My original purpose of joining these forums was to meet new people on other teams, and I think it has worked pretty well. I've also had a few people come up to me and ask "Hey aren't you Ryan... Doan... Doan.... that Ryan guy from chiefdelphi?"
I just think it's pretty cool when some random person comes up to you and knows your face or name. I don't know about being "famous" with this community, that might be a little weird, but I could handle being known.