Merit in the Bitcoin section is indeed not as widespread as one would think, but the general Bitcoin Discussion thread is way too spammed currently, and finding good posts there is not easy.  On the other hand, the more technical subsections are not comprehensible by many, and therefore bare less attention by meriters probably than they deserve. Fortunately, there are now more Merit Sources around to try to reach out, but paradoxically (and logically), the more technical the topic the less people that are going to understand it or even be really interested in it. Going back to the shoe corporation example, the designers are essential there, but not many people really understand their language…