Hey @dutch, thank you very much :)
"It speaks volumes about the crypto-sphere as a whole much more so than any individual player."
I disagree with that point. Data sources like the Google Analytics or these wonderful spikes in Google Trends can be attributed to a high rise in Gridcoin mentions. For example, very lately a very famous russian site (xaker.ru) wrote about Gridcoin.
I agree with your second statement but this is the beauty of Gridcoin: Giving an incentive to do something good and compensating those who are not here for money in the first place. Its in any case a good deal..
"(...) but 95% of the questions I answer on Reddit or in the IRC help channel have been answered upwards of 5 times in the last week. A quick search does wonders."
For me, it was mostly the same experience. However, we still have a lot of people who dont get there. The key is probably to "don't make me think".