Torn between sharing and protecting

I really appreciate it when people share great tips and resources. That's what makes a good forum, after all.

But when it comes to sharing high-ranking pages for posting backlinks and other promotional resources I often wonder what's the greater good:

1. Sharing for one and all?

2. Protecting the resource for the few?

Just look at what's happened to Angela's link packets. Many of the sites are ruined for the rest of us by the inevitable spammers. Some of these people are just naive but many others don't give a damn.

There's another example right here in the forum today. A big-hearted warrior has publicized two relatively unknown but high-ranking sites where we can post backlinks. But others have noted that these sites are already getting spammed by marketers.

Countless other sites that used to be gems for careful marketers have had to go "nofollow".

A couple years ago I discovered an article site that was unkown to marketers. It was a great resource because the journalistic standards were high (probably because it was unknown to marketers) and there were no backlink restrictions.

That site, like so many others, is now much more restrictive and it takes forever to get work approved (instead of just hours previously).

I have to wonder: is this because I reported on this site here in the WF? Did it start getting swamped with low quality/overly-promotional marketing junk?

I hate to say it but I have to think twice now about sharing some things. Too many good things get trashed and when that happens everybody loses. So what do you do... ensure that a small number of people can benefit or risk all?

I'll always give things away to people I trust but I'm afraid to say that doesn't always apply to the marketing masses.