otw_news | Thanks To Everyone!

Thanks to everyone who participated in the OTW's recent membership drive: by posting about the drive or about the org, by sharing one of our awesome lolcats, and most especially by donating. It will take a few days for the last promised donations to clear, and then your humble DevMem team will take a few days off to decompress, but we hope to post soon with some nifty statistics and graphics so that you can share our glee.

A few folks contacted us late in the drive to say, "I'm not able to donate now, but I hope to have the money to donate sometime soon -- can I still donate after the drive is over?" The answer is yes! Our formal March 2009 membership drive has ended, which means we'll stop proclaiming the awesomeness of the OTW quite so loudly from the rooftops, but you can support the OTW with a donation at any time.

Thanks for being a part of the OTW!

The Development/Membership Committee of the OTW: Carla, Elizabeth, Ignaz, Monica, Rachel, Shoshanna, and Vera

Mirrored from an original post on the OTW Blog.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

lol, frances, I do trust that no one in OTW is deliberately going to sit down, and try to make connections between your members RL name and their fannish nickname.
however, as someone, who is running 3 yahoo groups, and several LJ communities (some with up to 12,000 members), I can assure you, nothing is more easier than to make a connection once you have that certain fan's RL name, and lets say, their email address.
because I bet with you, in at least 50% of all cases, part or their entire email contact address , even the ones linked to their RL bank or paypal accounts, are having their fannish nickname in it.
lets say, their fannish (on LJ and elsewhere in other forums) name is janedoe5000. Their RL name however Marie Mueller.
BUT, their contact address that they give out everywhere, including but not limited to OTW; paypal, and amazon and ebay, and is linked to their RLname, is lalala, janedoe5000@gmail.com .
the connection is not hard to make, right *g* ?

its not me trying to ridicule the OTW's security or the ethics of the people like you who are helping to run it, but its merely both my fannish and RL experiences, that tells me, in this age and decade of the net, there ain't such a thing as "no connection".
and most fans are a combination of carelessness and obviousness.
Until they get the FBI in front of their doors. and I did not make that FBI part up, nor are we talking about illegal file sharing.
it did happened a couple of years ago.
Just a girl, who talked about in a not flattering way about former Pres. Bush in her LJ entries, and thought, land of free speech and such, right?
well, seems like after 9/11, it was not quite that safe to talk freely, even in your own blog.
she got a visit, and an FBI file on her.

Thanks To Everyone!

nobody in OTW can make a connection