XC's dev was a scammer from the start on... there were lots of people warned about that coin since when he started pumping it... always check their history because Bitcointalk gets a backup on the other website - https://bitcointa.lk anything which was deleted is still visible there.
Best advice yet. Nowadays people have seen that there is very little oversight so they can use their real names to scam you because nothing will happen to them. You are all being given a false sense of security that is worthless.
Here's what i look for, honesty, development activity, consistency , clear cut technical understanding and achievable goals. While 6 months may be long since we all like to get in early, i think that you can/should mine early, then decide whether to dump on the first pump or not based on the above criteria.