However, the key issue here is "ecosystem."

Scoop is a good thing, but ecosystem keys into how both technorati and google and other search engines work. People find scoop sites because of the ecosystem. They stay because of the quality. But you need the ecosystem.

Also, lots of good bloggers are (for better and for worse, I suppose) stubbornly individualist and self-promoting. Out in US lefty-land I read stuff by people like Juan Cole, billmon, digby. Sometime I only read it because it's been linked by someone on ET or dKos, but the fact is, the "individualists" produce a lot of the good content that keeps discussion on the big US scoop sites going.

That's part of what is missing. Not just blogrolling, but the sort of regular reading and referencing each other. And no, I'm not sure how we "make" it happen, but it's worth thinking about.

[Now I think about it, perhaps "specialists" is better word than "individualists".]