If I recall correctly, most successful polymath projects did in fact have active leaders, such as Timothy Gowers and Terence Tao, who helped to direct the efforts of others. Maybe without such active leadership a project tends to lose its focus. However, I myself do not have sufficient knowledge to take up such task as I do not think I am familiar enough with the research in this area (and at the moment I do not have much time to deeply familiarize myself with it). Nevertheless, thank you for creating that thread. This is precisely the type of threads I would love to see more of on LessWrong.