Yes. When blogs were at their peak, non-techy people could hop from blog to blog through each blog's "logroll" which were headlines pulled automatically from other blogs selected by the author of the one you were viewing. They appeared next to the blog's own content.
Even if the blog you were reading wasn't that great its logroll would often lead you to exciting new content and people that you could subscribe to. It became a huge status thing and blog "rockstars" made their reputations based on how many big name people had them in their logroll and how many people were following their feed.
Overall, this rich web of connections was a very powerful, organic way to discover new content and people to follow. It benefited everybody and was controlled by nobody.
Even if the blog you were reading wasn't that great its logroll would often lead you to exciting new content and people that you could subscribe to. It became a huge status thing and blog "rockstars" made their reputations based on how many big name people had them in their logroll and how many people were following their feed.
Overall, this rich web of connections was a very powerful, organic way to discover new content and people to follow. It benefited everybody and was controlled by nobody.