You've only been on LJ since it's been a product - it originally was a community of like minded people (who wanted to keep up with each other electronically). The source code was open source freeware, the site was supported by donations, yadda yadda.

Things have changed a LOT since I started, and that was 2002. Back then you had to know someone to even start an account; someone who was already part of the community had to agree to let you in (via a referral system). It wasn't bulletproof, but it was a different community.