Your thoughts on... Alternate Comment Form: IntenseDebate?

Hello everyone! So as you may have noticed by now, I am testing out an alternate comment form instead of the regular blogger comments; namely, IntenseDebate. After seeing other bloggers using this commenting system, I figured I'd give it a shot.

Now, I loved regular blogger comments because they are simple to input and easy to customize with css. However, the only thing that really bothered me was that there is no reply function! I'd either have to reply in my comments, or go to the commenter's blog and leave a comment. And by then, they may have no idea what I'm talking about! Or they might not check back to my comments and wonder why I never replied to them.

So that is the main reason why I wanted to try a new commenting system. IntenseDebate is excellent because I can easily reply to comments, but other aspects of it make me miss the old blogger comments. Here's a quick rundown of my main pros & cons:

PROS:

• Has a built-in reply function
• Commenters get replies sent to their email
• You get emails when you get new comments
• You can moderate comments w/ lots of options
• Customizable with css & other options
• Shows avatars
• Nice buttons

CONS:

• You cannot moderate IntenseDebate comments through Blogger itself
• The comment count of your posts when you go to "edit posts" does not show up
• It's not as easily customizable (for me, at least) as the regular blogger comments
• New commenters have to fill in the fields

Overall, I am liking the freedom to customize the look and feel of IntenseDebate comments, but the 2 biggest things that I don't like about it is that: 1) you can only moderate comments through IntenseDebate itself; not like how you can approve comments through blogger. So to see if I have new comments, I have to view my post and go to comments because I don't want to have to moderate comments through the IntenseDebate website.

And 2) IntenseDebate comments are not listed next to the blog posts when you go to "edit posts" which is inconvenient for me because I tend to go back to edit my posts and I like to be able to easily click on the "# comments" link and be taken directly to the comments.

With IntenseDebate, since the comments are no longer listed there, I need to view my blog, go to the post, and then click on comments. Maybe not that big of a deal to most people but to me, it matters -_-;

Overall though, it is an attractive and functional commenting system. Despite the little things, I like it. But I would like to know...

What do you think of IntenseDebate?

• Do you like this commenting form on my blog?
• Or did you prefer the regular blogger comments?
• Is it easy for you to use and leave comments?
• What do you like/not like about it?
• Would you use it?
  
  Your feedback is much appreciated : )