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Intense Debate Review [Sorry Disqus]
Filed Under (blog) by djByron on 11-28-2008
Tagged Under : blog, social web, video, wordpress
[Geek alert :: You might want to disregard this post if you don't give a rip about third party blogging add-ons]
Initially I really wanted to move to a third party commenting system for threaded commenting alone. Granted the latest beta release of WP (2.7) has threaded commenting built-in but it’s not as elegant as the two mainstream options out there, Intense Debate and Disqus. Here’s my experience with both systems…
I heard about Disqus first and so naturally I tried it out reluctantly. Reluctantly I say because I didn’t want to commit to a third part solution permanently and at the time they only allowed for importing of comments (no exporting). Since that time I think BOTH systems support the following features:
- SEO-friendly comments
- Import existing comments
- Two-way synchronization of comments with WordPress database
- Threaded comments and replies
- Ability for commenters to edit comments
- Notifications and reply by email
- Subscribe and RSS options
- Moderation and admin tools
- Full spam filtering
- Support for widgets
- Connected with a discussion community
However, Intense Debate adds a few nice features to their roster.
- They are now owned by Automattic – The parent company of WordPress.org recently purchased Intense Debate so who knows what this relationship might bring in the future.
- Comment moderation via email – Simply reply to the comment notification email with “approve”, “deny” or “spam”.
- Twitter integration – When posting a comment on an Intense Debate enabled blog you have the option of posting a tweet based on that comment.
- Ability to delete your comments from posts – I’m not 100% sure but I don’t see an option to delete my comments from within Disqus.
- Reputation points – Gives you a visual on how active the user is within the Intense Debate/Blogging community.
- Admin panel integration – You don’t HAVE to use the ID control panel but can use your existing WP admin comment control panel if you’d like.
- Trackbacks – Are added to Intense Debate too, meaning that existing trackbacks will be imported and exported along with your comments.
In addition to the additional features above that Intense Debate has going for it, here was the Disqus killer for me. I decided to install Disqus first because they seemed upon initial evaluation to have a higher profile userbase (not sure if this really is the case). I downloaded the WordPress Disqus plugin but could NOT install it without getting a php ‘fatal error’ every time. I searched and searched for a solution with no luck. My guess is that this won’t happen to everyone who tries to install the Disqus plugin but rather is due to a php security setting on my server that I’m unable to change. HOWEVER, when attempting to install the Intense Debate WP plugin I had NO issues at all! As a matter of fact it went so smoothly and quickly that I said to myself, “it can’t be that easy”. Sure enough, all my previous comments were synced and the blog was ready to go! So while this might not be a universal issue with the Disqus WP plugin it is curous how ID installed instantly and effortlessly in on my site and the Disqus one bombed out and wouldn’t install at all.
One last thing I wanted to mention in favor of Intense Debate is this. I had a html issue during the ‘installation’ process with Intense Debate that caused me to have to re-import the comments into Intense Debate a second time. I uninstalled ID from my blog, updated my WP databse and before I even had the time to re-import my comments (5 min later) I had an email in my inbox from ID support asking if they could help me out!! Now that is some impressive customer service! In all fairness I didn’t have a negative experience with Disqus customer service, so I’m not comparing here just saying ID was on top of things.
So the point is… If you have a self-hosted WordPress blog WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR! Go and sign up for an account, ‘install’ the WordPress plugin and begin reaping the many benefits of Intense Debate! (All while having the peace-of-mind that you can revert to your WP comment system at anytime.)
The video is also on the Intense Debate blog.
Nice write up.
Intense Debate is my favorite, but I uninstalled it the other day because there is an under 500 word limit on comments. Not so big of a deal, but when I get into discussion on my blog, people were having to split up their comments. talked to the intense debate guys and they said they are working on it but have no fix at this time. When they fix that, I will go back to it.
Thanks for the post, Dan. I've been contemplating the switch myself. Although… This is my second time writing this comment because i logged into ID after typing the first and it was blasted. :-
And with Disqus, you can delete comments. At least you can as an admin. I don't about visitors. Thing is, you need to log into the Disqus site, drill to the comment, and then delete it, iow, it's a pain.
The ID comment interface is a lot cleaner and appears more user-friendly. I'm in the midst of a make-over and might just make the switch. The 500 char cap that inworship mentioned could be an issue, though. We'll see. Thanks again for the comparison, Dan.
Lovely write-up. I did the same thing. I used disqus for a while, then switched to intense debate to try both of them out. Intense debate looks and runs more elegantly to me, and after hearing of auttomatic aquiring them, I decided to try it out and did so then. I love the tweet this comment option.
Very nice touch and how you can see what other networks a user is a part of without having to leave the page.
It's all very nice. I think both are great.
Not that a lot of people seem to use this option, but the fact that disqus works with seesmic is a pretty neat feature that they have a leg up on intense debate with.
Yea, I saw your profile on ID but noticed your blog was native WP. I wasn't aware of the 500 word limit (thanks for the fyi). My particular blot I don't see it being an issue BUT it's nice to hear that the guys at ID are working to 'fix' this limitation. I can see where it might be an issue on a serious discussion oriented post.
Yea saw the Seesmic support for Disqus. I haven't used that much, but it's nice to have video comments as an option. We'll have to suggest that to the guys at ID.
I just checked a comment I posted on my wife's blog and one CAN delete your own comments, so that's a nice feature available in both ID and Disqus. The fact that there's full synchronization makes it easy to try out and revert back if necessary.
epic. no worries!
nice, nice post…maybe you changed my mind…sigh.
great stuff
Great write-up. I am like you, ID is the way to go. That was an interesting problem your first commenter had about the 500 word limit, but I am like you: probably not an issue any time soon.
I am happy to see another friend up on the ID bandwagon. Now, we just need to get the Disqus people to jump ship…
Both Disqus AND Intense Debate are great products compared to the native WordPress commenting system as it stands now. For me running WordPress the few extra bells and whistles available within ID as well as the fact that Automattic owns the company now pushed me in that direction. Let me know what you end up going with!
That sounds like a bug. IntenseDebate has a character limit of several thousand. What web browser were you encountering this in? Would you mind reinstalling ID? I'd like to take a look and troubleshoot this issue.
Awesome! Nice to hear from someone who has a larger comment count and to know it's a scalable solution. (Not to say that Disqus isn't). I agree the UI is definitely nicer. I'm loving life aboard the ID boat!
We moved from disqus to ID last week and migrated 34,000+ comments from Disqus to ID, the chaps over at ID helped us get it right with minimal disruption and made the move was painless. ID really is fantastic, IMO the threading is more consistent that with Disqus and ID has a *much* nicer UI. Handling comment approval by email is also a great feature. The guys there really do listen to their users and they have implemented things within days of making a suggestion. Great stuff, thumbs up from me!
Both of these systems seems good even though they differ in available features. However I'm still using simple Blogger comments. Not sure how it will effect me if I switch to one of these.
Anyone using these third party comment management systems with Blogger?