Gosh, information (could be news articles, could be music or videos downloaded, could be information on great travel deals) on the internet, freely distributed? Who knew?
Welcome to the problem that the New York Times, Sony Music, and Time-Warner video have faced for years--who owns the information? Once it's published on a public website, what's to stop an information aggregator (in the current state of things, The Points Guy, View from the Wing, Frugal Travel Guy, Mommy Points--but who's to say in the future, it won't be Google itself?) from disseminating the information? Nothing. I mean, the irony of folks who have benefited from information they've learned on the internet complaining about many others learning about the same information, but just from other sources on the internet, is mind blowing.
And, from what I can see, many of the bloggers, such as our wandering friend, FTG, and Gary (before some other board was formed), were (and still are in some instances) leading contributors here. It seems like a chicken-and-egg question: would FT be what it is without the contributions from some of these folks who moved on to do what was a natural evolution of information on the internet? The development of information consolidators whose value was absorbing, digesting, and making accessible information from a ton of sources. And, as many have pointed out, they do make the information accessible. Also, don't flatter yourselves, it's not all information coming from FT. And, from those original consolidators, a second generation, such as Mommy Points, TPG, and Lucky (somewhat hesitant to put Lucky here because despite his age, he's a vet and a pro, but he's young enough that I have to).
There's a lot of work to do to comb these threads. There's little automatic about it. A lot of the bloggers now make money through credit card referrals and other avenues by separating the wheat from the chaff, including from sources like FT.
I'm too lazy to do all that work so I appreciate their efforts. And, guess what, when I go to the blogs, I never see a worthless, whining thread such as this that does nothing to earn me miles and points.