IntenseDebate is a commenting system for WordPress and other blogging and website systems. IntenseDebate features commenter ratings, integration with Gravatar.com, integration with Facebook, twitter and OpenID, RSS and email updates on comments, threaded comments and more.

IntenseDebate augments your comments by integrating with WordPress – it’s not a replacement for WordPress commenting, and it doesn’t TAKE your data away, it copies it over. When you first sign up for IntenseDebate you import your existing comments into your IntenseDebate account, and comments are synchronized moving forward.

I recently imported over 55,000 comments into IntenseDebate and it was easy, fairly fast and painless.

You manage your overall Discussion settings in WordPress, and then manage your comments in the IntenseDebate system. IntenseDebate integrates into your Comments admin screen. You can approve, unapprove and edit comments in the IntenseDebate management screens, and your changes appear on your site within minutes. (I have never uninstalled IntenseDebate, so I don’t know if the edits and deletions synchronize back to your WordPress database. Seems like a security risk if it does, and a huge pita if it doesn’t…)

IntenseDebate Comments Admin Screen

IntenseDebate loads into your pages via a javascript include. One great thing about this system – if IntenseDebate fails to load, your core WordPress system loads, so you never go without commenting. And any comments made into WordPress this way synchronize over to IntenseDebate, so nothing is lost. (Ideally…)

IntenseDebate Stops Comment Spam

That’s a pretty strong statement, but I think it’s true. Since I’ve been using this WordPress commenting system, comment spam on these 4 blogs has been absolutely nil. We’ve received over 30,000 comments and had maybe 5 spammy comments. And those were entered manually and were pathetic attempts at best. AND – they got flagged as spam by site regulars.

It’s true that I also use Akismet, Bad Behavior and WP-SpamFree, but those provide automated spam protection. IntenseDebate requires users to have javascript enabled, which is something that bots can’t do.

IntenseDebate Moderation Settings

You can allow commenters to enter their website URL, which does display as a link, or you can disable this feature. The link is tagged nofollow external, but that’s not going to stop a person from clicking on it. I’ve disabled all external links on the blogs I manage after a pretty crappy day of immature behavior – probably though I’ll re-enable it in a few days. I really like displaying or linking to other people’s sites. Most commenters are good people and deserve a little love back – it’s just the idiots or people with commercial links that aren’t relevant who I don’t like helping out.

IntenseDebate Comment Flagging

One nice thing – your visitors can flag comments for whatever reason they want, so I’ve received a number of alerts to spam comments on the site I just migrated (I wasn’t able to find all the spam comments out of the original 108,000 comments before importing them…).

IntenseDebate allows your visitors to complain about other comments, which is great if someone promotes their crap site, but not so great if they want to complain because they just don’t like the comment.

You can allow comments to be automatically deleted after a certain number of complaints. It’s something you’ve got to learn to balance. The default threshold for automatically deleting comments starts at 3 complaints, but I’ve upped mine to 6 just to keep things sane.

Facebook, twitter and OpenID

Signing in with Facebook and twitter is dumb-as-rock easy, especially now that Facebook Connect has been made understandable. Connecting to twitter is already set up within IntenseDebate. OpenID? I have no idea – never used it. Call me an idiot, call me cavalier…I know, I know, now I’ve got guilt….

Connecting with IntenseDebate

You can join IntenseDebate as a member (it’s a requirement to install the app) and then comment across the network of IntenseDebate installs. I don’t know if I like this – are they tying to suck members out of my sites? I don’t mind the Facebook and twitter logins, even OpenID is huge – but IntenseDebate, that makes me nervous.

IntenseDebate Comment Settings

I guess it’s the price you pay to use this app. Which brings me to….

IntenseDebate Business Model

My main doubt about IntenseDebate – what the hell is their business model? Automattic bought them out a few months ago, which is great, but why aren’t I paying for the service? On SEO415 I don’t care, I’m not getting 500+ comments per day. But on the blogs I manage for my employer, I really don’t know if I’m comfortable. Are they testing new ideas on me? Are they planning to announce a premiere membership plan after they get the product to some maturity?

I just don’t know.

I’d rather pay for it than use it for free, honestly, because they only have their reputations at stake for now. I need support and I need to know that these guys are in the game for real.

What Don’t I Like About IntenseDebate?

I think their bad words filters suck a little. For the most part, comments are blocked for moderation if the bad words I’ve set are in the comment, but those words often get through. Worse, they aren’t rewritten with asterisks as I’ve set in the control panel. I really hate that.

Moderating comments is strange. The interface is slow and doesn’t always work – I can approve a comment 2 or 3 times before it takes. And that action – approving or whatever – is slow to happen and isn’t distinct. It’s a weak Ajax thing. And because we have multiple moderators on each blog, I’d like to know who approved or unapproved a comment – they don’t provide that.

I also think that finding all comments by a particular user is too hard or impossible.

Bottom Line – Yes or No on IntenseDebate?

Would I recommend IntenseDebate to YOU? I think so – I don’t see any reason not to use it, except that it’s more third-party code on your site, it’s a third-party in your business and they don’t have a solid business model that I can see yet.

I think it’s pretty kick ass. Your visitors can use their Facebook and twitter logins, and send their comments to their Facebook and twitter accounts, and that’s real good for you.

I think the basic WordPress commenting is pretty good – I think IntenseDebate adds a VERY useful layer on top of it.

Check it out. I use and manage IntenseDebate every day and I like it.

charlie

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