1.
I need to know who the developer/creator is.
An anonymous dev is for me a big no go.
99.9% of the time when the dev is anonymous the coin is just being used as a scam or a pump and dump coin.
There is only one coin that I have and I do not know who the creator is and that is Bitcoin.
2.
I must be able to spend the coins in online shops or offline shops and the things that I buy must not be limited.
So I want to be able to buy food, clothes, gifts, gold etc with my altcoin
3.
The community, there must be a big community behind the coin that is active and is putting effort in the coin.
When there is an altcoin and I see only the dev is coming with ideas and the community just stands on the sideline it is a no go.
4.
Development, the coin must on the frontline in regards to development. I must see that the devteam is actively busy with keeping the coin up to date.
That being said that leaves me personally only with 2 coins: Guldencoin and Digibyte
1.1 The devs/creator of Guldencoin are Rijk and with Digibyte Jared, you can search them on linkedin or just search the name of the coin on youtube and see them talking about the coin
2.2 For Guldencoin you can check the timeline of what they have achieved and what you can buy: http://timeline.guldencoin.com/
With Digibyte currently they are busy with adaption of a whole citycenter to accept digibyte as payment. (Check out the newsarticle on their bitcointalk)
3.3 Both communities are active as you can see here on bitcointalk and they take the iniative to pro-active go to merchants and develop tools for their coin.
4.4 Digispeed, Delta, Nocks etc etc
Do not just trust me on my words, investigate these 2 coins yourself
In the altcoin market you have to live by the 10 - 90 rule. 90% of the people here want your btc, 10% believe in other coins. Guldencoin is going to be a success no matter what the scammers and cartels on this cesspit called the altcoin section tell you.
Digibyte also seems interesting but they have a lot of coins.