I find that having intimates enhances every aspect of life. If you have people to *share* your joys, pains and even casual observations with... you live every experience more deeply. Live Journal provides a place for fairly safe mental and emotional intimates to develop and gather across time and space. The "List" used to do something of this as well... though the extremely detailed MCF stuff really does fit better here. And the "list" has lost a lot of its safeness for many people over the last couple of years. But that safeness can be recaptured here. Because people who don't like you aren't going to be reading it, so flame war potential is greatly diminished and the freedom to be yourself is regained here.

Which brings us back to... Live Journal is a safe place to experience the richness of intimate friends. I too think it is a good thing.