Aside: ridiculous how influential k5 was on my life. Their first article on coffee turned me into a coffee snob before third wave cafes became the rage. The article on ultralight backpacking started a lifelong obsession, eventually leading me to thru-hike the Pacific Crest Trail.
I think it's because people actually _wrote_ there. Since blogging has become a part of the "presence" everyone has to have, a lot of garbage and uninspired things are written on the internet. I wasn't a regular reader, but the things I did read seemed to be more visceral and well written than your average blog post you see today. The guy who wrote, "A Coder in Courierland" had pretty amazing prose.
