Just to be clear, Mincoin certainly isn't dead, only the old protocol wallet.
There is an active thread and we are listed on Trade Satoshi with BTC/LTC and DOGE pairings. Join us on freenode in #mincoin if you want to checkout the party. Things are happening and we certainly welcome any enthusiasm. Since there was a protocol upgrade to v70002, the v0.8.8 Mincoin wallet is the only one which has been released since the hard fork. You should be able to launch it and find 8+ nodes very quickly without any customization of the mincoin.conf.
Additionally, the profit-switching pools aren't a problem anymore. Mincoin's SplashGuard is taking care of that for us with a little help from our friends who developed Dark Gravity Wave v3.
Best Regards,
-Chicago