presenting it as a joke allowed a few initial insiders to get a massive amount of coins stockpiled. This is a pump and dump. If it wasn't intentionally MEANT as such then it became one by accident, I still wouldn't want to be left holding the bag. I do mine it... and immediately sell for BTC
if you read the background on the coin and how it started, it was meant purely as a joke. the developer was making fun of all the altcoins that were out there that were pump and dumps.. he made a meme out of it.. it became popular purely by accident, and it's popularity exploded. It happened at the right time also, such as when bitcoin became prevalent in the news when it hit $1200 back in November. People were looking into bitcoins and seeing that they couldn't afford it, and saw doge, which had just started which at the time was at it's peak (relatively) and so they saw an easy entry not understanding much about altcoins. a month later (maybe) it hit bottom, but then started climbing again when it received more publicity especially since the people started using it to donate to each other and the Jamaican bobsled team... it started to catch on and went from being a joke coin to something of emotional value (relatively..). i.e. "if I donate dogecoin for good cause, I must be good also" .. or some other such nonsense.
bottom line, it wasn't started as a scamcoin, but as a jokecoin to make fun of all the scamcoins. it wasn't premined or ipo or anything else along the line because it was just meant to poke fun at all the crypto coins and scam coins. That's why it had such a good initial launch...they weren't trying to deceive anyone nor trying to make money, they were just having fun... but make money it did make them (yoda speak?)
and it did make me a lot of money also.. The only coin that has any value, are bitcoins, because those coins are the only one that can be turned into fiat currency without having to jump through hoops.. relatively speaking.. everything else is just an intermediary so that I can get bitcoins and convert them over to dollars when necessary.
and i'm rambling on to much..
I mine and dump .. that's all I do.. i'm not holding onto any altcoins at all, I sell immediately. I only hold onto bitcoins and litecoins... litecoins I only hold onto until there is a favorable conversion rate to bitcoins.