I agree here. But the problem is that a lot of the advice that is getting thrown around is mainly regurgitated stuff. You have guys that are giving advice to applicants when they themselves are either in the same boat (applying), failed a previous cycle, or gained 1 acceptance out of 30 applications. No offense to them, but it's perfectly understandable if the person reads their posts, checks their mdapps, and realizes "Hey, this guy applied to 30 schools, got 2 interviews and 1 acceptance off the waitlist, why would I take advice from him when he barely made it in?". It's kind of like taking interview advice from guys that have had 10 interviews that ended up with 1 rejection and 9 waitlists. Obviously that guy isn't the best person to listen to. But if he is giving regurgitated advice, then I guess it's ok?
And of course many people say that all you need is 1 acceptance, while that is true, if you only manage to get 1 acceptance out of 30+ applications, then I'd base that success on luck rather than having the actual knowledge to know what it takes to make a good application.
With that said, since I'm applying this cycle, I don't mind who the advice comes from, as long as it seems like good advice. Heck I've even given out advice myself about smaller things that I have experience with. Though I have to admit, those who have shown past success are more likely to better keep my attention.
P.S. The WAMC forum is the perfect example. There is a guy in there I think named trgpremed or something. And no offense to him, but I saw him giving advice on there for the longest time as if he was an adcom or something. Then one day I found out he hasn't applied to med school yet and I was shocked beyond belief that someone who hasn't applied yet would be dishing out such extreme advice to potential applicants (no offense to trgpremed, just my thoughts).