I just stumbled upon this thread today, and am a little disappointed by Tapatalk being shot down. Not really sure how it would be considered opening up your database to a 3rd party. In all honesty, it's a public forum and anything said on here is fair game to be duplicated at any time. After all, there are plenty of cached versions available on Google as an example. It's not like we're asking for API's to any kind of mission critical or confidential information here, just forum posts.
I realize this is FT's forum and they're free to do what ever they want with it, but ultimately you should consider what the people want. If people want Tapatalk and you don't budge, they may move on.
But I don't expect to change any minds here. It's almost been two years and no further considerations.
Just my 2c.