IntenseDebate: Instructions/Questions

I’m still sorting through some installation issues, and need the readers’ help to work out the kinks. When I decided to start blogging, I wasn’t really planning on becoming a programmer as well!

Subscriptions

I’ve had complaints about readers being unable to subscribe via email. There are now lots of ways to subscribe — including the ability to subscribe to all comments on all posts without having to subscribe post by post!

At the bottom of each post, in the Comment section, there’s a box in which you post your comments. (It should get bigger as you type more!)

Just above the box, to the right, is the RSS icon. It’s much more than an RSS feed. You can also subscribe via email, by Facebook, etc. using this icon.

There are two tabs — one for subscribing to comments on this post and one for subscribing to ALL comments from ALL posts. (You can also subscribe to only replies to your own comment, but I wouldn’t recommend that option, because comments won’t be threaded (that is, broken into separate sub-topics). It’s always very confusing when I try that.)

At the bottom of the comment box is a Subscribe To field, which can be used to subscribe to comments on just this post. But to subscribe to all comments on all posts, you have to use the RSS icon at the top.

LogIn

You can log in using OpenID, Facebook, Twitter, or WordPress and avoid having to add your email and URL every time you post a comment. And your picture will appear beside your comments!

If you don’t already have an OpenID account, so that your photo appears everytime to post, you can create an IntenseDebate or OpenID account. I’d recommend OpenID, because that will work with nearly all standard blogs — meaning your picture will show up whether you comment here or at Jesus Creed. It’s very cool. Just go to LogIn and select OpenID and then follow the instructions to open an account. It’s free and very helpful for blog denizens.

Like

As in Facebook, you can “Like” comments and posts. Frequent commenters will show a total of their Likes. (I’m trying to figure a way to change “Like” to “Amen”!)

I’ve elected not to allow a thumbs down “Don’t like” option. Just didn’t seem right. Commenters shouldn’t have to worry about accumulating huge “Unlike” scores just because their views are outside the mainstream of the readership.

Reply by Email

I’ve found that I can reply to comments by email. I just type my reply and hit Reply! I think this feature is available to readers as well. Please check it out and let me know how (and if) it works.

Posting Pictures

You can now post images in comments. You have to enter the picture in HTML, though. You can’t just cut and paste. But some readers may enjoy this ability. Here’s the code for the “thumbs up” picture above.

<src=”http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRsy7E7FSKeIjBqj9rpsNoH6QvI8kvK6NBmVRv_V4Vt1yJRRdIV” alt=”” width=”158″ height=”158″ />

The http address is the location of the picture on the internet, which most browsers will give you if you right click and select “Properties” (Internet Explorer) or “Copy Image Location” (Firefox).