Our last blog post announced our redesign of the Edit Profile pages where you manage your IntenseDebate user account. We’ve continued to make our way across other pages in your IntenseDebate.com account, and we’re pleased to introduce our latest redesigns of your account Dashboard and Following pages.

Your Dashboard has had an overhaul and a bit of a face lift to match the new design style, while the Following page has been reorganized and is now easier to maintain.

One of the most noticeable changes to the layout is the sidebar. We’ve added additional tabs to the sidebar for your Dashboard and Following pages, which we think drastically improves ease of navigation. This is a theme that you will continue to see as we set our sights on your blog admin pages.

The coolest part about our redesign is that this is giving us a chance to cleanup and update our CSS and other background code, which fits in with our future plans for localizing IntenseDebate.com. We have just begun our localization project for the comment section interface, so localizing IntenseDebate.com is a longer-term project. Keep an eye out for another localization progress update coming soon.

We’re rolling this out slowly to minimize shell-shock that normally accompanies major interface changes. We’re always interested in feedback, so let us know what you think about the redesign.

Posted by Michael Koenig in features

Well, it looks like we might have overdone it a bit and built in too many awesome features. We remembered that sometimes simple is better. With that in mind, we’re proud to introduce an array of new customization options for your comment section.

If you visit your blog account at IntenseDebate.com you’ll notice a shiny new “Customize” tab. Now you can choose which specific components you want to display in your comment section including, the Login Button at the top right, the RSS tab, OpenID, and comment voting (to name a few). So if you’re going for a clean and simple comment section, you can whittle IntenseDebate down to the basics.

We’re interested in your feedback! What else would you like to be able to remove?

Please note: we’re aware of the demand for localization – it’s something that we’re working on, so there’s no need to request it.

If you’re not hip yet and haven’t given IntenseDebate a try, then what are you waiting for? Get started already!

Posted by Michael Koenig in features

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

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

We are iterating fast and furiously over here at Intense Debate. Our latest release includes a healthy list of updates and features.

First, what you will immediately notice is our site remake. This new look is complements of Isaac and features new button as well as other improvements.

For publishers, a primary concern with their comments is data control. We will be taking steps to show that we are genuine in our intentions and allow publishers access to their comment data. The first solution we are providing was released last night and allows publishers to download an xml file with their comment data whenever they feel like it. We want to be a friend to publishers and this solution will keep with that theme.

Last, but certainly not the least, for all you widget lovers we are making another available. It is a top commenters widget that displays the users that make the most comments on your blog. It displays an avatar, screename, reputation, and their rank. Best of all, the widget includes “Chameleon” capability and will adapt to the surrounding blog colors and fonts, just like the other widgets.

As always, feedback is welcome anytime. You can visit our forums and also contact me directly: josh at intensedebate dot com should you have any questions or feedback.

Posted by Isaac Keyet in features