People publish matter on the web because they want to and they can. The medium is not like the precursors of ‘publishing’. Earlier, one had to be able to write, one had to get noticed and get published (alternatively, one had to pay to get published and thus get noticed), the audience one targeted had to appreciate what one published. All this would naturally translate into further notice and continued publication.

The blogosphere seems to exist as something so much in contrast to this older model that it becomes hard to imagine that the process has anything to do with actual people at all.