bim, i understood the not-having-to-identify.....as referring to the poster by the poster.
i don’t care at all if people identify themselves that way or not at an open AA meeting.
i DO care in some other circumstances.
for example: i cared that the person i chose to sponsor me self-identified that way.
and the couple of times i forgot to say it at a meeting, ha! “and who are you???” was shot across the room.
i carried on with what i was saying and later chatted with the person.
they kinda almost stopped glowering
the whole thing was unpleasant.
then again, there have been other times i have specifically gone to a meeting because i experienced a need to say “i am fini and i am an alcoholic” in a room full of mostly strangers.
99% of the time i say it. because it is so, in that very sense in which it is described in the literature that the common solution presented in the meeting was designed for.