Over the last few weeks, I have been trying to put a finger on what it is that makes keep going back to certain blogs in different fields over and again, after several years, when some others (even some very successful ones as you mention) wane with the passage of time. The answer was ‘original, insightful thinking’.

With that in mind, it won’t matter if the blogger posts on his own blog, a hosted service or even for a major media site, as long as I can grab just his or her feed.

It will also be interesting to see what happens to the debate in comments, as you say.

By the way, Aaron Wall, one of the bloggers I follow who I find has remained original, pointed me here with a link in his latest post. Thanks.

Although I also think blogging has a big role to play with news and reporting I think the socializing aspects are the most important and most interesting things about blogs.