We are happy to announce the release of our updated WordPress plugin.

Like our recent Blogger release, the new WordPress plugin incorporates both an importer and an exporter into the mix. With the importer, bloggers will be able to bring all of their previous blog comments into Intense Debate comment format. This is made very easy by simply clicking one button in a blogger’s WordPress control panel. The exporter is also simple and also allows our WordPress publishers the ability to give our system a try risk free. They can always deactivate our system and have all their ID comments exported to their WordPress system.

We will be notifying our WordPress publishers of this upgrade.

Along with the WordPress plugin upgrade we have release a series of bug fixes and optimizations. This includes a rewrite of the login system and optimizations to make our system load faster.

You may also notice some changes to our design as we make improvements based upon feedback. This includes some small changes like the collapse button within the comments and the RSS button.

Over the last week we have also released our new anonymous avatars. This is based on open source code found here http://digitalconsumption.com/forum/180. These avatars are generated according to a user’s ip address and uses a combination of shapes and colors to create a unique avatar for each commenter. The problem this helps to solve is where one anonymous commenter tries to impersonate another by using the same screename and url. With each user having their own different avatar, it is also nicer to look at because there is no longer the empty box with a question mark for each user.

As always, if you have more suggestions for how we can get better you can leave a comment on this post or leave a note in our forums.

Posted by Isaac Keyet in WordPress Plugin

Saturday Release

While many Americans are watching their favorite college football teams we at Intense Debate are making a release. So, what’s inside?

A new installer for generic websites (and other platforms we don’t offer specific support for yet). This enables people without a blog (or on a platform other than those explicitly supported) to place a piece of code onto their web pages and take advantage of the best comment system in the world. I should also mention it is connected back to our network allowing members to track each other not only across blogs, but also across websites.

We are also releasing our advanced template installer for Typepad. This opens up a whole other market for us and also allows many of our friends to join us.

One of our more important releases this go around is our Blogger importer/exporter. This means the publisher now has the capability through their settings page on their profile to import all previous comments into our system and convert them into Intense Debate comments. With our exporter for Blogger, publishers can now export their comments out of Intense Debate and into their former blog commenting system. To our publishers, ask and you shall receive. These were both highly requested features.

Something you will also notice is our marking of blog admin comments and friend comments. With this, people can quickly peruse a comments section and immediately tell where the comments are for the people they care about.

Another marking you will notice is the blue star next to Josh, Jon, and Isaac’s names. We believe that people will enjoy knowing when we are around and can ask a question if they see fit.

Finally, we have released updaters/re-installers for each platform so that if you switch themes or moved from classic to advanced templates in Typepad, our users have an easy way to do this. This is available in the blog settings page.

If there are any questions, feature requests, or feedback, feel free to contact us in our forums or “contact” page.

Posted by Isaac Keyet in Blogger,features,TypePad