An old saying goes "Never Assume anything, because you end up making an ass of u and me".
So in this case, don't assume it's a dead coin if the creator is still talking and giving updates, had he not said anything sure go ahead and speculate, but remember you only rally certain kinds of people who would turn on you in an instant as fast as you turn on anything.
He has gained 0 from this so far and the rationale is of this.
First, The hashing power was that of 300-500MH/s combined networks. Most people only pointed it for the first few super blocks such as the 3x reward and I guess currently still 2x reward. So did you really lose that much by sacrificing a few day's hashing? Are you doing this for a living? I cannot see anyone at the moment fully sustaining themselves off any altcoin mining at the moment and my definition of sustain means you have made the equivalence of a year's pay cheque of your normal job after you've paid off all the cost of start up and if you did go balls in and have lived off just solely mining for the past +2 years.
Secondly, if you are trying to find a way to live off this and with that said poured a few thousand KH/s you had put into this and expected to dump day 1 on an exchange I can understand your trying to pay off whatever you spent ASAP, but you have to understand there is something in business called RISK. Not just a board game, but a real life concept and reality you encounter doing this as a vehicle of investment. Just like real life if you invest in anything you expect it to go to the moon (see Gold Prices) I remember there was this time, I can't remember the metal specifically, but it was rocketing sky high suddenly one day. People were buying like crazy and there was no real reason at the time why it was when the old adage of nothing last forever it crashed and crashed hard. Turns out the Canadian Government (we're not angels) had massive holdings in that particular metal during the war and then decided to dump after the war as people were flocking in thinking it was going to the moon leaving them holding the bag and sending it even further down. Point and case, everything you put investment towards has RISK and if you can't be a man about losing it's not a game you should play indefinitely. Don't forget the thing about BitCoins initially was it was just "for fun" then people took it extremely serious and started offering more accepted services which hyped it up even more. Also keep in mind that these so called "rich guys" have either made their money already or they come from money and they are putting money they can afford to lose towards a bundle of investments not just one because not all of them yield fruit. They don't get rich over night, they just become slightly richer or say meh and move on.
Thirdly, those who were addressing these guys made off like bandits. Great, good job whatever helps you sleep at night or circumvent blame because you lost a few days of mining. If you look at it realistically where is batcoin accepted or traded? They are theoretical billionares from you saps because they dumped their billions into LTC or BTC before it was even openly traded. Use your head for once and before jumping to conclusion ask yourself who is accepting the other end of the payment? From the order book (The google sheet) I saw it was all sellers and much like a nightmare for any trader looking at his Lvl 2 and seeing there is no bids on a 0.001 price stock you know your stuck with what you have until someone comes in and actually buy's what your selling. There has to be a buyer for you selling it's simple as that. There was no exchange and even that no buyers, you don't just get food because it magically appears from nothing or you threw a bunch of rinds at the concrete wall.
If you want to have some or inspire some reasonable doubt albeit engage in this foreign concept called "debating", something that ideally why forums were invented for, do it rationally and don't come off going like, "HURR DERRR THESE GUYS SCAMMED ME TEN MILLION DOLLARS, NVR MINING AGUN". I'll admit some coins I encounter have been established for some months and despite being listed and community backed for some reason have 0 support technically in their threads for people coming in whether it'd be just asking for some nodes because the OP failed to update his first post or asking why they can't mine because of "x" reason. Also lastly, you don't have to keep mining it up or down, but give some reasonable time in between particular problems such as this and THEN give reason.
Don't strap yourself with duct tape on a computer chair propelling yourself by firing a mac10 down a flight of stairs. Just saying.