IntenseDebate was causing us too many problems -- things it was not doing at the test site and things that were just distracting from the site. So we've decided to scrap the system. Thank you for your patience and we apologize for the inconvenience.
For those who are interested, the problem we ran into was that groups of comments would start disappearing. Since we value your comments as much as our own articles, we felt this was unacceptable. When we couldn't solve the problem -- either one group or another would disappear, and then sometimes they would come back and others would vanish, we decided to end the experiment until ID can fix their bugs.
While we were very happy that you all seemed to like the system and many of you took the opportunity to comment directly to each other -- creating the discussions that we've been hoping for, we felt that the problems outweighed the benefits.
So please accept our apology for any inconvenience and please keep in mind that you can talk directly to each other, even without the threads.
Finally, I have tried to repost all of the comments from the past two days, but we have lost some. Again, we apologize.
Thanks for your patience and your support.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
We Scrapped IntenseDebate
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20 comments:
Andrew,
I don't know if it was IntenseDebate was messing with me, but I do know, I haven't had to reset Commentarama today.
Joel, We ran extensive tests on an cloned site to Commentarama, and everything worked. But as soon as we uploaded it here, it caused all kinds of problems. So I don't doubt that was the problem. Stan said that it was causing his computer to crash. So I think in this case we're better off without it.
That’s a bit of a drag. If the bugs can be worked out try again.
StanH: It all comes down to us putting a lot of effort into writing good articles, and our readers putting in an equal amount of time into writing thoughtful comments, only to have the system crash, comments disappear and people throwing up their hands and drifting away. If we can ever figure out a way to bring IntenseDebate (or something like it) back without constant breakdowns, we will. Until then, it's more important that we hear from you and respond than to have a sexy format that doesn't work.
That’s cool! In the long run in my humble opinion however, it would enhance this already great site.
sorry to read this, but you know i trioed to have it put on my site in the beginning and it was beyond buggy. had to ditch it as well. good luck with the next attempt. until then, we'll do it old school style!
Thanks Stan, I agree, but right now it's just not working right.
Patti, What was interesting was that it worked differently than it did on the test site. It worked fine there, but once we put it here, thing just started to go wrong left and right.
It would probably be a gigantic pain to switch platforms, but WordPress.com allows direct replies to comments. Unfortunately, WordPress.org, which in other ways allows a lot more freedom, does not (or, if it does, I haven't been able to figure it out).
If you feel like going so far as a platform switch, hit me up offline and I can give you the pros and cons of each from the perspective of a technology amateur who has had to muddle through learning both platforms. E-mail is gordon at ondeafears.com.
Thanks Gordon. We may make a switch at some point, but right now we're pretty happy with blogger -- the present troubles notwithstanding. And after spending the last couple days smashing my head into my keyboard, I'm in no rush to change! But we might, so thanks for the offer of help!
Too bad, guys. I constantly have problems with it at the "Bigs". Usually related to the BLAZING FAST dial-up connection I am still using......
*groan*
Maybe they'll get their problems worked out.
98ZJUSMC, It is too bad because it's a nice looking system that makes it very easy for people to carry on direct conversations with each others. Sadly, it just caused too many problems.
We would like to try again at some point, but not until we are 100% sure this isn't going to happen again. So it's back to the lab!
Better to have tried and failed than to never have tried at all. Or is that love? I guess I'm in a Valentine's Day mood.
Seriously, though, thanks for trying Andrew! Your site is still the coolest!
Thanks Writer X, It was a good experiment. Maybe someday we'll work out all the problems and get it working?
If you're in a Valentine's Day mood, check back tomorrow morning (11:00 EST) for a Valentine's Day movie edition!
Andrew, I plan to. :-)
I'll just go ahead now, though, and let let the cat out of the bag, but I will be offering up GONE WITH THE WIND as my all-time fav romantic movie (and book). I mean, it's Clark Gable. Big surprise, I know, but I had to get that in before Bev! Fear not, I have about 6-8 others...
Till tomorrow.
See you tommorrow Writer X! Gone With The Wind? Never heard of it, I'll have to look it up. . . ;-)
Nice try. It's a great site either way. Thanks everyone.
You're welcome Mega.
Figured I'd better come back and correct myself. WordPress.org does allow nested comments. I just couldn't find it in the menu because I'm a moron.
I also just figured out how to do the "read more" where it opens on the main page like at your place and Ace's. So WordPress.org would meet your needs after all should you decide that it's worth the trouble to migrate.
Thanks Gordon! It took us a while to figure out the "read more" issue, and even then it took us another couple months to perfect it -- it used to take up too much space and load times. Also, we had a problem at one point because we referenced another website for the code and that site vanished. So we had to bring the code into our own template and it's been smooth sailing every since.
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