Comments on: Plug-In Comment Systems Suck

By: Matt

Matt — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 14:27:08 +0000

Jacob, actually with IntenseDebate on WordPress all of the comments are synced back to your local database, so if the service disappeared tomorrow all of your comments and data would still be there. :)

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By: Jacob Davies

Jacob Davies — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 21:14:18 +0000

The problem isn't so much the third-party nature of the software but the fact that the data is stored on their server. The trend toward giant centralized databases creates single points of control that don't exist with distributed, user-owned databases. The latter have single points of failure, but that's something that could be fixed (e.g. with reciprocal backup peering with other small databases using synchronization).Plus when the third-party vendor screws up or goes out of business you lose all your comments.

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By: jeffrey

jeffrey — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 15:35:58 +0000

Even if it works right 100% of the time, it's still another moving part I don't want to have to deal with.

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By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 06:48:43 +0000

That problem is exactly what this new version of Intense Debate is designed to address -- graceful degradation.

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