@drq @iliazeus @mittorn
Niche being you and your homies? What do you mean?
If the case is that they just want to keep contact, people exchanged ICQ/Skype/Mailru thing back in the day for instant messaging (and e-mail before that, websites had e-mail to reach the author anyway).
Some might actually be interested to read their friend's blog and comment on it. Besides, you didn't always have to register on the website itself, there were some comment hostings similar to "disqus".
And having "you and your homies" may already attract some people, friends call their friends in by a word of mouth, some might stick around, then strangers come in to read and follow. It just takes time anyway
@BigFoxBoss I'm not an imbecile, I know what instant messaging is, and I remember ICQ. I had a 6-digit number.
I'm talking strictly about social blogging. Only that. Not other platforms/protocols/whatever.
Social networking/social blogging is easy to do when you're on the same website, and nigh impossible to do if you're standalone. Unless there's federation. Then it's not as easy as the same website, but suddenly - it's doable.
@iliazeus @mittorn