It’s been way too long since we last updated our blog – our apologies for the radio silence. I wanted to share a handy bit of CSS to help you further customize the way your readers can post comments to your site. While we offer a couple of different ways to comment – as a guest or using their Facebook, Twitter, WordPress.com, or IntenseDebate account – there wasn’t a way to disable guest commenting while still enabling Facebook Connect and Twitter Sign-in.

But, as you may know, we offer a super-easy way to add custom CSS to bring your own personal style to IntenseDebate through your Custom CSS page. By adding a handy snippet of CSS, you can hide the guest commenter information fields (Name, Email, URL), which will effectively remove the option to post comments as a guest.

Why is this cool?

I’m glad you asked. Currently commenters that post using Facebook Connect and Twitter Sign-in are considered guest commenters since they aren’t posting with an IntenseDebate or WordPress.com account. The issue is that if you disable guest commenting in your moderation settings by requiring readers to have an IntenseDebate or WordPress.com account, you would remove the options to post using Facebook Connect and Twitter Sign-in, which isn’t ideal.

So without further ado, here’s the CSS you can add to your Custom CSS page to get rid of guest commenting:

#idc-container-parent #idc-container .idc-postnav-label,
#idc-container-parent #idc-container .idc-c-m.idc-signup {
display: none !important;
}
#idc-container-parent #idc-container
.idc-postnav-list {
margin: 5px 0 8px;
}

That last little bit adjusts the margin to make up for the hidden fields so there isn’t a gaping space where the guest commenter fields used to be. Feel free to tweak that as you’d like.

Make sure you check out our CSS documentation, along with the rest of our guides to change the font size; text, background, and link colors; width of the comment section; and move the comment box to the top of the comment section.

Posted by Michael Koenig in features

We are extremely excited to introduce WordPress.com user accounts and auto-login to IntenseDebate and open up the debate to more than 12 million commenters and bloggers.  Now WordPress.com users can comment on IntenseDebate-enabled websites anywhere on the Web without having to re-enter their account information.

While we’ve added Facebook Connect and Twitter Sign-In support, there are still too many steps and mouse clicks between you and posting a comment. We’re all about making commenting easier and more accessible to as many people as possible, and we think you’ll agree that this is a huge leap forward.  Commenting with IntenseDebate is now easier, faster, and simpler.

WordPress.com users post nearly 400,000 new comments every day, and now they are all automatically logged in to comment on your blog. And that’s not to mention the addition of over 20,000 new users every day!

So what does this mean for you?

• If you’re a WordPress.com user and you’re logged into your account, then you’ll automatically be logged into IntenseDebate as well.  All you have to do is type your comment and hit submit.
• You can login with your WordPress.com account directly from the comment section and at IntenseDebate.com.
• If you already have an IntenseDebate account then you can just keep on commenting as normal.

This means that unlike Facebook Connect and Twitter Sign-In, there are no extra clicks, and no need to remember another set of login credentials. It also means that more than 12 million WordPress.com users will be able to comment on your blog with full-fledged IntenseDebate profiles, without having to create an account or enter any details. How’s that for motivating the conversation?

Better yet, since these profiles aren’t third-party accounts, you (and all your new users) will have access to all of the awesome features that IntenseDebate is famous for: email notifications, reply-by-email, reputation scores, comment voting, comment history, Twitter integration, and more.

If you already have both IntenseDebate and WordPress.com accounts, don’t worry – we will be merging your accounts in the next phase of our integration, so keep commenting!

Commenting on your site just got a whole lot easier for millions of existing bloggers and commenters.

Welcome to the debate WordPress.com lovers! 🙂

Posted by Michael Koenig in community,features,News

IntenseDebate is feature packed and we’re always adding new bells and whistles. Of course, you know this by now and are likely pretty familiar with our tools. Still there might be some cool features that you never knew existed. We’re guessing that you’re familiar with our email notifications, but there’s one method of subscribing to comments that might be overlooked (I know this because I recently forgot it existed).  This post outlines three methods for commenters to opt to receive email notifications for comments posted.

Subscribe without posting a comment:
This option is located in the RSS menu in the top right of the comment section and is available to everyone: IntenseDebate users, along with commenters posting either as Guests, with Facebook Connect, Twitter Sign-In, or OpenID.  You can opt to receive email notifications for a single post or for comments on all posts.

Subscribe when posting a comment:
When you post your comment you can opt to receive email notifications for all comments or just for replies to your own.  This option is available to all commenters (IntenseDebate accounts, Facebook Connect, Twitter Sign-In, OpenID, and Guests).

Subscribe automatically (for IntenseDebate users only):
This option is enabled by default for all IntenseDebate users.  You can configure your settings at http://intensedebate.com/edit-user-account.

More tips to come! 😉

Posted by Michael Koenig in features

Last Saturday we introduced Twitter Sign-In to IntenseDebate, and within a couple of hours it was activated on a massive number of sites! We decided that with that kind of adoption we had better build the next step for Twitter integration: Tweet This for Twitter Sign-In users.

Back in June, 2008 we introduced Tweet This for IntenseDebate users, and we received plenty of requests to add this for Twitter Sign-In users.  Well, ask and you shall receive! Commenters using their Twitter account can now opt to send a simultaneous tweet when they post a comment by selecting the Tweet This checkbox when they post a comment.  You can enable Twitter Sign-in in your Blog Settings page at http://intensedebate.com/edit-site-comments.  Facebook Connect is also available through your Blog Settings page.  Please see http://wp.me/plsX6-go for more details about Facebook Connect.

Next up we’d like to introduce a new admin moderation feature: Auto-approve commenters by reputation score. By setting a minimum reputation score for commenters, you can ensure that comments submitted by your regular readers will always be approved and not flagged for moderation. This is an excellent way to make sure that the debate doesn’t get interrupted by moderation. This feature is located on the left in your blog settings page of your IntenseDebate account. To enable it just type in a minimum reputation score and any user with that score or higher will be able to comment freely.

Last up, we’ve rolled out a bug fix for the email notification issue that some of you may have encountered. We received reports of instances where email notifications for new comments were not being received. We have since identified and corrected the problem, so this shouldn’t be an issue anymore. However, if you do encounter this please let us know by emailing support.

The Pipeline
We are continuing to work on a couple of niche bug fixes, and should have the remaining issues squashed out soon. In addition, we’re working on a few projects that are coming soon…

• Admin comment editing – the top requested admin feature in our last poll
• Version 2.4 of our WordPress plugin (details coming soon)
• Additional performance optimizations

As always, if you haven’t given IntenseDebate a try yet, there’s no better time than now! Get started with IntenseDebate.

Posted by Michael Koenig in features

A little while ago we asked for your feedback on what you like about IntenseDebate and what you’d like to see moving forward. Of the survey results we received, Twitter Sign-in is the most requested feature with 52.3% of the vote. Localization came in second with 30.9% and Google Friend Connect in third with 16.8%.

With that in mind, we’re excited to introduce Twitter Sign-in integration with IntenseDebate! Now when you enable Twitter Sign-in, your readers will have the option to leave a comment using their Twitter login info. This feature is located in your Blog Settings tab in your IntenseDebate account.

To enable Twitter Sign-in login > select the tab named after your site > select the Settings tab > Twitter Sign-in is located just above Facebook Connect at the bottom left.

We received some excellent feedback on other ways to improve IntenseDebate (aside from localization and Google Friend Connect). Below are the top 3 additional admin feature requests we received. While we’re currently setting our sights on finishing up some other projects, we’re interested in what you think about these ideas. Your input is greatly appreciated. Please take a moment and choose the feature that you think would be most useful. Thanks!

If you haven’t given IntenseDebate a try yet, there’s no better time than now! Get started with IntenseDebate.

Posted by Michael Koenig in features