The Admins of Filipino Voices recently installed IntenseDebate, a new comment management system that replaces the standard comments feature provided by WordPress. Most standard “vanilla” comment management systems are linear; i.e., all comments are peers of one another and arranged chronologically. This is not a problem if all comments within a blog post directly address the author and content of the post itself. In most cases though, individual commentors also interact with one another, often engaging in a lively debate among themselves within the comment thread.
Third-party comment management systems such as IntenseDebate which are installed within a blog application usually provide more functionality to enhance the commenting experience, often with features that make comment threads function more like a message board which thrived on the Net long before blogs became a household term. Though not quite as sophisticated as a full-time late-release discussion forum like this one, the more advanced comment management systems for blogs approach the functionality of earlier message board architectures such as this one which allowed a basic hierarchical parent-child relationship between related entries in an indented outline page layout.
IntenseDebate has many other features most of which may already be available in other existing systems (the commenting system of YouTube, for example, has a similar thumbs up/down voting system, though not the “reputation” rating system). All nice. But as far as my experience with blog commenting takes me, IntenseDebate differentiates itself from the rest in two key areas.
First, it provides over-arching governance and transparency over all its installations. While readers of blogs with IntenseDebate installed may still comment in the way they always have without having to open an IntenseDebate account, the best way to get value out of IntenseDebate is to register as a user. As a registered user, you get oversight (via a “Dashboard” feature on their site) across all the comments you make (as well as the direct responses to your comments that you get) across every blog that make use of the IntenseDebate system.
Second, blog commenters now become part of a community thanks to a social networking functionality within the site. Instead of gaining “friends” and making “friends”, you accumulate “followers” and “follow” other users. Followers get feeds in their dashboards of comments made by the users they follow. It’s a concept not too different from subscribing to an RSS feed, except that in IntenseDebate, the number of “followers” you accumulate become a measure of one’s popularity (and presumably the quality of the comments you make on blogs) within the community. It is almost like an integration of Twitter into a system that harnesses the by-product of your participation in the blogging community (for that matter for those with Twitter accounts, you can configure your IntenseDebate account to Tweet whenever you make a comment) for material to broadcast to your “followers”.
Personally the only reservation I have about IntenseDebate is that it does not provide us an ability to hyperlink to specific comments and its message structure makes it difficult to find new comments (i.e. you see movement in your comment stat but won’t necessarily see the new comment at the end of the thread). I’ve looked around for feedback on IntenseDebate and found stuff mostly coming from the perspective of blog owners and managers who express opinions more about its manageability within their blogs. This guy for example is concerned about how IntenseDebate tends to slow down page loading performance. Another is concerned with looks and the community already invested in a competing service but was forced to explore alternatives as a result of experiencing a service fault with his existing system.
I guess I’ve been a blog commenter far longer than I’ve been a blog author which is why I find myself coming from the perspective of a blog commenter. While the blogging community is already a mature community in the sense that it has features in its supporting technology (trackbacks and pingbacks, blogrolls, etc.) that strengthen networkedness, the other half of that community — the commenters — which are not necessarily blog owners is a mob waiting to be bound together and self-policed. I believe IntenseDebate has the potential to fill that need as far as FilipinoVoices’ audience is concerned.
Of course a network is only as good as the degree of its networkedness. In other words a network’s value increases in proportion with its userbase, much like a telephone is more valuable to a person with friends who themselves have telephones.
All remains to be seen to be sure, but things look promising for the IntenseDebate team.
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Whatever the Blogger, or Blog Web Editor wants to do with his Filipino Voices Blog Website. It is his privilage
to do it. We will just do comment based on our opinions and based on our knowledge of the truth.
We stand corrected, if we are wrong. We are just human beings. We commit mistakes also.
'the commenters — which are not necessarily blog owners is a mob waiting to be bound together and self-policed.'
I dunno about being bound together or networking the commenters. I think the mob commoners like me, Leytenian (?), Bert (?), BrianB (?), etc. are happy enough to have as our stage the piazza of the Filipino Voices.
OK na ako sa 'pa-jab jab' like Manny Pacquiao. Baka maka-KO paminsan minsan. LOL
Intense Debates are for the erudite and credentialed commenters. Huh?
Intense Debate are waste of time. We dont debate on the internet…
Who's we? Please speak for yourself. Cheers!
That's right, Phil. FV is too hot now for me, I mean 'too much gov't.', maybe catering already to credentialed commenters as you said. baka na-influenced sa banat ni Reyna Elena, heheh.
pa-jab jab na lang ako, kung papasukin ok, kung hindi ok rin.
We don't moderate in terms of ideologies, or politics Bert, our current moderation system has a strong filter for words and high link density, and/or may contain spam. Suffice it to say, your comments will always appear.. let us know if it doesn't through the contact form..
We have no complains. We are just Guests here, given the privilage to comment. We are happy that our
opinions are posted. Some may have sense. Others may be nonsense. As long as it will prick the consciences
of those people being commented, if they still have consciences. It is okay for us.
thanks 2 d blog owner re recent comments section!
its not up2the minute accurate, but i guess thats coz of the more hi-tech commenting system?
*gasp* your first ever post that I wholeheartedly agree with!
nick, i hate to be speculative but how come you seem to have been ignoring my complaints regarding missing comments (after appearing momentarily), awaiting "approval for days on end (if ever it gets published eventually), unprovoked use of obscenities and ad hominems in comments that gets published without "moderation"? are these all a cue for us victims to leave this blog? just say the word and i, for one, will be out of here, pronto!
i may just visit from time to time but may no longer be active. i am bored by the new intense debate as if we had one ever. goodbye by beloved benigno. you know where to find me. ciao
The blogosphere is an open field. Whoever says there are gates?
but the recent posts section sometimes doesnt jump directly to the comment. sometimes it doesnt work.
yes i agree this is a much better blog than others and this blog has lot of information.Intense debate pIugin expands the functionality of comments and unifies them between blogs.