I've always liked the idea of having some discussion private between "validated" pilots. Of course some pilot forums require a copy of the cert. to join....along with some cash.

We created APC as a free community resource and have no plans to change that. And there is the rub - the manpower required to verify participants goes well beyond what's reasonably expected of a volunteer's time.

APC is a pilot community resource, and like a union, it sometimes requires some volunteer effort to become/remain the resource everyone wants it to be.