I can imagine that airdrop doesn't have to be viewed as scam per se, depends how transparent it is and how many coins DEVs will keep for themselves etc.

If I receive a coin free, I have a hard time calling it a scam coin. How in hell can I be scammed that way

SCAM is a too common word here.

it depend, some give you free coin, but want your information, like facebook or register on their forum to see your ip and then do a ddos attack or hack your computer, so be aware, free coin don't means not scam

So the general consensus is that giving away coins is a fair method of distribution as long as the method is honest and transparent.

Pretty straight forward. You can't have a "scam" as they say.... without someone losing funds to some kind of trickery.
Some people seem to have an unusual definition of "scam" though so... there is always that.

It still seems that PoW distribution is still the most respected. Even with some premine for development and giveaways.
And on the other end an ICO distribution seems to be the most likely to end in the "Scam" accusation.

I know this all seems obvious to many. I am just checking the climate....

A coin that is 90% pre-mined, has a self moderated ANN thread and for some reason called their signature campaign "airdrop", creating dozens of signature shills?

Doesn't sound suspicious at all indeed

Free coins are... free. Why scam?
                                                         
You can call it scam if you buy it and it goes wrong

So it's pretty clear that if the developer is creating fake accounts and routing a vast majority of the airdrop coins to himself - that would be bad. Scam.
If the dev goes through the process of getting the coin listed on an exchange and dumps all his coins and never develops the project in any way. Scam.
Or if the dev says he is giving away coins to a signature campaign but somehow conveniently skips a whole bunch of people and keeps the coins. Scam.

Or even worse a combination of the three!

Although in neither case does anyone lose any money since the coins were free. But if time = money.... well shit!
Unless you happen to sell before hell breaks loose. Ahhh the games we play here!

Would be cool if someone wrote an algo that could asses scamminess. Quantify it and put it in graphical form based on amount of negative posts and who is posting them.

I want to be clear -- "scam" is thrown around towards every project these days and I think it's massively overused. We are grownups and know that not all these projects are what they appear. That is the nature of the industry and part of the risk we take. No different than investing in traditional stocks as well.

I would be a bit more pissed though if I bought into an ICO and the price dropped 80 percent within weeks. As compared to a free distribution model that went wrong.
It's weird though because that happens to some degree in the stock market when IPOs open and then start trading for half or less than their IPO price. This has happened to many major companies over the years.

The word "scam" is a highly misused word nowadays. Some people fell for it, their definition for it is displaced. Too much conspiracy theory might be the cause behind their mind. It might be because of some experiences or fears that they have since early in their lives. They have lost sense of what's real and what's imaginary in some things. Sometimes they believe they're always right and others are wrong. That's why it's easy for them to be one-sided, and that's being less open-minded. These people need help. They're always afraid. They think everything or most things given for free are baits or traps. Though it is important to be always on alert, don't over-do it; lest you will find yourself looking or doing exactly like the very thing you're accusing others of.

People call anything where they don't making money right away a scam
But if they get free money instantly it's good there just misusing the word because of there greed