ryouiki wrote:Hmm,
baldeagle wrote:That's pitiful. Cmon folks, our liberty is at stake. It costs NOTHING to join. Join now. Please!!!
While interested in joining, I have to wonder if the uptake will be difficult just based on the amount/type of membership the site is asking to provide.
The site is secure and displays an SSL. The only required information on the membership form is name, address, phone number and email address, all of which is readily available to anyone and everyone on the Internet. Everything else is optional. If people don't want me to have basic contact information, then we'll just agree that the Texas Firearms Coalition isn't their type of organization.
ryouiki wrote:Not to sound overly paranoid, but we have a whole set of the population that is quite adverse to the ideal of registration, etc... and unless your specifically going to lie on the forms, asking about CHL status (which is supposedly not shared outside of DPS), along with other personal information tying back to you might make quite a few nervous.
As noted, that information isn't required, it's optional. Texas law prohibits DPS from releasing CHL information to anyone outside a criminal justice agency. There's no prohibition on asking people to voluntarily disclose this information. When you reference the DPS with the phrase "which is supposedly not shared outside of DPS" I think this does display a certain level of paranoia. DPS is expressly prevented from disclosing this information by Texas law; it's not a DPS rule or a simply departmental policy.
ryouiki wrote:Pair that with no visible privacy policy that I can find... I think it might be a hard sell for people that think twice about handing out personal information (as much as they are being attacked nowadays, firearm owners are starting to think carefully about who they share information with).
You're right, I didn't put a privacy statement on the site. They are meaningless; you either trust the organization or you don't. I have posted that I will never sell or share email addresses and people are free to accept that or not.
ryouiki wrote:At the very least the CHL/NRA questions should default not "Not Specified" or something that is neither a "yes/no" answer.
I'm glad you pointed this out because it let me see an oversight. The question about NRA membership has three possible responses -- yes, no, or leave blank. The same was to hold true for CHL status, but the blank apparently wasn't included. I've added the blank to the CHL question and changed the format so both the NRA and CHL questions default to blank.
ryouiki wrote:It may also be useful to know where the site itself is hosted... would be a shame if your backend provider is actually in a non-free state like NY/CA/IL etc. (seems this one is indicating somewhere in Arizona).
You bring up what you believe to be security issues, then expect me to disclose the location of the server?
I presume you read the numbers I posted about licenses, gun owners, etc. With those numbers less than 40,000 are TSRA members and somewhere around 350,000 are NRA members. This is apathy pure and simple. People are either unconcerned, unaware, or unwilling to get involved. They aren't failing to join the NRA because of information requested on the membership application. Don't misunderstand this statement, the NRA is growing at a record-breaking rate, but the majority of gun owners nationwide and here in Texas still aren't joining and aren't getting involved. The sad fact is the vast majority of people are willing to let "someone else" do the work.
You obviously have concerns about disclosing basic contact information, so you shouldn't join. In fact, I don't want you to join so please don't! If someone gets your contact information from an Internet search engine, or other personal information from one of the dozens of Internet providers like Public Data, I don't want you having the slightest suspicion that I disclosed your information to anyone. I'm not being spiteful or resentful, I seriously don't want anyone joining TFC if they have security concerns about me or the organization.
Chas.
