On: My NSA Records - Submit a FOIA Request or Motion t...

[tsaoutourpants]

Hello, creator of the Web site here. You can click through the contact page to find out more about me, but I've been fighting government invasion of privacy for several years now. I was the top story on HN for about 3 days last year when I posted a video of me beating TSA nude bdy scanners. I want nothing more than to send the NSA and FISA court a million requests for info! :)

[JDGM → tsaoutourpants]

"tsaou...tour pants...???... tsao u to ur pants??? ... ts a out our pan ts... TSA out our pants! Got it!"

PS. In submitting this - your Web page (!!) - I was hoping to get some feedback from wise old HNers as to whether it was legit or not. Though the page out of context seems faintly scam-like ("We will mail your request for FREE!" "We've got a lot of printing and mailing to do, and can only do it with your support!"), it seemed to check out with the other pages on the site and all the information about you so I figured it was fine, but still was interested in what other folks made of it. I wasn't expecting the author himself to be the first to assure people with his previous HN credentials! Great stuff, and keep up the awesome work.

[tsaoutourpants → JDGM]

Thanks for sharing it! If you have any ideas for how to make it seem less sketchy while still conveying that we're going to send a free request for you, let me know!

[JDGM → tsaoutourpants]

Needless to say, it's a little unfair of me to so casually and easily remark "the page out of context seems faintly scam-like" without pinpointing exactly why, and offering "ideas for how to make it seem less sketchy". This kind of thing is also very subjective, anyway! However, in my opinion, it might be an improvement to drop the caps on "FREE" and perhaps the exclamation marks on the two quoted sentences too. The comment around here by "stfu" about the buttons is also interesting, and hadn't even occurred to me, but seems like a good observation.

[tsaoutourpants → JDGM]

No offense taken -- it's good to be skeptical! I've taken your suggestion and un-caps'd and changed some punctuation. :)

[alanh → tsaoutourpants]

Well, the big question for me was, “Why would anyone expect either of these options ever actually work?” and your site does not seem to address this fundamental question.

There are a few little things, too, like the ASCII arrow "bullets" and cheap-feeling graphics, that just make it seem less trustworthy. Contact me if you’d like me to donate a wee bit of time to upgrade your look & feel.

[tsaoutourpants → alanh]

There's a "Why is this important?" link on every page that addresses your question.

If youd like to make graphics to improve the design, I'd be happy to put them up! jon [at] professional-troublemaker.com

[genwin → tsaoutourpants]

Ask for people to tell you if they actually get some good info back. If it happens then put notice of that here on HN. Then I'd be interested.

[tsaoutourpants → genwin]

Why not be interested now, rather than months from now when responses come? It takes about 30 seconds to fill out a request, and it's free.

[stfu → tsaoutourpants]

Great work, I remember the TSA scanner story! Just a thought: Maybe you could change the buttons to look less 2000'ish. That might give off a bit of an odd vibe ;)

[tsaoutourpants → stfu]

Thank you!! Help create new awesome buttons and I'll use them! :)

[grey-area → tsaoutourpants]

Try something like this perhaps:

    <a href="/retrieve/" class="button retrieve">Retrieve</a>
    <style type="text/css" media="screen">
    .button {
    	font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;
    	text-decoration:none;
    	color:#fff;
    	background-color:green;
    	margin:1em;
    	padding:0.5em 1em;
    	font-size:2em;
    	text-transform:uppercase;
    	letter-spacing:0.1em;
    }
    </style>

http://jsfiddle.net/zdYbM/

[alanh → grey-area]

Does feel more modern, but much less clickable. IMO, slight faux 3D effects are still quite helpful on the web

[grey-area → alanh]

Easy enough to add shadows etc with CSS if you like them, but I do think anything (even just text) would be better than the current buttons - at present they make the site look pretty dodgy and home-made - strange how styling can affect our trust.

[ctdonath → tsaoutourpants]

How about a "PDFs of the documents needed so I can file it myself" option? I know that doesn't keep you in the loop as much, but per parent post I'm not clicking otherwise.

[tsaoutourpants → ctdonath]

Basically, you can take the forms that you see when you click one of the two buttons and make a Word doc that looks just like it, then mail to the appropriate place. I don't mind being taken out of the loop -- I just want some guy's desk at the NSA and FISC to be stacked high with papers! :)