Many many people say they are holding this, holding that for the "long term" but please tell me what exactly is your guys definition of "long term"?
For me, 1 year is considered long time. I began investing this January and I will hold one year and cash out everything January 2019. So by your definition, is this more short term or long term? Is 1 year enough time to see gains?

I consider it long term too and I think if the coin is good you'll definitely see gains after a year. An example of this would be NEO, I don't have NEO on my port but I very active on crypto when it started so I have a little background of it. A friend bought at the rate of $30 to $40 something last year then NEO dropped to less than $30 after that, when NEO rise again he sold it. After a couple of months look at NEO now, I was surprised to see it trading at $100 rate which is really a great gain after just a few months.
Be sure that the coin you are investing is really good so you'll gain profit after a year.