The web is evolving all the time and gone are the days of forums - unless they are of a niche topic, i.e. a localised club etc. While I was reading your post I was thinking all the time about blogs being like newspaper headlines/articles (and have read elsewhere on the net) that the average american citizen reads 7 or 8 blogs a day. Here in the UK, people are now getting more accustomed to reading online (whether it be a blog or online newspaper article) and papers are now decreasing in sales.

I think the point of anything on the Internet is that it is changing our needs and requirements - i.e. we want information quick and fast that is relevant. Keep up the great blogging!

Graeme

Anyway, I’ve never been successful at building a cohesive community. I would now prefer to join someone else’s community than start my own… so I’m on Facebook.

But I’m not in to psychology.

Also, I do think that some blogs have become a community (such as ProBlogger’s blog, or his Photography blog) over time as the blog itself becomes more popular and you end up getting a lot of responses and people coming back on a regular basis.

I do agree, however, that a blog is more like a newspaper than round-table, but it’s a more *personal* newspaper where you can also post your opinions as opposed to only reporting news as objectively as possible.

I often fall into the trap of trying to intentionally throw “bait” in my writing or asking questions but the reality is that it does very little to increase the number of comments I get. It’s like I’m searching from some validation that my blog is worthwhile. Whether it is or not, I know I need to try harder to “report” on what I see happening in my industry and not worry about how many comments I might get from it. If I’ve supplied genuine & helpful information to the world, I suppose that’s enough.