what’s best for both Intense Debate and Josh. We certainly wish him well in his future pursuits.

Losing a team member in a small startup like ours is obviously never easy, but we remain committed to providing the best tool for online conversation to all of our users.

We’ve got some really exciting stuff in the pipeline, so keep checking back for the latest news.

Posted by Jon Fox in News

Our Summer at TechStars has come to a close. To simply say that it was everything we could have asked for and more would be an understatement. The people we have been exposed to, the relationships made, the polishing of our companies, and all the other great things that have happened while we are here in Boulder have exceeded our expectations.

TechStars went out with a bang. We had a great investor day followed by a great evening with friends at The Kitchen. The funny thing is that most of the teams are staying here in Boulder and using it as their base of operations. On that note, we have something to add.

We can also announce that our North American Headquarters will be made here in Boulder. It is just the right move for us. The majority of our mentors are here, there is a great startup environment in Colorado, and we feel like the community has embraced us since we came here. We are also making an expansion into Europe as Isaac will be heading up our European Outpost for the near term. He will come back to us some day.

The end is only the beginning for us. In the coming weeks, we will share more great news with you.

Posted by Isaac Keyet in News