Weekly output: Internet founders in D.C., Tim Berners-Lee at Web Summit, Bluesky account-verification advice

This holiday-shortened week still had a lot of work–just not all the kind that yielded bylines, in some cases not the kind that will yield bylines this year.

11/25/2024: Internet Founders: Open Architectures Are Best, But Big Tech Makes It Difficult, PCMag

As I wrote last week, it’s a treat seeing Internet pioneers speak about how their collective invention has been working out and what we ought to be doing with it.

11/27/2024: The man who gave us the web is building a better digital wallet, Fast Company

My Fast Company editor Harry McCracken asked if I wanted to join him to quiz the inventor of the Web at Web Summit, and I quickly said I’d clear my schedule for that. Like two years ago, Harry asked most of the questions and then wrote up our conversation.

11/29/2024: Real or Imposter? How to Verify That a Bluesky Account Is Legit, PCMag

My inspiration for this how-to came from seeing some bozo try to impersonate Rep. Don Beyer (D.-Va.) on Bluesky, then wondering why my congressman had not domain-verified his account with a house.gov handle, then personally shaming Bay Area Rapid Transit into tweeting its Bluesky handle from its verified X account (BART has since domain-verified its account). My editors then updated the post Sunday with details from posts Friday afternoon by Bluesky’s safety account about how the platform is dealing with this impersonation problem–including a recognition that “users want more ways to verify their identity beyond domain verification.”

#accountImpersonation #Bluesky #domainNameVerification #ProjectLiberty #socialMediaFraud #socialMediaVerification #SteveCrocker #TBL #TimBernersLee #VintCerf #webOfTrust #WebSummit

As the ongoing flight from Twitter has continued, it’s been heartening to see so many familiar names show up on Bluesky, the Twitter alternative that comes closest to replicating what I liked about Twitter when it wasn’t run by a shitposting billionaire with a toxic social-media diet and a victimhood complex.

At least, I think those are familiar names. But because Bluesky’s only equivalent of Twitter’s now-ruined verification system is changing DNS settings to set your domain name as your handle there, I can’t assume that somebody popping up on Bluesky with a username, profile picture and bio matching their Twitter self is actually the same person.

As the newsroom saying goes, “If your mother says she loves you, check it out.”

My first move in those cases is to check the Twitter profile of the person whom I think has jumped into the Bluesky escape pod. If their Twitter display name, bio or pinned tweet shows a Bluesky handle, I’m all set. If it doesn’t, I’ll search their tweets for “bluesky” or “bsky” (the latter being part of a standard Bluesky handle).

If that doesn’t work but I’ve already confirmed that this person is on Mastodon, I’ll check their profile on that federated social network for a Bluesky mention. If that doesn’t yield any confirmation, I’ll check the person’s Web page, blog or author profile.

My last resort is to see who follows this person on Bluesky. And sometimes that works: After seeing somebody who appeared to be the staffer for my Congressman who offers informed and sarcastic commentary on House politics on Twitter surface on Bluesky without mentioning that on the site that Elon Musk has renamed to “X,” I checked the guy’s followers list on Bluesky and saw that my tech-savvy Rep. Don Beyer (D.-Va.) was among them. That seemed good enough for me.

But if you want to make it easy for potential followers on Bluesky, don’t make them do all that research. Tell people how to find you there in some public and obvious way, whether it’s a tweet, an update to your Twitter profile, or an edit to whatever corner of the Web you can rewrite at will. And on that note: Yes, I really am robpegoraro.com on Bluesky.

https://robpegoraro.com/2023/10/19/no-checkmark-no-domain-name-no-problem-other-ways-to-verify-your-bluesky-self/

#Bluesky #BlueskyDomainNameHandle #BlueskyIdentity #BlueskyUser #bsky #socialMediaVerification #TwitterVerification