AOL's Weblogsinc's Social Software Weblog has been shut down. They had 1500+ Blogline's readers according to my subscription in bloglines. They should feel free to redirect them over here, as I think I cover the topic a bit better than Download Squad. Or Tech Crunch, Paid Content or Om Malik maybe. But, I doubt that would happen. No. They are encouraging readers to tune into Download Squad.

When Weblogsinc was in its beginning stages, I did have the honor of blogging over there for a week when Judith Meskill, the editor then, was on vacation. I wrote a post that got a good bit of attention, called Blogging is the Ultimate Social Software. In fact, writing there gave me a good bit of attention in general. When reading Noah Brier's blog today, this bit from Noah reminded me of that post I wrote there:

When you meet a blogger for the first time it's like you get to skip all the garbage. You know what they've been paying attention to for the last six months, giving you common points of interest.

This link between blogger and writer (or lack thereof) was also probably one of the reasons that the Social Software weblog was shut down. It had no consistent personality. It went through 5 writers. I think. But, it was also a launching pad. Judith Meskill, the original writer became Weblogsinc's editor. Most recently, Marshall Kirkpatrick was writing there, until (I presume) Tech Crunch picked him up.

I can't imagine shutting down a blog that has 1500 readers. I think it is a big company-type decision. Weblogsinc, now owned by AOL, is rationalizing blogs like media properties, killing off the ones that aren't the biggest. I am sure there are many blog networks out there that would be happy to have a property like that. I am sure that there are many bloggers, that would love to have an audience like that. Then again, AOL seems to like to kill the old stuff.