The Intense Debate Install Story

Along with some theme and plugins changes I’ve recently done, I’ve also had a play with Intense Debate (ID), a system complete with WordPress plugin for managing comments.

Phase One

Last week using my old theme I couldn’t get anywhere with the comment import. It kept crashing out at 9% done. Support were very helpful and gave me a link for a settings cleaner plugin.

I tried all manner of permutations (after doing the defaults three times) to get it to work. But it wouldn’t work so I removed the whole shebbang…

Phase Two

You’d think that’d be the end of it…. Not Half! It’s Reesy you’re dealing with here, you know. I hunted around for different themes and decided that Atahualpa 3.3.2 looked like a good option.

Northumberland Coat of Arms

Well it works! The sickly sweet colour scheme is my invention. Coupled with a few Gibbets and Flying Fucks in the text, it’s my sort of contrast! It’s actually Vladamir Prelovac‘s fault. His homepage changed last month to a bizarre minimalism, completely at odds with his previous theme and the ones he’s designed, that it got me thinking that over-the-top (OTT) is okay! In fact, I’ve even morphed the Northumberland (or Provence, if you prefer) Flag into my Gravatar!

I particularly like the way the comments thread out now.

FYI: Atahualpa has over 200 customisations in it. Nearly all clever CSS work is removed for you – just follow the instructions for each area as you go along, check it in a browser (or three – I check in Firefox, Opera and IE8), and away you go.

Anyway, after fiddling with the theme and twiddling loads of header images etc, I thought I’d give Intense Debate (ID) a go again – and it worked! All comments loaded as per defaults and the interface is pretty neat, actually. However, problems started to arise….

1. First, the supplied widget code wouldn’t show recent comments, only those from years ago, which is no good!
2. Second, the Gravatar loading was skanky.
3. Third, it removed the functionality of Tan Tan Noodles spam filter. This was actually a big deal. I don’t use all the functionality of the tool, but I think the regex pattern filter does a hellova goood job. In usage, it traps the same as Akismet, nearly!!!
4. Fourth, I instantly got four spam comments! There’s the proof!
5. Fifth, and finally – this morning the thing has been slowing the website down dreadfully.
6. Sixth, and probably not finally, as I got the fifth one wrong, in an effort to keep some of the ID functionality (which is good, it must be said), I’ve played with the ID settings.
7. Seventh, I’ve turned off the website ID interface which restores the neat comments sytem in the theme – RESULT! Instant speed boost!

Phase Three

So that’s where I am now. Further twiddling will have to wait as I go under the knife tomorrow…

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