Blogging has its share of muckrakers and trolls, but for me I'd say that it has opened up a medium in which I can follow a single train of thought over the course of a year even though I might have limited time to focus during any given day or week. I've been able to make minor contributions to a subject area that I had no skill with at the start, and I've made contact with several other like minded individuals that I never would have come across otherwise. Most importantly, if I was completely braindead on a certain point or if I was unaware of something painfully obvious, it was brought to my attention much earlier than it might have been had I continued by trial and error alone. The flames and the ridicule were not that bad, and ultimately blogging provided an arena where I could new try things: it was okay to "fail". There's not that much at stake in being an idiot in a blog post as long as you're willing to admit you were off base and correct stuff later.