I don't want to say anything specific enough to offend anyone, but some of the ideas I saw on the "neat stuff" thread seemed sort of gimmicky to me.
... yeah, guest posts and illustration contests are pretty gimmicky, I don't know what kind of fool would propose those :D
I thought yo were talking about gimmicky stuff on LessWrong right now, of which I don't see many examples (maybe the Diplomacy games?). Navel gazing and bad self help though, yup, plenty of those (and my last two threads - this one and the "neat stuff" - probably fall under navel gazing too)
Are there any areas of study that you feel are underrepresented here, and would be interesting and useful to lesswrongers?
I feel some topics are getting old (Omega, drama about moderation policy, a newcomer telling us our lack of admiration for his ideas is proof of groupthink, Friendly AI, Cryonics, Epistemic vs. Instrumental Rationality, lamenting how we're a bunch of self-centered nerds, etc. ...), and with a bit of luck, we might have some lurkers that are knowledgeable about interesting areas, and didn't think they could contribute.
Please stick to one topic per comment, so that highly-upvoted topics stand out more clearly.