Originally Posted by
josephstern
I agree with you 100%. And especially if you compare him to plenty of other travel bloggers, he really shines.
Further, if the worst misstep you can think of is the crowdfunding attempt, then I think that shows he's really doing a pretty good job. That's certainly not illegal or even immoral - and given the time and his age, hardly a transgression at all in my book.
I will say that I think he pretty much has to have a support staff, even if they're all part-time remote workers. He never mentions people like bookkeepers, editors, IT managers, etc. anymore. I guess that's fine, but he does leave the impression that he does all of that himself, which seems very, very unlikely.
I don't personally think it was some heinous crime or anything. But the optics of that was always going to be bad: a young guy who almost always (at least in so far as his trip reports suggest) flies J and F, staying in luxury hotels, asking his readers to contribute tens of thousands of dollars so he can fly/review Etihad Residence. But hey, everyone does something dumb when they're young (I've done worse) so hardly going to hold that against him.
My feeling is other than contributing writers, it doesn't make much sense to talk about support staff. I mean, even the accountant that does his taxes is support but it'd be pretty weird to talk about them.