Spark

Here's something I wrote in a recent article in Lambda Book Report on fat and the word:

Internet gathering places such as livejournal.com with its interactive networks of personal blogs linked by relationships or interests create sites for frequent intense or casual communication, regardless of geography, and many of these writers can be found there. There are plenty of to-do lists and casual chatter, but the writing in these journals can take on sudden power and depth, and one beautifully written piece can spark a firestorm of response. "It's very trippy," Piasecki said. "I sort of look at it like a large, collective performance art piece."

I'll let the lj writer I was quoting self-identify if she chooses, but what about the rest of you?
Do you draw on lj as source for your thinking, writing or art in other media?
Are you using it to build something? If you are, then can you articulate what?
Does it influence your life in other ways?
Is the collective element important to you?
What are its gifts?