There was a study where people took turn ratings songs on a fake music review website, 1-5 stars. Each person could see the reviews from the people before them. Justin Bieber is widely disliked, but the study found that if the first participant rated the music highly, like 5 stars, it would continue to be rated more highly be other participants. If they rated him low, he would stay low.
The moral of the story is that an initial group of people can set the stage and perception of a thing, in the beginning. Right now it's Bitcoin. But Bitcoin isn't even that bad! Honestly it's one of the best online communities out there.
We need a few more nice communities like Bitcoin before we attract a mainstream audience.