One of the unmitigated joys of internet access is the ability to look up my favorite sci-fi authors (that are still living, of course) and send them a quick email and visit their websites. Even better is the fact that they sometimes respond. Being able to communicate with L. Neil Smith (and read his TLE each week), Jeffrey A. Carver and Michael McCollum for instance, has been rewarding from the fan perspective. They become real people in this way, rather than just the person with the mugshot on the backcover.
Further, to receive submissions and recommendations for my rag The Multiracial Activist from up and comers like S. Joan Popek, Jay Kraxton and Michael J. Dahl was like throwing gas on a fire.
Then, to be able to follow interesting traffic from one of my websites to a usenet group only to discover that Gary Farber and Ken MacLeod had read some of the articles there and were discussing the finer points was a bit of a shock. To top it off, for the past 9 months or so I've been able to get a little bit of an insider's view into one of my favorite past-times at this mad man's blog. Life is good sometimes.