All you need to do is:
- Pick a time. Weekend afternoons or evenings work well.
- Pick a place. This can be a coffee shop or casual restaurant (e.g., a pizza place or pub) or a classroom or other on-campus location. Best if it isn’t too noisy.
- Announce the time and place on LW, a week or so ahead of time, using the "Add new meetup" link near your username.
- Show up yourself, with a sign that says “Less Wrong Meet-up”.
That’s all -- anything else is optional. If folks come, just say “Hi, my name’s [whatever your name is]”, and see where the conversation goes. Most major cities, and many minor ones, have some LW-ers. And if no one comes, all it cost you was a few hours of reading a book in a restaurant. You don’t need to have a LW history; many a lurker has enjoyed in-person LW conversation (and the folks who actually show up to meet-ups are often less intimidating than those who post on the main site).
Meet-ups are fun, and the simple act of talking to other LW-ers (in person, where your primate brain can see that they’re real) can help: (a) you become a better rationalist; (b) other attendees become better rationalists; and (c) LW become a stronger community.
Also, if anyone is interested in starting a meet-up but wants to discuss it with someone first, I'd be happy to help. There is also a good meet-up resources page.
(This was discussed a bit in this comment thread, but it seems worth repeating it somewhere where more people might see it, especially since the idea was new to someone at Saturday's H+ conference who now plans to start a meet-up.)
I'm almost certain this post will be useful, in that it will result in there being more LW meet-ups than there would otherwise have been. But, seriously, did anyone actually need the cotents? In order to arrange to meet some people who frequent a website you visit regularly, post something to the website saying that you'd like to meet them and where and when.
I'm genuinely curious as to why this will help (as I said, I'm sure it will). Is it because it explicitly gives people "permission" to go ahead and organise their own meet-up? Again, there can't possibly be any information in the post that any regular LW reader couldn't figure out for themselves.
Human nature dictates that we both assume 'someone else' is going to start a group, and assume the task of creating said group is very difficult. So even those people who lurk and say to themselves, "Gosh, I'd love to have a group like that in my city" won't take the first step unless they are given "permission".
In that sentence, you really did hit the nail on the head there, Bentarm.