9. Marketing & PR: how serious are they?
- Is there a professional whitepaper?
- Is the whitepaper free from spelling and grammar errors?
- How in-depth is the whitepaper's description and outline of the technology?
- Is there a professionally developed website?
- Does the website include a comprehensive ICO FAQ?
- Does the website list the company's physical address?
- Is there professional presence on top social media platforms (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn)?
- Do team members include the project on their LinkedIn profiles?
- Is there an official presence on Telegram?
- Is the Telegram channel active and growing?
- Do the Telegram admins have regular access to key team members for questions?
- Is there an official presence on Slack, Rocketchat, Gitter?
- Does the project have an announcement (ANN) thread on BitcoinTalk?
- Does the company report progress on a regular basis?
- How is customer service and tech support on the project's social media accounts?
- Is the ICO listed on top ICO ratings websites?
There's a few things I'd alter here with regards to Telegram/BitcoinTalk etc.
1) Do the admins respond to users concerns (on Telegram, for instance)?
2) Do they have a Discord community? (I find Discord, personally, to be a better and more thorough platform for team members communicating what's going on. Everyone just talks past one another on Telegram I find, and people focus far too much on the 'pinned' posts - people basically reading what the admns want them to).
3) Check the ANN thread on BitcoinTalk. Look for the following signs which raise suspicion:
Do a lot of the positive posts come from new accounts with relatively few posts? This is common on spam projects. Often reputable members post saying if something's dubious and could be a scam. Members with 400,500,600+ posts should be regarded in higher esteem with respect to what they are saying about a project.
Are posts being deleted? Sure sign of a scam (people will often quote their own posts with a copy of their deleted post - before it gets deleted - as they are probably mentioning that it is a scam)
Is the thread overly focused on bounties? Again, likely sign of a scam.