Here are some of the benefits of creating an IntenseDebate account from the perspective of anyone leaving comments on the many blogs which use IntenseDebate:
- You get to have a custom avatar.
- You can set up a custom profile to direct others to your blog, Twitter account, website, or whatever you want.
- You can leave comments via e-mail.
- If you use Twitter, you can have IntenseDebate automatically tweet when you leave a comment.
- Those who value your contributions can subscribe to an RSS feed of your comments on all IntenseDebate blogs.
- You can develop an online reputation as a worthwhile commenter by letting you build a reputation score based on your comments across the blogosphere. You'll see a number in highlighted yellow next to the avatars of those who have accounts. Those with higher numbers have received more thumbs-up votes on their comments.
- You make it more difficult for others to impersonate you, leaving comments under your preferred handle.
Update: This post was updated in 2018 to better reflect how IntenseDebate is used at Atheist Revolution.