You know, I see this market adoption sentiment everyday and I have to ask, if people don't know about the product, how can they adopt it? Believe it or not, marketing can make or break a coin. A quick stroll down the alt coin list shows as much. I'm not even talking about the pump and dumps. See Quark, Max, vert and the like.
I won't lie, seeing those coins gain exposure while dark remains dormant is disheartening. Hell a quick google search turns up very little on dark. That list of coin exposure should tell us something. No one is going to market dark for us. If we say we are going to hold for long term, you should understand that this is a different calibre of markets. New coins saturate the markets everyday. Lets not bury our heads in the sand here. See earthcoin for a great example of a coin that depended too much on the whole "long term" plan. That coin has lost 800% value in under 2 months and is sinking lower as other alt coins rise.
Just my two cents... And to answer the unasked question, yes I try to promote dark coin on Reddit.
I think people know about Dark and what it promises. I don't know what magical "marketing" you are talking about. What coins out there AREN'T simply trading vehicles for 99% of the people who own them? I could argue that BTC & DOGE are it when it really comes to market acceptance. To me, LTC is just a trading vehicle as well, the community sucks IMO. Sure there are a lot of contenders, but I think we're lying to ourselves to think many of these coins will survive in the long run, maybe surviving with their die-hard fans/communities. Most won't and can't.
I'll reinforce my point, this coin skyrockets if it's promises are delivered. If anonymous transactions are proven and secure, this coin has a place in the crypto world for this reason and this reason (primarily) alone.
You can get hung up on the "marketing" stuff and worrying about whether the name has an evil connotation to it. Worry about whether it will only be a "drug" coin. In all honesty, if successful, it will be a drug coin (any coin really is, even if i convert it to fiat to buy weed). Would BTC be BTC without Silk Road? I dunno. Is BTC constantly stigmatized by this? No, absolutely not. Why? Currency is/should be transaction neutral.
Remember, for every evil connotation to a crypto you can come up with an equally GOOD reason to use it.