Where else on the internet are people willing to change their minds?
Many scientists are willing to change their minds. Even normal people change their minds often. People become atheists or start voting for a different party. How many members here can you actually name who changed their mind about something dramatic?
Someone who is rather cynical about Less Wrong could go a step further and conclude that Less Wrong appears to be about changing your mind, but that it mainly attracts people who already tend to agree with ideas put forth on Less Wrong, who take ideas seriously. Everyone else turns his back on it or gets filtered out quickly. And those that already agree are not going to change their mind again, because they are not entitled to the particular proof necessary to change their mind, as most of the controversial ideas are either framed as a prediction or logical implication that is not subject to empirical criticism. What is left over is too vague or unsubstantial to change your mind about it one way or the other.
it mainly attracts people who already tend to agree with ideas put forth on Less Wrong
Hm, in my case I have to say that reading LessWrong changed almost all my beliefs: Roughly 9 months ago I was a socialist, an anti-reductionist, an agnostic leaning towards deism, new-age-minded guy who loved psychedlic drugs and marijuana. I was proud of my existential angst and read like-minded philosophy and literature. I had no idea of transhumanism, the singularity, existential risks or the FAI-problem.
I don't believe that I'm the only one, who changed his mind after reading the sequences, I'm not that special!
Recently I asked "What bothers you about Less Wrong?". It might be worth going back and checking out what people had to say, to see if there's something you can do to make Less Wrong more fun for everyone. (A few people made cool posts in response to complaints about lack of technical discussion, for instance.)
Let's hear the other side. What is cool about Less Wrong? What drew you in, what makes you stay, what makes you obsessively read every comment of every post? Is they're something we're doing right that we should be doing more? Bonus points for pointing out how we can make our awesome traits even more awesome, or how to make our awesomeness more obvious to outside folk who'd appreciate it. Whatever it is, add it to the comments.