it just dawned on me that there is an unintended (or maybe it was intended, but nobody felt the need to point it out) side effect of using airdrops to distribute new coins.
that is, any honest exchange is going to feel obligated to provide coins that get airdropped to them to their rightful owners. this in turn forces them to list every social consensus honoring coin-- this could be another legitimate reason that developers might want to honor the consensus... to get their coins listed on a couple extra exchanges right away.
bter has stolen my business away from cryptsy over this. I dont care for the fact that I have to convert my devcoin into litecoin before turning it into BTC, then something else if I want, but it's worth it to support an honest exchange.