We recently replaced the standard WordPress 2.7 comment system with IntenseDebate. The integration was smooth, other than a minor CSS and template change specific to our deployment…
And what do I think?
The good folks over at IntenseDebate have created something of a wonder: It’s fantastic as far as comment systems go, at least in terms of performance and functionality… And yet their creation is flawed by tiny imperfections that mar its otherwise elegant implementation.
The largest shortcoming is OpenID integration. IntenseDebate supports OpenID, and this is good – Excellent, in fact! But the OpenID implementation leaves a bit to the imagination. It feels like a work-in-progress rather than a full-featured release (which, by the way, the developers aren’t shy in stating it is exactly that). As a user, however, I’d much rather utilize the finished product, since the current release left me feeling frustrated – not a good thing. It is very likely that the OpenID implementation is only half-baked when working with WordPress, and indeed this is precisely where my frustration level rose. I’m anxious to see how OpenID support improves in the future, and plan on revisiting this post in a couple of months.
Documentation is another area worth mentioning that felt… flawed. They have pretty extensive forums, but little in the way of high-level user and administrative documentation. A bit more help would increase the IntenseDebate experience ten-fold.
We (presently) don’t attract a large number of comments… I’m curious to see how the interface at IntenseDebate will handle a multitude of comments. Right now moderation feels a bit clunky. Again, I look forward to seeing how this improves in the future.
Aside from these three minor concerns, IntenseDebate is absolutely fantastic! I can’t recommend it enough, in fact: It’s clean, easy to use, functional and elegant: Really quite a wonderful piece of software.
What do you think of IntenseDebate? How does it stack up against other comment systems?
Thoughts on IntenseDebate
by jgshort on December 17, 2008 at 12:02 amWe recently replaced the standard WordPress 2.7 comment system with IntenseDebate. The integration was smooth, other than a minor CSS and template change specific to our deployment…
And what do I think?
The good folks over at IntenseDebate have created something of a wonder: It’s fantastic as far as comment systems go, at least in terms of performance and functionality… And yet their creation is flawed by tiny imperfections that mar its otherwise elegant implementation.
The largest shortcoming is OpenID integration. IntenseDebate supports OpenID, and this is good – Excellent, in fact! But the OpenID implementation leaves a bit to the imagination. It feels like a work-in-progress rather than a full-featured release (which, by the way, the developers aren’t shy in stating it is exactly that). As a user, however, I’d much rather utilize the finished product, since the current release left me feeling frustrated – not a good thing. It is very likely that the OpenID implementation is only half-baked when working with WordPress, and indeed this is precisely where my frustration level rose. I’m anxious to see how OpenID support improves in the future, and plan on revisiting this post in a couple of months.
Documentation is another area worth mentioning that felt… flawed. They have pretty extensive forums, but little in the way of high-level user and administrative documentation. A bit more help would increase the IntenseDebate experience ten-fold.
We (presently) don’t attract a large number of comments… I’m curious to see how the interface at IntenseDebate will handle a multitude of comments. Right now moderation feels a bit clunky. Again, I look forward to seeing how this improves in the future.
Aside from these three minor concerns, IntenseDebate is absolutely fantastic! I can’t recommend it enough, in fact: It’s clean, easy to use, functional and elegant: Really quite a wonderful piece of software.
What do you think of IntenseDebate? How does it stack up against other comment systems?