Out of curiosity, I'd like to know why Introductory material that gets people hooked is wanted. Is there some goal to this website that I missed? Also I do wish I could contribute something, but I think I have any skills except for a bit of theoretical mathematics and computation study behind me.
One of the goals of the site is to make people more sane. There many fields which could dramatically benefit from more sanity (for example, science could use a whole lot more Bayes). Getting people interested in the material on the site is one way to make people more sane, so better ways to get people interested in that material is valuable.
I want to figure out how to solve LessWrong's public goods problem. There are lots of projects that lots of people are moderately interested in but not interested enough to do themselves. For example:
Right now the only way those projects get done there's one person with enough intrinsic interest in the project that they do it mostly regardless of the benefits to others. We need ways to focus dispersed interest into intense interest in people willing and able to do particular projects (different ways that might be accomplished).
I think figuring out how to do that is probably best done by a small team, but I am not sure who else might be interested.
I need two other people enthusiastic about solving LessWrong's public goods problem to be part of that team. What would be involved? We'd meet to discuss what things are most likely to ameliorate the public goods problem and the best way to execute them, do research on what works elsewhere and experiment with ideas. For example, I've been slowly experimenting with contests in the hopes that money, prestige and competition will be good motivators. I would like to do more contests, but I could really use help coming up with good test contest ideas, coming up with a good contest formats, and judging contests.
Any volunteers?
Update: We've started a mailing list for this project.