higher quality regurgitation. i see smashing magazine as a quality filtering aggregation subscription with occasionally good original content, and i see things like a list apart and alertbox as consistent high quality original content.
thing is, some good stuff makes it to the places that can't be relied on to perpetually produce high quality content, and places like smashing help point out where it is.
for me, hacker news is another filter subscription for the internet which also occasionally has great original content right here. i remember seeing some posts here earlier in the week saying this was a social site....maybe for some, but for me it's a high quality subscription to the internet in general, which replaced previous lower quality filters like reddit.
Well, I think there is room for every kind of post, but Smashing Magazine does roundups WAY better than anything else. What I was saying is if you're going to try to be another Smashing Magazine, just link to Smashing and give up :)
Smashing Magazine only gained their popularity by regurgitating other people's shit - they're no better than the rest.