It’s that time again folks: time for another release of our WordPress plugin!

Version 2.7 is available right now in the WordPress Plugin Directory, and you’ll be prompted to upgrade within your WordPress admin panel in the next few hours if you’re already running it. This version brings the following changes:

• Better loading of JSON libraries: We’ve revised the way that we load JSON (some of the core backend code used in syncing your comments!) so data sync should be much more reliable across more server configurations. Everyone should definitely upgrade for this one!
• Basic diagnostics to help people when they’re getting started: Running IntenseDebate on your own WordPress server requires a connection between our servers and your own. This handy little feature will help you detect if there are problems with that connection.
• Ability to configure the plugin using a WordPress.com account: We had some clashes between usernames of IntenseDebate users and WordPress.com users, so now you can specify which type of account you’re using to log in.

If you’ve had any trouble with a previous version, or were thinking about giving IntenseDebate a try, now’s a perfect time! Install directly through your WordPress admin panel: select Plugins > Add New menu option, or sign up now and follow the prompts.

Posted by Beau Lebens in WordPress Plugin

UPDATE (1-18-2011): There is a new Blogger > WordPress comment importer! The plugin is available in the WordPress Plugins Directory here. Hat tip to Swashata and Gautam Gupta for their contribution to the ID and WordPress community. 🙂

UPDATE: our Blogger to WordPress comment import plugin has been temporarily disabled while we make some backend changes. The plugin will be available again once we’re done. Sorry for the inconvenience. Thanks for your patience!

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I’ve received a lot of emails lately from IntenseDebate users interested in moving their blog from Blogger to WordPress, along with their IntenseDebate comments. Moving your IntenseDebate comments from one blog platform to another may seem like a simple task, but the changes in post ID and URL structures can lead to some difficulties.

Luckily our good buddy and fellow Boulderite, Josh Fraser, wrote an excellent plugin for moving your IntenseDebate comments from Blogger to WordPress. Josh’s plugin has been around for some time now (over a year!) and it’s been tested pretty thoroughly – so far it has performed flawlessly (a testament of Josh’s coding wizardry).

So, if you’re planning on moving from Blogger to WordPress, you can download Josh’s Blogspot2WP plugin. You’ll need to install it the old-fashioned way, via your FTP client, and drop it in your WP-Content → Plugins folder. Make sure you install, activate, and run the Blogspot2WP plugin before you install the IntenseDebate WordPress plugin. Give us a shout at support@intensedebate.com with any questions.

Please note: IntenseDebate is and will always be platform agnostic, and will always be available for use with any CMS and blog platform.

Some info if you’re interested in moving your blog from Blogger to WordPress:
Making the transition is pretty painless thanks to the Blogger importer built-in to the WordPress core. You can use the importer to transfer all of your Blogger posts, native Blogger comments, and users.  The importer is available in your WordPress admin panel under Tools → Import → Blogger. You can learn more about importing in the WordPress Codex.

Posted by Michael Koenig in Blogger,News,WordPress Plugin

It’s been a while now (almost 3 months!) since the last update to our WordPress plugin, and a lot has been going on here at IntenseDebate HQ since then. We’ve been working on our end to improve how the plugin interacts with our servers, and now we’re ready to release a new version which updates how it operates as well. Here are some of the new and improved bits in this version:

• Added a bunch of new API functions to enable better remote queue management (for syncing): get comment counts, get approved comment counts, get a copy of your sync queue, manage individual operations, lock queue temporarily
• Improved handling of duplicate comments
• Improved syncing on comment statuses
• Fixed a bug with closing comments on a Post/Page
• Added partial support for the Trash feature coming in WordPress 2.9*
• Added functionality to allow us to re-import a single Post to help fix up any sync problems (more efficient than re-importing your entire site)
• Lots of small improvements and fixes to the way the sync queue operates to avoid overloading your site (and ours) and to increase the success of requests.

* We’re going to be releasing an update in the near future, once we sort out a few remaining issues with the Trash functionality. When you upgrade to WordPress 2.9 (once it’s released!) you’ll also want to upgrade to that new version.

This version of the plugin has gone through a load of testing on WordPress versions 2.5, right up to the current “trunk” and WordPressMU version 2.6 to the current release (2.8.5.2). We’d like to note that in the next versions, we’re going to drop support for versions of WordPress below 2.7, so if for some reason you’re running an old version of WordPress, we’d strongly recommend that you upgrade!

If you are already using IntenseDebate on your WordPress blog then you should see a plugin update notification in your admin dashboard soon. If you haven’t tried us out yet, then now is the perfect time, with our best plugin release to date! You can search for the plugin (“IntenseDebate Comments”) under Plugins > Add New, or download it directly from the WordPress Plugin Directory.

Posted by Beau Lebens in WordPress Plugin

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