FediTips has moved!Apr 27, 2022

For new people wondering why Mastodon is on thousands of servers instead of one:

-It helps protect us all against Elon Musk scenarios. It's very difficult for anyone to buy a network made of thousands of independently owned servers. (It's the same reason why no one owns the world's email network, because there are so many independent providers out there.)

-If your server misbehaves (or sells out to a malevolent billionaire), you can move your account to a different server, or even to a brand new server. Decentralisation means you're never trapped on a site you hate.

-Mastodon is an open platform where anyone can start their own server, and they don't need tech knowledge if they use a service like https://masto.host or https://federation.spacebear.ee

...and there are lots more good reasons too, to do with servers using alternative Fediverse software etc, but I'll save that for a future post 😁

#MastoTips #Mastodon #FediTips #Fediverse

Masto.host - Fully Managed Mastodon Hosting

Masto.host was built from the ground up to make running a Mastodon instance easy.

Masto.host
Show threadtyphoon
@feditips I am new here and like the idea of de-centralization but I saw a huge problem comparing to centralized one and curious how can I solve it, I saw a lot of fake company accounts ( ie: TechCrunch ) and those accounts are sharing fake links which directly affected my opinion on credibility of the environment. If the rea TechCrunch joins mastodon how will I know that they are real one ?
Apr 27, 2022 at 4:24pmWeb
Show threadFediTips has moved!Apr 27, 2022

@typhoon

There are a few methods for verifying identity, the easiest one is if a company hosts its own instance.

If you look at the full address of an account, the last part tells you which server it is on. This can prove whether it's official.

For example the European Union has an account at @EU_Commission which is on the europa.eu domain owned by the EU. This proves it is an official EU account.

Another alternative is to add a special code to your own website which proves that you own a specific account. This will cause your website address to turn green, verifying that you own the site, which in turn verifies your identity.

For example the Tor Project at @torproject has verified that it owns torproject.org, which is the official Tor Project site, so the account is also official.

Show threadFediTips has moved!Apr 27, 2022

@typhoon

If TechCrunch joined Mastodon, I would expect them to either set up their own server at techcrunch.com or verify their website address as techcrunch.com, or both.

This would show they are the real account and not a fake.

Show threadFediTips has moved!Apr 27, 2022

@typhoon

You can verify your ownership of a website by going to Edit Profile > Profile Metadata, add your website address, copy the verification code and paste it into your website's page code, then click "Save Changes" on Mastodon.

Your website address will appear on your profile and it will be green to verify you own it.

Show threadtyphoonApr 27, 2022
@feditips Thanks for the answers! I hope the real TechCrunch joins to this platform soon.