IntenseDebate Is Getting Plugged In

IntenseDebate, the third party commenting service which Automattic acquired back on September 23rd, 2008 has announced that they will have their own plugin repository.

IntenseDebate has had some harsh criticism as of late for seemingly not obeying the wishes of quite a few users who have requested that IntenseDebate implement FaceBook Connect. At one point, ID told users that FaceBook Connect was not on the development list for implementation but rather, innovations were in the works and would be released soon. Little did we know that these innovations are the plugin API.

There is a brand spanking new Plugins tab in your IntenseDebate dashboard that lists the current plugins available. To activate a plugin just select “Activate” next to the plugin when you are logged into your account. Check out the comment section on your blog and you’ll find a plugin icon at the top right of the comment box. To use the plugin just select the icon and you’ll be ready to roll.

So far, IntenseDebate has four plugins to choose from. PollDaddy for creating polls, Seesmic for creating video based comments, YouTube integration and Smileys. Here is a bit more information regarding the plugins.

https://videopress.com/v/Pk6aHQhX

So now it looks like we won’t need to rely so much on the core developers of the service to add new features in. It will be interesting to see how far this plugin repository gets off the ground but I think its a great step in the right direction.