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#ThisIsWhatTwitterIsDoingButIMadeItAMeme #meme #fedi #TwitterVerification #XVerification

Getting verified by Bluesky: a surprisingly easy process, no ID upload needed

My Bluesky account now has one thing in common with my pre-2023 Twitter account: a white checkmark inside a blue circle. But unlike the social-media status symbol that I’d spent a couple of weeks in 2014 lightly working the refs at Twitter to get, this one required no ongoing effort on my part and probably wasn’t necessary anyway.

That last part is because I had taken advantage of Bluesky’s domain name-based verification two years ago, after figuring out some wonkiness with WordPress.com domain registrations. That was an easy choice, since converting my Bluesky handle to @robpegoraro.com tied my identity there to a site at which I’ve been writing since the spring of 2011.

But I recognized how a domain-rooted verification regime could break in practice. What if an attacker registered a first name-last name domain to try to con a widely-followed journalist? What if somebody registered a domain name through Bluesky’s option to do that and then had that domain name only point to their own Bluesky profile?

So when Bluesky introduced a decentralized verification system in April, including the option of having a “trusted verifier” organization vouch for your account, I had to try it out. And by “had,” I mean I set it aside for the next month and change until my journalist pal Dwight Silverman, the Houston Chronicle’s longstanding tech columnist, got verified about three weeks ago.

That spurred me to fill out the Google Docs form for Bluesky verification. The form noted that Bluesky management reserved the right to require ID-based verification “at a later date” via an unspecified form of document and outlined such requirements as having an account representing “a real person, registered business, organization, or legitimate entity” and being ranked as “notable within your field and geographic region.”

After I selected “Journalist/News Organization” from an opening list of “Verification Categories,” the form requested my role at my publication, the address of that news organization’s site, and links to three recent stories under my byline. (I leaned on my PCMag affiliation for this part.) An essay-question screen invited up to 500 words of self-promotional copy, which I provided with an elevator-pitch version of my LinkedIn profile.

Twenty-two days later, a “Welcome to Bluesky Verification!” e-mail landed in my inbox. That Monday-evening message brought the heartwarming news that “you are notable and that we’ve confirmed you are who you claim to be, helping other users find and trust your account on the Bluesky app.”

It further advised that I should “avoid changing account names or handles,” not let my account go dormant for too long (no risk!), and refrain from violating Bluesky’s community guidelines.

I can live with all that. I also appreciate that this is the first verification badge which I’ve picked up on social media after playing strictly by a platform’s rules: My Twitter verification started with an IRL chat with a Twitter employee at a journalism conference in 2014, while somebody at Facebook verified my now-deprecated public page without me asking.

I got no such favor at Instagram, and seeing that platform ignore my reports of an obvious impostor has left me exceedingly uninterested in paying for “Meta Verification.” Which means my checkmark at Bluesky may be my only official social-media validation for some time to come, and I’m okay with that.

#authentication #bluecheck #Bluesky #BlueskyVerification #bsky #checkmark #domainNameVerification #FacebookVerification #socialMedia #TwitterVerification #validation #verification #verified

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

Twitter is becoming sort of classist, separating those who pay for Twitter verification from those who don't. The blue checkmark on Twitter means nothing other than you're part of the club. Pretty soon Twitter may only consist of people with blue checkmarks, because they are the ones blindly going along with Elon Musk's shenanigans.

https://www.androidpolice.com/twitter-blue-direct-message-spam/

#twitter #twitterblue #elonmusk #twitterverification #spam #socialmedia #technology

Ep 292 AirTags for Everyone
https://edtechsr.com/2023/05/08/edtechsr-ep-292-airtags-for-everyone/

@neif & @wfryer discuss #AI #Grammarly #MrReindeer #ArtificialIntelligence #Canny #SummarizeTech #Ethics #Privacy #GenerativeAI #Ebooks #PhysicalBooks #AirTag #SmartThermostats #TwitterVerification #SyntheticVoices #MindReading #RickSteves #AudioTours #ChatGPT #edtech #MediaLit #TechCorrection #BigTech & more!

#TheMetalDogArticleList
#Loudwire
Drummer Mike Portnoy Says He's Leaving Twitter - 'I'm Not Making Any Sort of Political Statement'
Yet it's 'time to bounce from here,' he adds.

https://loudwire.com/mike-porntoy-twitter-blue-check-leaving-drummer/

#MikePortnoy #TwitterBlueCheck #TwitterVerification #VeteranDrummer #FarewellToBluescCheck

🎶 Where have all the tweeters gone?
🎵 Long time passing
🎶 Where have all the tweeters gone?
🎵 Not long ago

🎶 Where have all the tweeters gone?
🎵 Moved on
🎶 To #Mastodon
🎵 When will Elon ever learn?
🎶 When will Elon ever learn?

🎶 Where have all the #BlueChecks gone?
🎵 Long time passing
🎶 Where have all the #BlueTicks gone?
🎵 Not long ago

🎶 Where have all the #BlueChecks gone?
🎵 Moved on
🎶 To Mastodon
🎵 When will Elon ever learn?
🎶 When will Elon ever learn?

(Sung to the tune of "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" by #TheKingstonTrio.)
https://youtu.be/9hxg3B-1OsA

#MastodonMigration #TwitterMigration #TwitterBlue #BlueCheckMarks #Verified #TwitterExodus #TwitterExit #TwitterFail #TwitterBlueCheck #TwitterVerified #Elon #Musk #ElonMusk #TwitterVerification #Twitter #Newbies #NewHereFromTwitter

Medienhäuser können jetzt Haltung zeigen und bewusst gänzlich auf das sinnbefreite #TwitterVerified Zeichen verzichten.

#twitter #twitterverification