We released a cool new setting for reported comments (comments that your readers flag as inappropriate). You can now opt to have the comments automatically put into moderation for review. This handy option can help you and your readers keep your comments clean and debates friendly.

To enable this option, visit your Comments Settings, and check the box next to Send comments to moderation when reported (located at the bottom of the page). Make sure you save your settings. This setting excludes comments posted by site admins and moderators, as well as comments that you have already approved.

While you’re there you can also take advantage of our Auto-Delete setting for reported comments. With the Auto-Delete option, you can set a maximum number of times that a comment is reported before the comment is deleted. This is another super-handy feature for crowdsourcing moderation.

Both of these options are based entirely on your feedback, and we’re happy to deliver them!

Posted by Michael Koenig in features

Chris Gammell wrote an excellent post about his experience using IntenseDebate.  After reading Matt Mullenweg’s post, 6 Steps To Kill Your Community, Chris was compelled to give IntenseDebate a try.  Here are some of his initial thoughts on how you can benefit from using IntenseDebate (via his post):

• Reply directly to comments made by others – No more calling out names, now it’s a hierarchical format that shows your reply directly below theirs.
• Login is easier — IntenseDebate let me create a Facebook app; not that I wanted to for personal gain, but now you can use Facebook to login to the comments here if you like. […] You can also login with Twitter, IntenseDebate, WordPress.com or it will just pull your photo in if you happen to use Gravatar (another Automattic creation, the same people that do WP).
• Subscribe to comments — I usually “set it and forget it” when it comes to commenting on sites. Once I’ve dropped off my two cents, I usually don’t care to stick around and refresh or I completely forget I commented somewhere. The comments subscription is easy and won’t overwhelm your inbox. Plus you can reply back to any replies you get through email.
• Voting – I don’t want this site to be a popularity contest, but sometimes you see a comment you really like. Now there’s a up/down arrow next to comments you think are really good so they’ll rise to the top. Similar to a reddit or more relevant ChipHacker. I like the “democratic” view of commenting–just because you’re the most recent doesn’t mean you should show up first. Even if you’re not planning on commenting, take a minute to click on comments you agree with.
• CommentLuv — This is a plugin that will pull your latest blog post title into your post automatically. It’s a simple way to show what you’ve been writing about even if you don’t want to write “PLEASE LISTEN TO ME AND VISIT MY SITE” in every post. I doubt that anyone on the internet ever does that kind of thing though. With this new plugin, it’s no big deal.
• Sharing – I really don’t think many people are submitting my posts to social media sites, but this is also integrated as a plugin (previously it was a plugin at the bottom of the post, not in the comments). If you feel the urge, I encourage it! (no pity submissions, please)

Many thanks to Chris for giving ID a try, and for sharing his review!

We depend on your support and feedback, and we always love your help with spreading the word about IntenseDebate.  Let us know if you publish a review of your experience with ID — we’ll be happy to give you a shout out, and help share your feedback with the rest of the blogosphere. 🙂

Posted by Michael Koenig in community,feedback

We’ve been hard at work on some very cool projects, and I thought I’d share some details of one of the things I’ve been working on.  Our FAQ has become pretty dated – we’ve made loads of changes to IntenseDebate since we first put that together – and one of my projects has been to beef-up our support documentation to help you get answers to your questions easily.  We’ll be launching our shiny new FAQ soon.

While our goal is to make IntenseDebate as intuitive as possible, we realize that offering robust support documentation is key to helping you get up and running with your new comment system and commenter profile as quickly as possible.  I’ve answered thousands of support emails which have helped us identify ways to improve IntenseDebate (nearly all of our user-interface updates and new features are based on your feedback), and that’s also helped craft our new FAQ entries.

IntenseDebate is nothing without our community, so there’s no question that you all are the most important part of our team.  With that in mind, I’d love your feedback on your experience with IntenseDebate:

How was your initial experience with IntenseDebate?
Were there certain parts that you were confused about?
What helped you get familiar with it?
What would have improved your experience?
What can we add to our FAQ to help?

Whether you’ve installed IntenseDebate on your blog or you use your user account to comment on your favorite sites, your feedback is extremely important to us and we’d love to hear more.  Please leave us a comment below and help us improve our FAQ for future IntenseDebate users.

Thanks in advance!

Posted by Michael Koenig in community,feedback

There are loads of interesting debates happening across the IntenseDebate network. One of our goals is to highlight those conversations so you can check them out and add your own two cents. We’re all about content discovery, and we’re always looking for new ways to do this.

We are kicking off a new series of blog entries that feature cool debates and blog posts taking place across the IntenseDebate network, and we would love your help. Leave us a comment and let us know about interesting conversations and posts that you’ve come across or participated in. If it’s super-cool we’ll feature it right here on our blog and give it some link-love.

Here’s how you can get involved:

• Keep an eye out for interesting conversations and cool blog posts as you cruise around the interweb.
• Grab the comment permalink or blog post link (instructions below), paste it in a comment below, and let us know why you dig it.

Grabbing a permalink:

• Locate the timestamp for the comment (formatted as  “10 minutes ago”)
• Hover your mouse cursor over the timestamp and right-click with your mouse.
• Depending on which web browser you’re using, there will be an option to “Copy Link Location” or “Copy Link”.
• Select that, and then paste it in your comment below.

Thanks for your help!

Posted by Michael Koenig in feedback

Brilliant comments have been submitted across IntenseDebate.  But once in a blue moon someone submits a great comment that’s perfect except there’s a typo or a curse word containing non-alphabetic ch@racter$ that slipped through your profanity filter!  Unfortunately when this happened the only available options were to leave the comment up or delete it.  Until now…

We’re extremely excited to introduce the latest enhancement to your IntenseDebate comments, Admin Comment Editing.

Now you can edit the details of all comments on all posts on your site (if you’re a site admin of course).  No more letting your users run wild, unless you’re into that sort of thing. 😉

Comment Edit links are located in two different places in your account at IntenseDebate.com: your Moderation page, and your Comment History page (for editing comments that have already been posted).  If you are using our WordPress Plugin, you will find a link to edit comments in your WordPress admin panel.

Please note: you will not be able to edit user info for authenticated comments (like those posted using an IntenseDebate, Twitter, or Facebook account).

We built this feature based on your feedback, so keep it coming.  We’ve always got an eye out for cool ideas and we’re always listening, so please feel free to share your thoughts with us.  If you haven’t given IntenseDebate a try yet, there’s no better time than now.  Get started!

Posted by Michael Koenig in features