I don't know if it was a scam. What I do think is that Quark was a clever idea badly executed.
Me and a few other guys took over a quark clone (metacoin). We're trying to come with a better execution and focus on innovation.
I don´t mind people disagreeing with the attempt to go for a quick decrease of inflation and I don´t see why it shouldn´t be done in a year or even more instead of 6 months. Fact is that even if it would be 10 years then the main criticism that has been brought to Quark would still apply to every clone and every other crypto: given the fact that crypto is still far away from mainstream every launch gives huge advantages to current miners.
That´s why I think it is not really intelligent to talk about a "badly executed" idea. What matters is if you can get enough creative and powerful people behind you to get your idea going. Every Alt has compared to Bitcoin these problem as it has a good headstart but as long as people are motivated I don´t see why any project with some dozens of supporters can´t be successful in the end.
Good luck to your project anyway!