The commenting software, Intense Debate, was acquired by Automattic today according an announcement on their blog. I’ve went on record to state my support for Intense Debate and their benefits over their main competitor, Disqus. Recently, I’ve been beta testing some of their newer features and I can definitely see the reasoning behind the acquisition. There are some exciting features coming!

Intense Debate has temporarily went back into private beta (which won’t affect current users), so you’ll need to wait a bit to create a new account. If you’re not familiar with Automattic, they are the parent company of great blogging software such as WordPress, Akismet, and Gravatar. Intense Debate adds a great commenting system to the fold and I can’t wait to see what becomes of the merged technologies.

Congratulations Intense Debate, I’m happy for you guys and will continue to show my support.

Related posts:

• Intense Debate Is the Easy Choice
• Intense Debate or Disqus? I’m torn.
• Why I Like Intense Debate

A while ago, I wrote about my difficult decision between choosing from the commenting systems, Disqus and Intense Debate. Much has changed since that post, including Disqus’s support of video comments and now, Intense Debate’s support of FriendFeed. At this moment, the only benefit I see of using Disqus over Intense Debate is its support of video comments. This makes the decision a lot easier for me. Now that Intense Debate supports FriendFeed, it becomes a no-brainer:

The ability to import and export existing comments with ease propels Intense Debate as the clear winner.

Both Disqus and Intense Debate now support FriendFeed, both have great moderation options, both have a decent reputation system. The huge difference here is that my existing data is safe AND my future data is easily accessible. I realize Disqus has data portability options available, but Intense Debate’s are much simpler in my mind. I also realize, with Disqus, you can keep your existing comments on your blog and only use Disqus for new posts. (Intense Debate has the same option) While this workaround may be sufficient for some, I’m not a big fan of keeping two separate commenting systems on the same blog. Intense Debate’s solution is more elegant, seamless, and easier for the user to use and maintain.

I commend the folks over at Intense Debate and FriendFeed for making this happen, and I’m glad I was patient with Intense Debate. I’m quite confident I’ve made the right choice. Take a look at the Intense Debate comments on FriendFeed.

Related posts:

• Intense Debate or Disqus? I’m torn.
• Why I Like Intense Debate
• Intense Debate Now a Part of Automattic