I'm looking to address a pain point that I have come up against often - having thoughts that would make great blog posts but no time or motivation to go through the hassle of having a full blown blog.<p>I've outlined what I have created here: http://idea.kickofflabs.com/<p>If you are interested please sign up there or drop me an email at damaswill@gmail.com. It would be great to hear from you.
At one end, people have their own blogs. (And Blogger, WordPress.com, and Tumblr are simple enough that large numbers of non-technical folk use them regularly.) At the other end, many people are happy to lurk without writing anything.<p>In the middle, people post comments on others' blogs or on meta sites such as HN.<p>I can't be sure, but from what you've said so far, I'm not seeing much unaddressed pain in the space.
I find this interesting enough. I've been myself involved in those kind of ideas... but never got to anything.<p>As other said, there is a big expression space in the web, with room and options for everyone. But the fact is that, as you, many don't like the idea of starting a blog, or just want to be part of something bigger than what they are able to build. Anyways, figuring out exactly where in the map you will fit is very important.<p>Others forgot to mention old fashioned forums, that also allow people to post thing, open threads, etc. I imagine your product as something in between a forum + posterous easiness + blog network. What could help it a lot is thinking in a specific subject or niche, because that will make the sum of all posts something interesting to dive in (as HN is for some subjects and not others).<p>And of course, as michaelpinto said: go build a prototype as soon as you can.
I would be interested if the posts where categorized. For example, I have an idea for one post on video games. I write the post, and send it off, and it gets posted to the video games section of the site. Then people interested in video games could find it. Maybe the next day, I have a good idea for a food blog post.
Suggestion: Don't look for suggestions here with an essay, instead you should prototype your idea and then get feedback. The problem with your essay is that it's abstract and too easy to say something like "what about Tumblr" so in this case the devil is in the details...