Is this a fork of bytecoin?
Not directly. It is a fork of Monero, as stated in the OP. Monero is, in turn, a fork of Bytecoin (technically a fork of Bitmonero which was a fork of Bytecoin)
How come it's not traded on Poloniex?
Interest in the coin waned for a while when the original developer quit. Volume dwindled and Poloniex delisted it. They still have it in their system, have a wallet running, and people are able to hold coins there and withdraw, but not trade. Perhaps if there is sufficient interest from the community they will reactivate trading. Perhaps you could send them a polite note asking for this.
In the meantime, for trading please visit Bittrex or the OTC thread.
Also why would you pick this over monero or even bytecoin?
Bytecoin has its own issues, that make it a good idea to stay away from. See here:
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/blowing-the-lid-off-the-cryptonotebytecoin-scam-with-the-exception-of-monero-740112As for Monero, the main difference is that this coin is more experimental and pursuing a particular focus on mobile and lower-power mainstream systems. On the other hand, Monero is a larger project with a much larger team, more people working on it and its own set of goals. See here:
https://getmonero.org/design-goalsPersonally I like both, but different strokes for different folks, ya know?
