I don't know enough about Alexa and whatnot to get into the conversation about that.
But I do know that the good tech bloggers are beginning to blog less - or just shutting down. Funny that you like Joel On Software - he's one of my heroes.
Another awesome tech blogger is Kathy Sierra. She stopped blogging about 1 year ago due to death threats. There is another really good tech blogger that has decided to stop recently too: Dare Obasanjo.
Jeff Atwood, one of my other regular blog reads talks about this here:
Coding Horror: Death Threats, Intimidation, and Blogging
Basically, once someone gets readership and a good following, they start getting enemies and death threats. I'm sure Steve has had his share.
Some people are not ready for differing views. Some people see a contrary opinion and feel threatened and start attacking the person. That person gets scared and stops. And we all lose.
One of the side effects of success and trying to make a difference (in any field, not just software development) is that people start coming out of the woodwork and attacking you personally for your views. It is sad that this happens. And with the internet, it's easier to "hide" behind the keyboard when issuing these attacks.
When humanity finally realizes that what we do to each other, we do to ourselves, well, I think it will stop then. But until then, we can only hope that our favorite bloggers can overcome their fears and soldier on. Or we can spread the love by saying what a difference they made in our own lives. (yeah, I know, small comfort, but sometimes, that's all I got)