Hanging around certain bitcoin corners of the internet, i get the distinct impression that a good section of users (or, speculators) are keen to spin reality to

Hanging around certain bitcoin corners of the internet, i get the distinct impression that a good section of users (or, speculators) are keen to spin reality to distort the image of bitcoin prospects.. either through hopeful delusion, or (more likely IMO) as attempts to hype up the market. This metric may deal with one issue, but it is still totally useless as an objective metric of 'the bitcoin economy'. A much more reality-based metric would be the number of retailers (etc) accepting payments in BTC (and their volumes if they were available). But this would be a much more sobering picture.