Let me count the ways, if only a few.
I've always felt that Facebook was partly pointless and decidedly dangerous. But social networking with a vital creative interest at heart answers both objections.
This is a much more civil place than Facebook. The Golden Rule applies in ways that we all understand.
This is a genuine place. Figuratively, everything is shipped in an open box.
This is a focused place. Who comes here comes to write.
This is a user-oriented place. Features are features, not revenue re-direct opportunities or bugs respun.
This is a mature place. The different spaces, from e-mail to newsfeeds to forums to portfolios and beyond are integrated tightly and logically.
This is a technically sophisticated place. Pages load cleanly and completely. Mark-up language techniques are fully exploited, while processing language techniques are kept the absolute minimum.
Michelangelo once said something about "hewing away the excess until the object was revealed". (Of course that's a paraphrase. Michelangelo spoke Latin.) In sculpting this website, the StoryMaster shows how to grow marble into an object.