FediTips has moved!May 1, 2022

PSA: The "verified" symbol you see on Twitter etc means absolutely nothing on Mastodon or the Fediverse. On here, symbols like  are just custom emoji that anyone can use and put after their name. Don't be fooled! 😁

There are ways to verify your identity on here, but the  symbol is not one of them.

The easiest way to verify your identity is if you have a website that people already know is yours. You can paste a special code into your website which will verify your address and it will turn green on your Mastodon profile (see here for instructions: https://mstdn.social/@feditips/106274105538953001).

Alternatively, you can set up a server as a subdomain of your known website address. For example, the European union set up their own Mastodon server at https://social.network.europa.eu, and we know it really is the EU because the server address is part of the EU's well-known europa.eu domain.

#MastoTips #FediTips #Mastodon #Fediverse #Verification

Fedi.Tips (@[email protected])

You can (sort of) verify your identity on Mastodon if you own a website. 1. Go to Edit Profile > Appearance > Profile Metadata, add your website address (including https://) to the metadata section. 2. Copy the verification code into your website's code. (The verification code is next to the Metadata section) 3. Click "Save Changes" after you have done all of the above. Your website will then be listed on your profile with a green background and a tick next to it, proving you are the owner.

Mastodon 🐘
Show threadFediTips has moved!May 1, 2022

p.s. If you want to see an example of a verified link on Mastodon, try looking at the profile of @libreoffice

Unfortunately the verified links aren't visible on the official apps yet, so you would need to do this via the website or a third party app.

I've included a screenshot so you can see what I mean.

Show threadn3wjackMay 1, 2022
@feditips when does it check for the verification links? I added the link, but it doesn't show yet, but maybe it takes a while?
Show threadFediTips has moved!May 1, 2022

@n3wjack

Did you add the special verification code into the HTML of your website?

Show threadFediTips has moved!May 1, 2022

@n3wjack

By the way, I'm wondering if the verification might be affected by your Masto link being in a dropdown menu? Maybe it can't "see" the link there?

You could try putting the link into somewhere else where it isn't in a menu. It only has to be there while you do the verification, you can remove it afterwards.

Show threadn3wjack
@feditips Ah, good to know it doesn't have to be there permanently. Thanks!
I'll add it properly and see when it picks it up.
May 1, 2022 at 8:44pmWeb
Show threadFediTips has moved!May 1, 2022

@n3wjack

Yeah, it only has to be there at the moment you click "save changes" within Mastodon. That starts the process of looking at the site and seeing if the rel tag is there.

(You would have to add it back there when you next alter the metadata though, otherwise it won't find the tag.)

Show threadn3wjackMay 1, 2022
@feditips so it should pretty much be instant then if you get it right? I'll have to try something else then, cause it's not picking up the link yet.
Show threadFediTips has moved!May 1, 2022

@n3wjack

Yeah, it works straight away.

One thing that caught me out when I first used it, I did the steps in the wrong order.

You have to put the rel me code into your website, and save/update your own website, and THEN go into Mastodon and save your address in the metadata section. It has to be this way round, because the Masto metadata saving process is what makes it check whether the code is there.

If you put the code on your site after saving the metadata, Masto won't know to check the updated site.

Show threadFediTips has moved!May 1, 2022

@n3wjack

Small update, looks like there is a bug in the rel me code:

https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/issues/18233

rel="me" backlink is not recognized if there are other rel values too · Issue #18233 · mastodon/mastodon

Steps to reproduce the problem add a link to a website to your Mastodon profile metadata on the website, add a backlink to your Mastodon profile with rel="me nofollow" (for example) Expec...

GitHub
Show threadn3wjackMay 2, 2022
@feditips I found the problem. The check found the first link in the menu, and didn't bother looking for the other one in the footer. That one has the rel="me" attribute, but the first one doesn't (because WordPress doesn't allow you to set it).
So I temporarily removed the menu link, saved the page, and then ran the check again. It turned green right away. :)
Thanks for the tips!