second impressions of Vox

I've been on Vox for about two weeks now and have a better idea of whether it's worth my while.

Things I like about Vox:

• I like it that adding somebody into my neighbourhood is quite distinct from friending somebody. In LiveJournal, the only way of following an interesting journal is to friend them - and even if it's only semantics, "friend" is such a loaded word. It's good that Vox separates following another blog from friending.
• It's possible to adjust the settings so that the neighbourhood doesn't show on the main page of the blog. Something I hate about so many of the social sites is that the list of friends/neighbours all showed as if it were a popularity contest.
• The AJAX powered interface works pretty well
  
• There is something interesting about QOTD. At first I rebelled at the idea as a glorified meme, but they're usually short and not too taxing to participate in
  

Things I'm not so sure about:

• Although generally the interface is nice, sometimes it seems a little confusing. For example, what is the real difference between "Neighborhood" on the top menu (when logged in) and "Connect" on the second menu? What is the point of Collections? I've yet to see Collections used in any really helpful way.
• A non-US nitpick: there are actually books and CDs (like those published particularly for the Australian market) which exist and aren't available in Amazon.com. I wish there were an easier and better way of linking to these
• Is there really a need for it? Yes, Vox may have nifty web 2.0 features (those who know me well know that I can never mention 2.0 without a degree of irony), but is there really a need for it when people have invested their writing and thoughts in LiveJournal, MySpace, not mention conventional blogs like TypePad, WordPress, blogger. Is it worth my while investing my time and thoughts in Vox if it never really takes off in this crowded market? There is nothing sadder than spending time in a social site which has seen better days - anybody remember orkut and tribe.net?
• As I've said before, if Vox is to be taken at all seriously as a way of blogging - it needs to allow commenting by non-Vox members and ways of dealing with comment spam
  
• Other than QOTD and tags, there are no community features in Vox. I think that this is a mistake

So I have some scepticism about Vox, but I'm tempted to stick with it for a while longer because it's come into my life at a time when I've been wondering whether the other ways I've been blogging/journalling still work for me. I like my LiveJournal and I like things which I've done in my explodedlibrary blog, but nothing lasts forever. It's better to accept that things have a life cycle and move on than to be in denial and let things stagnate. I cannot  over-emphasize that in this I'm only talking about my own blog and LiveJournal, and not about anybody else's.
It's also fun being in a new thing, when everybody is still discovering and making new connections. Later on things tend to ossify. But that's not happening yet and it's enjoyable to participate. Are these the halcyon days?