Sometime yesterday when the number of comments on the first post in our series on online church began to mount up and I found myself replying to 3 different comments with one comment of my own, I realized the default way WordPress handles comments was completely inadequate for the magnitude of the conversation about online church we’re trying to have here. So, this morning I installed the IntenseDebate Comments plugin for WordPress.
Many of you have probably used IntenseDebate on other blogs and are familiar with it. But for those of you who are not… don’t be afraid – it’s all good. (I hope).
You can create an account with IntenseDebate and that will make commenting easier, but it’s not necessary.
The best thing, IMO, about IntenseDebate is that it gives the ability to reply to a specific comment. That reply is then shown indented immediately below the comment replied to. This way of organizing comments makes it soooo much easier to go back and forth and have a deeper conversation on a specific point.
If you run into any problems commenting, please let me know.
For those of you who are IntenseDebate veterans, do you have any specific settings tweaks you’d recommend?
Co-founder & CEO, OurChurch.Com
Paul has been the CEO of OurChurch.Com since its founding in 1996, combining his passion for faith and technology to lead the organization.
An accomplished writer, Paul has authored over 2,000 articles on faith and technology, featured on platforms like ChurchLeaders.com, The JoyFM, and his personal blog, LiveIntentionally.org.
Beyond his professional achievements, Paul serves as an elder at Journey Community Church and is deeply engaged in his community through his involvement with the Florida Sheriffs Youth Ranch and the Safety Harbor Chamber of Commerce. He is a contributing author of the book Outspoken! Conversations on Church Communication.
9 Comments
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I've been using IntenseDebate for a while, and I'm very happy with it. I had an issue with it not syncing comments properly, but the support team was very responsive. I'm a big fan.
Thanks Steven! That's good to know.
Paul – good call. I was reading (yeah ok, catching up) on your Online Church opening post and thought how much better it would be to see the replies attached to the original questioner.
I use ID and whilst I don't get many commenters I do like to see the flow and the devs are constantly adding to it – such as the plugins, etc. As with Steven's experience above I can only be positive so far and the once I had to contact them I got a prompt response.
I wonder how intensedebate help in commenting.
Looks good. I wonder if I should install IntenseDebate on my blog.
My first test doesn't keep the form content. I have to retype all info again.
Is it due to cookies setting ?
I'm using Disqus and I'm thinking in moving in IntenseDebate. As for now, what are your experience in IntenseDebate?
It is much easier to comment using intensedebate.
As long as I am logged in it saves a lot of form filling and writing out my name email address etc