Originally Posted by
rickair7777
But then I could register as YOU...I can get your cert number off the FAA Db if I know your name. APC would have to get a credit card number to verify your identity.
Another downside is that certain bottom-feeder regional CEO's might want to sue you personally for stuff you say on the internet. If APC has your name, it can get subpoenaed.
If someone was willing to be charged with identity theft then by all means they could. As far as a subpoena goes what for? It's not illegal it's free speech. How many news stories do you read where the person's name "can't be given due to the sensitive nature of the topic" or "because the source close to the government is not suppose to be speaking of it"? That's VERY far fetched.
To the idea of people come here wanting to learn about aviation I agree 100%. It's an easy fix with a few possible options.
You have the forum kept public for the most part with a section made private for authenticated users. The Hangar and other areas could all be kept public where enthusiast, the media, or anyone else in the civil world could post meanwhile the "Major/Regional/Cargo/etc" sections would be in the area for only validated members. Any questions people had about flight training, education, meteorology, purchasing/selling items, general practices and so on could all be kept public for the whole world to read. When people want to talk more specifics about their companies or instances such as the buff accident they could do so in one of the restricted areas without fear of the civil world abusing your rights to free speech to twisting your words against you.
As far as the validation goes it would be a one time process per user. Give it a grace period where people have a month to submit their information so that way they could be verified without losing access or having the wait in line to get into the restricted area. Just ideas guys nothing to lose any sleep over but if it was decided to go that route I'd most certainly help with validation and think it could be done quickly. Make it NASA form style. All members get a generated ID# sent to their email. You send in your license information and include that ID# you were emailed. That license # is verified against the FAA database and the account with that ID# is activated. The people validating the members would never know which names went to which online names so no worries for those not wanting everyone to know who they are.