The OP makes the same assumptions that many alleged TSA screeners make when they post here; they assume that critics of this un-American organization do not complain thru other channels. I have no idea why posters make such baseless assumptions, but they do. With regularity.

I use this forum as a sounding board - I routinely get PMs from other Flyertalkers telling me that they agree or disagree and oftentimes, WHY they feel the way they do. Based on that feedback, I'm able to modify my rants when I communicate them to the TSA.

I've written letters and emails to the TSA above my real name. I suspect that the TSA (if they used their freakin' brains at all) could connect my Flyertalk username with my real identity. Perhaps they have.

Neither the OP nor anyone else here is entitled to my real identity:

http://flyertalk.com/help/rules.php#q70

Despite the literal language of this rule, I do not advocate that this thread be removed. I just don't understand why the OP requests that Flyertalkers identify themselves here.

I think the OP is a TSA investigator trying to get certain posters to voluntarily expose their identities therefore bypassing Privacy Act issues......

oh, wait...I forgot the TSA is exempt for the Privacy Act...so, go ahead and put your names out there! Get ready for full cavity searches.....

I don't see the link between posting to an internet bulletin board with a user name and writing your elected official using your real name. I choose to write to my elected officials using my real name and address. I fill out my TSA complaint forms using my real name and contact information. As Dovster is neither my elected representative nor the person processing the TSA complaint forms he is entitled to nothing more than my user name. And no amount of grandstanding and pontification on his part will ever change that.

I am neither entitled to know your real identities nor have I asked you for them.

I repeat, however, that anonymous protests are extremely ineffective. If I felt as strongly about an issue as some of the posters on this forum do, I would do everything possible to have it changed -- and that includes identifying myself publicly with my opinions and actions.

The OP is a longtime member of Flyertalk, an active participant in Flyertalk gatherings and a welcome, centric voice in various debates - I can assure you he is not a representative of the TSA.

Having said that, I doubt a public Internet board is the correct channel to divulge one's identity. What if rogue screeners gathered our real names, went to one of the many online sources of public information, got our personal contact information and addresses and began a campaign of harassment - or worse?

We should be up front about our identities when communicating with our legal representatives and through direct contact with TSA management, or other official communications, but not on a public Internet bulletin board - it's simply unsafe to do so.

Quite a few of FT's "colonists" have identified themselves here, by posting links to their letters to the editor, op-eds, academic papers, and news stories of their very public protests w/r/t the Kippie bag nonsense, ID hassle, BP generator-cum-FBI visit, etc.

Here's a useful suggestion: Dust off and deploy that old habit of diligent fact-checking to find counter-factuals of what you're asserting BEFORE you post. Your case will be stronger if you do. (Of course, you may also find you haven't a very good case at all, which means generating a new thesis. Yes, I know it's hard work, but ... )

Pseudonyms, of course, can serve multiple useful functions; anonymity, namely, being one of the most beneficial. (Besides, wasn't the point of the original thesis here to discredit the idea of posting behind pseudonyms?)

Then, what's the motivation to start yet another thread under your own handle, Dovster?

"Let's face facts," eh? Dicta.


Opinion duly noted.

But feel free to complain again. We allow that in this forum.

As you know, it would be a major TOS violation for me to post under any other name -- yet I did provide both my full name and address in the first post of this thread.

My hero
 

Spare me killer! As someone who......
1. Served my country for 20 years,
2. Has written to my Congressman,
3. Has contributed to: Jan. 30, 2008 Donation To Coalition for an Airline Passengers Bill of Rights Completed

.......let me take a moment and tell you that you are apparently clueless as to what putting yourself at risk really means, and your post is the worst kind of hypocrisy as you hide behind your own keyboard while accusing others of cowardice for precisely the same actions. My hero indeed!

Please tell me how I am hiding behind my keyboard or anything else. I started this thread with my full name and address.

(Indeed, it is not the first time I have made this public knowledge on FlyerTalk. On one occasion, an FTer who I had never met or had any off-the-board contact with, surprised me by showing up at my house.)

Then you are a very slow learner. :eek:

Well thanks for your concern. :rolleyes: Considering that you claim not to have a dog in this hunt, maybe you could be a little more diplomatic with your help? ;)

Or just get out of the hunt and allow those of us with dogs to continue ???

You failed to comprehend what you quoted. Try re-reading it in context, noting *carefully* what it references.

More interestingly, that has much less meaning for me than does "Dovster", a FlyerTalker since July 2003, with 23,240 posts.

I don't know that dude in Israel from Adam. @:-)

All my legislative correspondence goes out over my real name. Posts to the TSA "blog" are anonymous since the comments stand by themselves and I don't care to spend the time to register.

Dov is probably too polite to say, but you are really barking up the wrong tree here.