One thing you need to understand, as Brian mentioned, is that Factoids are not something Factom will or ever will spend Marketing resources on.
We have always been clear what Factoids are, they give access to the protocol by being converted to Entry Credits.
When you buy Factoids on an exchange you are not investing in Factom, you are speculating out of your own judgement. It's a free market and everyone is also free to do what they want.
There seems to be a lot of this going on recently, possibly from people who is trying to hedge away from Bitcoin seen the current debate on block size.
But this trend may or may not last much longer so be very careful where you put your money.
If we wanted to promote (or as they say pump) Factoids we would have put this thread in altcoins/announcements. We didn't.
However we had an old thread there but we decided to take it down as it was a distraction and unnecessary.
What Factom has been doing and will continue to do is to attend as many Bitcoin/Blockchain/Fintech related conferences in the world to promote what Factom is trying to achieve.
We have a for profit organization, Factom Inc, apart from the Factom Foundation (non-profit) and we are raising funds through regular Venture Capital to fund our operations.
One of Factom Inc purposes is to promote the use of the protocol by initiating relationships with corporations. And we are doing pretty well on that end.
In some cases we can announce our partnerships in some others we cannot due to non-disclosure agreements in place.
Our potential customers are not bitcoiners but corporations, financial institutions, governments, insurance companies, registries, etc...
Also check out our media page and see for yourself how much we have been talked about in the press:
http://factom.com/media.
Not many other projects have had that kind of coverage, so we are very happy with our current Marketing professionals and efforts.
Milestone #2 is being worked on and we will release it when we deem it ready for release. All we can say is that it won't be much longer, can't be more precise.
If we release an ETA and we don't meet that for any reason how would you feel about it?
We are also working on improving our current GUI wallet, again to be released when ready.
We are looking forward to Milestone #2 as much as you guys are, as it will be more functional (with a better and more comprehensive API) and allow for greater use of our system
which in turn will increase usage of Entry Credits thus drive value. The team is full on it and yes they are also working on the new GUI wallet in parallel.
Worry not, we hear your feedback, bear with us and stay tuned, we will make announcements in due course.
We appreciate your support and are thrilled to have you with us.