1) Insularity: I actually don't think LW is all that insular. Users often link to science articles, ask for opinions on other writers, discuss films and books, etc. Exactly what set of sites or communities is LW being compared to here when you call it insular?

Insular in the sense of being incapable of adopting an idea created elsewhere even when useful.

2) Growth (in terms of users): This is quantifiable. http://www.google.com/trends/?q=less+wrong Looks like a big jump at the beginning of 2011, perhaps when HPMoR took off, and fairly constant since. Anyway, I'm not sure that becoming big in terms of raw users is all that much of a goal, although high-quality users certainly is (at least to me).

I wasn't concerned by this. But yes the article was a bit ambiguous on that. I've edited to try and fix this. So I guess we are in agreement on everything but point one. :)