They won't care how shiny and straight your tracks are.
That's basically it. For a lot of people, they care about usability or in that train sense, if it's gonna take them to the next destination safely. They don't really care its complexities. They just want something that works.
I recently found out too that peakd is hardly indexed again on google. I've been wondering about that one.
Absolutely. I don't know how SEO works exactly but surely all these links and views on Reddit should boost our visibility? Sadly I don't use Reddit so cant get involved but anything that gets eye on the page, and sees the rewards has to be a positive thing!
And back to your brilliant local event. I think locally organised, social events such as coffee mornings, or quiz nights, would be a great way to get things moving. As they wouldn't cost too much to organise, a set of receipts could be sent in afterwards for reimbursement.
Sell the rewarded blogging and the games. This is what people want!!
Hope you and Mum are doing well Mac :-)