Does anyone know why the boost.log never made it into the library?

Short, unhelpful answer: Yes.

Longer, probably more helpful answer:

The review result is here:

There were several issues marked *critical* in the review that needed to be satisfied before the library was added to boost.

Those have not been satisfied (yet).

However, the library is being actively developed and maintained, and is available at http://sourceforge.net/projects/boost-log/

-- Marshall

Marshall Clow     Idio Software   <mailto:mclow.lists@gmail.com>

A.D. 1517: Martin Luther nails his 95 Theses to the church door and is promptly moderated down to (-1, Flamebait).
        -- Yu Suzuki