That’s a question often asked and served with a multitude of answers. So here’s mine.

The blogosphere is a swamp.

Now before you rush off in a rage and write hysterical articles about me, let me explain my point. Swamps are superb.

Out of the primeval swamp, we’re told, came all of life as we know it. The original Globigerina Ooze was the finest soup ever made because it contained all the ingredients to manufacture lifeforms. Hence my presence at the keyboard and yours reading this piece.

The blogosphere is a swamp. It’s a glorious seeding ground for phenomenally innovative ideas, both in thought and in action.

It also acts as a proving ground for new ideas, products and services, where they can be poked over by all manner of experts, dumbos and interested parties.

However, once the idea is pronounced “good”, what next? Clearly it can stick around and play the Blogosphere’s Game of tilting at windmills, baiting others for traffic, and monetizing to cover the bill at Starbucks or the Cafe Royal.

Blog networks are something excellent that emerged from the blogosphere and, with Weblogs Inc, powered out of it to glory.

And there’s the rub. Like the young of all species, the blogosphere’s best has to fly the nest if they are to make it in the big, wide world of grownups.

Blog networks have to drop the blog label if they are to attract a much larger clientelle and flourish in the commercial sphere.

Gadget blogs may well be an exception to this rule, because they automatically appeal to millions of techie gadget-fanciers, who may not be bloggers at all.

But for a network that seeks a broader commercial role than the Blogosphere Game permits, leaving is essential.

That doesn’t mean you can’t write home occasionally, even visit the old folks. It just means you have to make your valedictory speech and precipitate yourself over the side of the nest.

That’s where Syntagma Media is now. I suspect other networks are similarly placed. Tech people will find it hard to make the break. Publishers and authors like myself will find it much more congenial, especially when the slurp of the swamp orchestrates their departure.

So, blog bog-folk, wish us well. We’re going into the wide blue yonder where windmills are called turbines and serve a useful purpose. It was good knowing you and I hope your seedbed produces many more good ideas, like blogs and blog networks.

You can still read us here, but our voice may sound more distant than hitherto. Ciaou and mind how you go.