An audience does not matter. Sometimes it's required. Sometimes it's not. The audience is the most important thing. The audience is not important at all.
Community makes an online journal special.
Interactivity with the audience just gets in your way as a writer. I experimented with theories regarding audiences and online daily writing as if I were some scientist contemplating an hypothesis. I've been at this for years. There is no answer. If a tree falls in the middle of the forest, it may or may not make a sound.