Over the weekend Postmatic version 1.2.3 was released with a new importer for the Subscribe to Comments plugin. Founder Jason Lemieux and his team launched the 100% email-based commenting service in April and have been steadily adding importers for users of other various comment subscription plugins. Postmatic launched with importers for Mailpoet, Mailchimp, and one-click migration of subscribers from Jetpack.
Subscribe to Comments is a popular old plugin created by Mark Jaquith and is currently in use on 80,000+ installations. The plugin hasn’t been updated for more than two years and many users in its support forums are eagerly looking for an alternative.
With over 80,000 sites depending on an older, unmaintained plugin, Lemieux and his team saw a ripe opportunity to create an importer to fill the gap. Subscribe to Comments users can conveniently migrate with one click:
We’ve built a new migration tool into Postmatic 1.2.3 which will allow Subscribe to Comments users to convert their legacy subscribers into shiny new Postmatic subscribers. It all happens with just one click, invisibly, in the background. From then on out notifications of new comments will be sent to old subscribers except this time they’ll be able to continue the conversation by just hitting reply.
The migration tool also works with variations of Subscribe to Comments, including Subscribe to Comments Reloaded and Subscribe to Double-Opt-In Comments. The importer is another strategic addition that will likely win Postmatic more new users.
Postmatic is aiming to become a big player in WordPress comments and is continuing to build out more products centered around enhancing engagement. In addition to expanding the user base of the free Postmatic plugin, the team is also busy beta testing Epoch, its next major release. Epoch is currently available on WordPress.org and aims to bring 100% realtime chat and commenting to WordPress’ native commenting system. Keep your eyes on the Postmatic team in the coming days, as they ready their next round of innovations.
Thanks a lot, Sarah.
We think it’s going to be a huge asset to WordPress to be the only blogging platform with email comment notifications done the way they should always have been: with replies. It only makes sense. Email is a two-way street… comment notifications should be as well.
I’d like to tip my hat to Josh and Dave from CalderaWP for helping us with not only this migration tool but also doing the heavy lifting on Epoch. I like the model they are pursuing as plugin-developers-for-hire. It’s an interesting way for them to supplement their own plugin development while also lending their particular genius to other projects. We’ve had a good time working with them.