Mr. Barrott - I see your point, up to a certain level. "Crowd sourcing" can - and has in TIGHAR's case - yielded new information, clues, avenues of research, etc.
But where does the fodder, the fuel, for all of that crowd sourcing information come from? Where do the photos come from, the documents, the sonar images, the plethora of raw material? I readily grant you that some of it comes from non-TIGHAR or non-forum members, through the readily available but sometimes obscure medium knows as the World Wide Web.
At the end of the day, however, the bulk of the most relevant material comes from TIGHAR, which as an organization has gathered information based, in part on the contributions of its members. How did Ric Gillespie and Jeff Glickman just get to New Zealand to copy a potential treasure trove of 1938 photographs of Gardner Island? TIGHAR members sent them. Sure, we could have gone the crowd-funding route; I venture to say if we had, the photos would still be sitting untouched in New Zealand. TIGHAR made a decision that it was important to get the information now, so that analysis could start.
Talk is cheap. Answers, real, substantive answers, can be expensive. I firmly believe that The People Will Find Amelia. To do that takes time, money, and a lot of hard work by dedicated people all over the globe. That is one reason I am a TIGHAR member of longstanding. Care to join us? I promise you, it'll be one heck of a ride.
LTM, who is waiting patiently on the experts,
Monty Fowler, TIGHAR No. 2189 CER