Online with live bears: the popular blog LiveJournal has become an international gathering place for bears. And we're not talking about cave-dwelling creatures.

"We all like hairy men. We all have so much in common!" That's how many social events for bears are characterized, says Louisville, Ky.-based artist and musician Jeb Edwards. "But really, we don't," he says. If you want to get to know bears, you need to go to the online blog LiveJournal, where you can "dig a little deeper" into their thoughts and personalities.

LiveJournal--or LJ, as many affectionately call it--is a popular blog that allows people to keep a running diary about their lives, their opinions, or anything else they want to post. Users can make their entries completely private or public, or even filter them to a specific "friends list."

And while LiveJournal isn't an exclusively bear site, it's become exceedingly popular among a subculture of gay men who lean toward body mass and facial hair. More than 450 LJ users list 'Nears" as an interest--and few are talking about cave-dwelling creatures.

For freelance writer Aaron Aldorisio, 29, LJ was a safe way to explore the bear subculture while he was still married to a woman. "I got onto it to snoop on a coworker because I was intrigued by his 'lifestyle,'" he says, making air quotes with his fingers. "I didn't have much in common with the guy I was snooping on, but he led me to gay people who happen to be bears, which happen to be the kind of guys I was attracted to and could relate to. After a couple of months of lurking, I got up the nerve to leave a comment, and that opened the floodgates."

While LiveJournal gave Aldorisio a place to explore his sexuality, it also has created a national--and somewhat international--networking place for bear-identified gay men. Writer and theme park creative director Dave Cobb, 36, opened an LJ account in May 2003. "At the time I was traveling a lot for work," he recalls, "so I would post in my journal, 'Hey, does anybody out there happen to live in such-and-such city?'"

Having made real-life contact with many of his LiveJournal friends, Cobb says the site has connected him with "people I could genuinely call friends in five or 10 cities, and people I could call acquaintances by proxy--because I chat with them a lot--in 15 or 20," including bears in Australia, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the Philippines.

What is it about LiveJournal, which has no specific bear--or gay--affiliation, that makes it such a popular hub for bears? No one seems quite sure. Cobb notes, "Having met a lot of these people in the real world who I have no geographical connection to and no particular educational or cultural motive to be connected to, there's something [on LiveJournal] that I can't quite figure out," he says. "'Like-minded' is too simple. It's that feeling of Wow, I'm having real discourse here, and certainly none of the sex sites do that."

And it's not just about one-on-one encounters with fellow bears in other cities. Edwards, 36, has used the site to launch an acclaimed podcast titled "50 Pound Note," and LiveJournal also has lit a fire under him. "I have a degree in art but had given up on being any sort of artist," he says. "With LJ, I was suddenly exposed to other artists for the first time in 10 years. They were my inspiration to create again." Edwards recently participated in a show in Denver made up entirely of LJ artists.

Owen Murphy, 29, a recruiter for a law firm in Chicago, has reaped numerous social benefits from the site--he cohosts a massive LJ party every year during the city's bear pride festivities over Memorial Day weekend. But there have been personal bonuses as well. "It sounds a little odd, but my first gay kiss, my first gay bar experience, my first gay friend--all a result of LiveJournal," he says with a laugh. "And all with LiveJournalers."

Duralde is the author of 101 Must-see Movies for Gay Men. The preacher lied: