My original inspirations for a web journal (blog is an ugly sounding word), were Jerry Pournelle’s day-notes journal and the “Daynote Gang” (link and link) . Sadly, so many of that old-guard are now gone, either to the great beyond or simply moved on.
There were brilliant minds in that loose association of people. Filling that void has been surprisingly difficult. Nobody can fill Robert Bruce Thompson’s or Jerry Pournelle’s shoes in exactly the same way. I wouldn’t want that either. The technology has changed too. Twitter, YouTube, Locals, pod casting and so on has replaced so much commentary, and the model is different then the Daynote format.