I think it's shortsighted to label everything that isn't BTC as a shitcoin - it's just not true.
Bitcoin is great, but it's not a one-stop-shop to solve every problem in the world. ETH is a better choice for smart contracts, XRP is a better choice for fast payments, etc etc. I love Bitcoin, but it's not like there's no room for other coins offering different functionality A coin that is targeted towards one solution will likely perform it better than something that tries to solve everything at the same time.

Difficult to say as it's so speculative. I think the best below 200 are those that have just started out - if something is established with a fully working product and is still not in the top 200 then it is probably not very good.
Hurify I like, it's IoT which will surely be big in the future, plus they've recently linked with Dragonchain. The markets are very thin though, and prices have been dropping steadily since launch (as with many ICOs) - maybe one to watch, but it might be too early to buy right now.

One factor to consider for low volume coins is that their prices can change even when there is no trading on the coin. The 'dollar value' of coins is often determined in BTC or ETH. If a small coin is worth 0.1 ETH, and ETH drops 10% against the $, then even with no trading, the small coin (still at 0.1 ETH) will also drop 10% against the dollar.

I disagree that alts are down because they are failures or scams. They are just subject to the same overall sentiment as the whole market. The smaller the coin, in general the worse the price drop. We can see this even at the top, where BTC has fallen much less than ETH.
I do think we'll see a recovery this year, but probably not to the late 2017 levels.

Do you mean ICOs with a high hardcap? In my opinion, the cap doesn't matter hugely - what matters is demand relative to supply. Any coin that reaches only a tiny fraction of hardcap looks weak. If an ICO sells $1.8m and hardcap was $2m, then it looks good, almost sold out - but an ICO that sells $1.8m against a hardcap of $50m looks like a complete failure.
Equally too big a gap between softcap (the minimum they need to start the project) and hardcap raises concerns. If they only need $1m to start the project, but set a hardcap of $50m, you have to ask if there is any reason for this other than greed.

Because of this it is incumbent on the team to set  realistic soft and hard caps.

It did start to look promising, then we had that big pullback. No-one really knows at the moment, but I would say it's encouraging that at least the latest mini pullback almost immediately corrected back upwards. I think we are starting to see some solid support, and I would hope this translates to more of an overall bullish sentiment.

Airdrops aren't usually worth very much. I don't tend to bother with them any more. Most are a few dollars at best. It's very rare to get an airdrop that is worth a reasonable amount of money.

As the last 24 hours have shown, we are still in bear territory. Let's see how it plays out. If we can stay well above the December lows that marked the lowest price points since the drop began, then it is good and shows strength and the beginnings of a recovery. But it is too early to say right now.

If everything is dropping then it is best to trade into a stablecoin, probably USDT as these have the biggest markets, and so the best prices (the lowest gap between top buy order and lowest sell order).

Since this thread was started, we've obviously dropped down again in prices. It is noticeable that the drop is bigger than the rise that preceded it - suggesting the bear market is still in progress. But a good sign is that we are still above the December lows.

Yes, it is certainly possible - but by no means inevitable. It's very important that you pick the right projects. There are plenty (new and more established) that won't give you a profit, just as there are plenty that will. Remember that lower cap coins are where the high % is, but also where most of the risk is as well.

Mostly BTC and ETH for me, with a spread of mid-cap stuff across the top 100. Plus some bounty rewards from lower cap coins that I want to hold onto.
I think it is good to spread across different types of coin, so BTC, smart contracts, fast payments, IoT... plus different sectors, so financial, manufacturing etc.

I don't understand either. You can't really say BTC will last 3 years and ETH 5, not without something solid to back up the claim. BTC has yet to find its place, but could well become a 'store of value' coin, digital gold - but whatever its role, it is so dominant in crypto that it will likely last for a long time. ETH as well - smart contracts offerr such huge potential to society that they will surely be huge, and ETH is currently the leading platform with good development progress on the roadmap as well, so looks very strong for the foreseeable future.

The key I think is not to panic, and to try to look at the long term picture. Don't make trades just for the sake of it and trying to recover losses. Instead look at what the longer term may bring, where the good projects are likely (I think) to rise substantially. Definitely don't panic, that is the most important. Diversification isn't necessarily the answer.

Now is looking like a good time, and there are some signs that the bottom of the market has been and gone. Not definite, just signs. I would say though that it looks like now could be a good time to buy rather than waiting. Either way, most of the drop has likely happened already - some coins have fallen 90%, I can't see another 90% fall on top of that.

Just research the project as much as you can, and you will likely find some red flags if any are there... so what the coin is supposed to do, the team and their history, quality of website is often a good indicator, white paper full of buzzwords but little of any substance etc... the list goes on, but many scams are quite easy to spot. Those that ask for KYC for airdrops are probably worth avoiding as well - not necessarily scams, but certainly not worth the risk.

Not sure about NTS, but looking at the whole of crypto, we seem to be starting to recover, which is obviously good - we do need to remember though that rises so far have been small and could still be part of the bear trend.

It is looking encouraging, but we mustn't get carried away - remember how far we've fallen, and this current rise is still only small against the huge drops we've had. We're not out of trouble yet.

POW isn't sustainable long-term. It's simpler I suppose than POS which is why POW is how things started out. But just from energy consumption alone POW isn't workable as a long-term solution. Crypto is malleable though, so a coin that is POW at the moment could well switch to POS in future.

When we hit a bull run, most coins will rise, but not all. A lot of price movements for smaller coins can be misleading anyway - take a small coin that trades vs ETH, if it has almost no volume and a price of 0.1 ETH, then if ETH rockets to double the price, then the coin with no volume at 0.1 ETH will effectively have doubled as well.