some i can answer:
questions from someone new to this coin to others in this discussion thread who've been more closely following it:
could anyone summarise what's special about it?
were basic aspects ready at launch - wallet, blockexplorer, website, whitepaper and/or features, etc. - or is the [ANN] promise-heavy?
>> blockexplorer was there, website was there, they had some issues on the staking
have the devs delivered on their promises?
>> dev has fully fixed the wallet, did 2 updates, afaik... got nice update messages, like a pro
Any hidden problems -
>> checked code, couldnt find any
premines?
>> yes, there were premines, most of it was given away for free in the irc channels using custom giveaway bots. people tried to game the system. so they stopped.
>> they have reserved 400k for the mentelity foundation of snowboardster bibian mentel.
instamines?
>> no instamine. fair chance to get first blocks
well distributed? is there a rich list?
>> i can build that if needed ( a realtime one ). for some donation.
buggy code?
>> no
are these are hard core programmers, not "copy-paste" devs or middlemen? When bugs/fork challenge pop up, are they fixed quickly?
>> fairly quickly. main wallet dev has fulltime job. fixes mostly done within a week.
dev squabbles?
>> lol, whats that
any "proof of developer"? Is the entirte dev team anonymous -- and even if so, does it at least have a solid reputation here on bitcointalk?
>> there are multiple devs who are all knowledgeable. mostly present in the internet business. some of them have own businesses ( company directories, seo company, ebay based businesses, one build a desktop
search engine, like google desktop search on his own.. he used parts of bitcoin code to build it etc )
how i know all this? irc.