It seems like these types of skills are just as useful coming from a non-effective altruist as an effective altruist. And there are already communities that offer up this type of service (http://timebanks.org/). Thus, you would get more utility building of those communities, than of siphoning of people to an empty community.
Why not spend your time promoting these communities to effective altruists?
One reason is that I didn't know they existed—I'd never heard of time banking before. Perhaps participation in existing time-banking communities would allow people to draw on a larger pool of people, and there would be a smaller chance that these communities would disappear. And unless you're traveling to one of a few large cities, you're more likely to find gratis accommodations on Couchsurfing.
On the other hand, I can think of a few advantages specific to having a sharing site targeted at effective altruists. First, it seems that time banks (at least the ones listed on the site you linked to) are local organizations. So you'd have to live in a community with a vibrant time bank to take advantage of it.
Second, it seems that most of the time banks listed in the directory are moribund. For example, the Berkeley group's most recent exchange (if I'm interpreting this correctly) occurred over eight weeks ago. Many of the local chapters have a member count in the single digits or have never recorded an exchange. Some exchanges, however, are quite active (e.g., those in Los Angeles and Oakland), and they might be worth checking out if you live nearby.
Third, time banking is supposed to be reciprocal. That might mean that people who don't have much to offer (because they're young, busy, etc.) might have difficulty participating in them. Effective altruists don't have to worry as much about shirking, as long as what they're doing advances the goals of effective altruism. The lack of a need for reciprocity might help facilitate exchanges, though it's possible for people who aren't effective altruists to take advantage of those who are.
If you drink coffee, you could buy a fully automatic coffee maker ($800). Or if you do it just for the stimulation, you could use caffeine tablets instead.
Leaving your computer on or in standby mode is often better than turning it on and off. Laptops use about one watt in sleep mode, and desktops typically use no more than five (source). Even if you left your computer in sleep mode for 24 hours a day, the yearly electric bill would be pretty small. If your computer uses
(with an electricity price of $0.12/kWh)
On the other hand, leaving your computer on all the time might shorten its lifespan.
You could get laser hair removal instead of shaving. Calculations assume a discount rate of 10%.
Financial cost of hair removal
Total financial cost: $4,500 to $7,000
Time cost of hair removal
Total time cost: 21 hours
Time cost of shaving
Cost per hour: $41 to $64
You could install a bidet on your toilet. Disclosure: I've never used a bidet.
Cost
Total: $1,000
Time savings (assuming 1.5 bowel movements/day)
Total: 6 hours/year (PV ~ 37 hours, assuming a 10% discount rate and a bidet lifetime of 10 years)
Cost per hour: $27
If you wear glasses, you could get LASIK surgery. (I haven't done this.) According to these speculative calculations, the cost per hour of time saved is somewhere between less than zero (not having to get new glasses saves you money) and $55. But you can get the benefits only once, unfortunately.
Discount rate: 10%
Financial cost of glasses
total: $65–$450/year (PV ~ $650–$4500)
Time cost of glasses
total: 9 hours/year (PV ~ 90 hours)
Financial cost of LASIK
Time cost of LASIK
total: 9.5 hours (PV ~ 9.5 hours)
total: $2,000–$5,000
net financial cost: -$2,500 to $4,350
net time savings: ~80 hours
per-hour cost: negative to ~$55/hour
What are the plans for EAA? When will it be spun off? Is there much interest in it from new members of 80k? Is anybody other than Eitan Fischer (who's in school) working on it at the moment?
Are you getting any other emails like this one?
I sent him one, except it had about two questions instead of sixteen. Thanks to Giles for asking all these questions and to Will for agreeing to make the answers public.
From someone who's been involved in charities for decades:
For pity's sake, don't earmark. It's a goddamn pain in the arse to deal with and can greatly increase inefficiency in dealing with the tainted money. If you trust them enough to give them money, trust them enough to work out what to do with it.
If the charity has set things up so you can donate to a particular programme, do that; otherwise, just donate, possibly with a suggestion.
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[Thread for making and discussing predictions]
To expand on my predictions, I think that global poverty will be the most popular cause except among those who say they heard of EA through LessWrong (whose numbers I'll be interested to see). I also think that skepticism/atheism will be the other social movement with which most identify, and atheism the most popular religious position. In the link Jacy Anthis has given a full set of predictions to test his accuracy.
Here are my predictions (on Prediction Book):