Lol, random guy = my big brother Matt (on the forums as [synonym synonym] OOPSIMEAN Sonic Charlatan)
1. People love to be a part of a community; and oftentimes it's hard for people like us geeks to find a community that we actually feel drawn to. It's also a great way to get your music out there and improve yourself, as was mentioned.
2. I'm actually studying to become a composer. The community has taught me a LOT about electronic composition after a few short months (and I'm still learning, and incredibly excited about it); I knew literally nothing about sound production coming into the workshop with my very first piece from FL Studio (a Pitfall remix) in early June, and now it's in the "to be posted" queue. If that isn't a testament to the helpfulness and knowledge of the people of OCR, I don't know what is.
The prestige of the community is also giving me an edge for the world of composition, especially after listening to the people I look up to, which is basically everyone in the community who's better than I am (which is a TON of people ) but especially guys who are making a living doing what I want to be doing, like zircon, BGC, and Danny B to name a few (and djp, almost forgot he wrote for a game).
And I've always wanted to have composer buddies to push me, but I haven't had that until recently. It's great to be friends with guys like Ecto, Ben Briggs, Emunator, etc. to get quick, honest, and very useful feedback, and in turn hear their pieces and pick stuff up from them that I could be doing to improve my work.
In short, why am I a part of the community? Because of everything about it Music is an always-changing entity; there's always something you can learn, and this is a great place to find someone to teach you