What is a blog for? 25 Answers

Yesterday, I tried googling "blog methodology," and was dissatisfied with what I found. Today, I tried approaching the "blog methodology" question from a different angle. Instead I tried searching on "what is a blog for." The following are a selection of what I found out there on the Interweb, in order of Google ranking:

1. It is a place to just vent and release what you are feeling at the time.
2. . . .  after all, if not to promote one own's work?
3. . . . if not personal opinions and preferences?
4. . . .  if not distracting one from more pressing work?
5. . . . if not to publish things that will be unpublishable anywhere else until after you are dead and have received a posthumous Nobel Prize for literature.
6. . . .  if not to kvetch about one's annoying classmates?
7. . . . if not reflection?
8. . . . if you can’t rant when you need to?
9. Is it a place to write what happens in your day, or a place to express your views on certain issues? From what I have observed, most people use it as a medium for them to express their feelings.. be it about something or someone.. and mostly, they express hatred.
10. . . . if not to taunt a sibling on the other side of the world about treats you just found on a Chinatown expedition?
11. . . . but to let people know how you feel and what your beliefs are? At least some of them . . .
12. . . . if not self-indulgence?
13. . . . if not to spout my own political beliefs?
14. . . . except for angsting?
15. . . . if not for a bit of fun?
16. . . . if NOT to show pictures of your detached bones?
17. . . . if not to for me to complain? here: i have this weird post-nasal drip cold thing going on right now.
18. You know blogs aren't always supposed to be meaningful.
19. I am using Blogs on ecademy as an opportunity to ask for advice that will assist my business.   
20. . . . if not for posting personal stories and comments in a highly emotional moment that later destroy everything you work for in personal, professional or social life, leaving you regretting having posted in the first place, wishing you were dead and following up by posting something just as bad all in the same week? I mean really, haven't you learned anything?
21. . . . if not Poaching News from Other Websites?
22. . . . if not to expound upon the pointless?
23. . . . if it is not for annoying the hell out of complete strangers?
24. I am a Star Trek lovin, Pres Bush hatin' geek. Anyone out there like me?
25. pl sure ask abt this, lar! dumb! [This last one seriously attempts an answer.]

Um. OK. Many of these have truth to them and some are funny. But.  I mean, sure, I confess that I've used my blog for some of the purposes on the list. (My personal list of trivial answers to the question would have to include, " . . . if not to give words away for free that I might otherwise get paid for?".) 

I was hoping for more.

OK. I'm by nature overly intellectual and overly theory-oriented. But I'm thinking maybe blogging needs a manifesto.