It seems even more creepily weirdly personal if "engaged" was a freudian slip rather than the intentionally self deprecating humor of trying to sound like a horny cyber stalker. I assumed because of the rest of the gushing it was meant to be a humorous parody of a horny cyber stalker.
Is there a chance you guys are not native english speakers? I'm Canadian and didn't find anything odd about the sentence. I think the context made it clear that he was talking about contributing.
Is there a chance you guys are not native english speakers?
Yes, it's commonplace for someone to "want to be engaged with brilliant people" without bringing marriage into the picture. I've seen that on cover letters a number of times.
Indeed. "Engaged with" doesn't ever describe a marriage proposal in any case, so it's hard to imagine a native speaker being confused. (The idiom is "engaged to".)
