This comes off as very defensive and your competitors obviously don't have a long way to catch up with you: Counterparty already has features which you don't intend to have for another 3-6 months. Your attacks just sound ad hominem, and since Mastercoin still has consensus issues and never actually did any testing on testnet, it seems pretty absurd to call their stuff "half baked".
It looks very bad from a PR perspective to be so inflammatory in your "criticisms" of other projects.
I strongly disagree. Ad hominems actually target the person/entity not specific facts relevant to the discussion, to which dacoinminster pointed out.
I strongly disagree about your assessment and the way you see the PR.
As an investor, don't like to see a bunch of softy weasel like pussies in charge of a project. I like to see strong determination and self confidence. I also like to see devs taking charge and calling out cheap copy-cats like Counterparty. This is what investors like to see: leadership, confidence and a clear vision.
Mastercoin, has at the moment, huge advantage over most of the other coins. I actually think it was somewhat a mistake to keep such low profile for these past few months, because many investors got scammed into investing in these 2.0 so called alternatives that won't be going anywhere. This money could have gone into Mastercoin to generate more growth.
The other projects, like Ethereum and others, have taken turns at discrediting Mastercoin in various way a number of times. This has to be addressed heads on, without beating it around the bush. If you don't, they'll walk all over you, taking money that could find a place in Mastercoin. Thank god that institutional investors, like the ones dacoinminster mentioned are not as easily fooled as casual retail investors, that would fork money for any BS that has a bit of glam and no substance.
I guess everyone's entitled to their own opinion, and maybe more people agree with you than with me about how the devs should talk about other projects, I honestly don't know.
As for Counterparty vs. Mastercoin: I am invested in both, and I think the space is big enough that we don't have to pick sides. But calling Counterparty a "copycat" isn't a good criticism, since Mastercoin is open-source (which is very important!) and it's not really about who came up with the ideas first, but who is implementing them more quickly and effectively.
I agree it's very good that Mastercoin has institutional investors, but it's not only about how much money you have backing the project, it's also how many features you have, and Counterparty objectively has more features right now. Actually, you don't want the money to get too far ahead of the project, or else there will be a more drastic reaction if the project fails to make good on what it promises.