Network with fellow Hacker LinkedIn Users

But I agree it seems weird to add 50 'strangers' to your list... We don't know anything about each other really.

EDIT: Although I have seen a few people do it on LinkedIn already, they post message in groups and tell people that they want everyone to add them. They gather thousands of contacts that way, I wonder if it does them any good tho.

There's not really much value in friending directly, but if you make the effort to get to know new people, as I will, I think it's a good idea. There's always value in meeting somebody new.