For those that don't want to keep up (and I don't blame you, it's not that exciting) with the world of blogs, here's a short explanation of the difference between bloggers and aggregators.

Aggregators, by definition, are gatherers. Some sites used to aggregate, but now the news gravitates towards them. So much so that they need moderators to sort through the submissions.

Bloggers have something to say (and often few people who will listen to their banter). They aren't collectors, they are thinkers.

Some sites mainly aggregate and postulate at the end. That is quite alright but without the aggregation would people be there to read the latter parts? -- it might be just another collection of infrequently read opinions.

These popular aggregators usually have a large fan base grown out of the early days of the web and many years toiling in front of a computer screen writing their own HTML or CGIs before the days of blogging software. It's almost impossible to start a decent aggregation site these days from scratch. People already have their favourites -- and collecting all of those links without help is just plain time consuming.

So I ask you -- where do the majority of longtime aggrebloggers find the time? I surf the net a few hours a day, but not enough to collect link after link on the same topic or sort through a pile of emails on said same topic. Maybe my interests are just too varied to be an aggregator ...

... on second thought, maybe that's a good thing. ;)