I saw in your userinfo you live in the tundra, since I stalking you and also live in canada, I am curious about where you are. Probably Vancouver like everyone else (hates you all).

I have recently started floating my ideas that are more general on my LJ. Last month I had a whole discussion on the concept of Slytherinness as it relates to Tom Riddle and the hatred of mudbloods on my LJ to see what other people had to say on that. Similarly, I have discussed my dislike for H/D fic and why. I think for general, amorphous ideas, this works well. You can see where your friends (in the loose sense of people who read you LJ) intersect with your thought process, and often their ideas can spark or hone an idea you had.

However, when it comes to plot ideas, I tend to keep the ones I want to use for myself close to my chest. I don't want to tell everyone the point of a fic I am writing and spoil the whole damned thing. But I also tend to discuss longer stories with friends so I can bounce my ideas off them. Usually that leads me to realizing flaws or coming up with parallel points I hadn't considered before.

Ok, I don't know if I am answering your query here at all. It's late.