Dr. Jorge CaballeroFolks dunking on #fedified insist that the "real" way to verify oneself on the fediverse is to buy your own domain name. So, I hereby announce that insulin is free! For details, just visit EIiLiIly.com
It should go without saying that if [#]fedified is triggering, then blocking the tag is better than following it
Note: I removed the link from my profile so as to avoid actual confusion.
If you really want to see if the site exists, you can still visit https://eiiliily.com
Accept purpose.@DataDrivenMD I think it's more that you're trying to port a status hierarchy from one environment to another. The attraction of the fediverse is that to some extent it puts everyone back on a level playing field for a while.
Michael Downey 
@laprice I think you're right, and I can see how some see the verification as a status symbol, but it's not. The events of last week at Twitter offer ample proof of the functional need for actual verification.
Moreover, we've got anti-vaxers and election deniers in nearly every G7 country to disprove the notion that community verification is infallible.
Faith in government institutions is the best (widely accepted) option we have. pre-Nov. 5th Twitter Verification is a proxy for government ID.
@DataDrivenMD Right, I think you're encountering a bit of context collapse though. Twitter verification was a bit murky and opaque and left people unverified who should have been verified under the standards you are describing. I think @danhon has it right in that self-certification ( by orgs running their own instances ) is the way to go.
CDC wants the SG to have an official account? Fire up an instance and have at it.
@laprice @danhon I *generally* agree with this approach, but I can't emphasize this enough— it's very likely that we'll end up with a 2-tiered fediverse. The money and growth will go to the version that adopts community norms & frameworks that enable capitalist pursuits— reputation management and brand integrity are cornerstones.
This will happen regardless of what you, I, or anybody else wants. It's how the world works— a painful lesson I learned while advocating for COVID safety measures.
Steve In Ashland@DataDrivenMD @laprice @danhon the advantage the Fediverse has is that instances and individuals can opt out of participating in the corporate parts of the system. Not really an option on the social media networks that sprang from the head of Plutus.
@steveinashland @laprice @danhon That's a fair and valid point. I hear this, and I wish this were the level of discourse I were having with the fedified naysayers
@DataDrivenMD @danhon
You're definitely right about an at scale fediverse being more commercially oriented. There's going to be some weird interaction between public activitypub servers and regulatory regimes. And unfortunately a few people who set up instances are probably going to get caught up in some fairly dire legal situations before the norms evolve.
You're definitely right about an at scale fediverse being more commercially oriented. There's going to be some weird interaction between public activitypub servers and regulatory regimes. And unfortunately a few people who set up instances are probably going to get caught up in some fairly dire legal situations before the norms evolve.
Bob Jonkman@DataDrivenMD I would say we've had a two-tier internet for a while now. People #SelfHosting and paying for online things, vs. people using the corporate surveillance sites and being the online things that corporations pay for.
The independent #Fediverse isn't new, but it's been completely overshadowed by the big corporations for decades, to the point where many people don't even know it's possible to have your own website.
Dan Hon@laprice @DataDrivenMD yep, you trust cdc.gov? Then trust an account that is at cdc.gov. My proposal for news institutions and others is here: https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/s13e17-a-proposal-for-news-organization-mastodon/
@danhon @laprice Lots of interesting points in that essay. The part about being a lot of work is the big one. It seems trivial instantiate a VM and orchestrate a few containers for those that know what those things even mean (I do). Speaking from experience with the CDC's tech prowess (or lack thereof), the technical barrier to entry is non-trivial.
ArneBab@laprice or they could just link to their website from their account and provide the link back that causes the link to be shown in green. As everyone with a website can. @DataDrivenMD @danhon
@DataDrivenMD Friendly Tip for Newcomers: Learn how this place actually works before telling everyone why they're all wrong and only you are right. #FeDiFiEd
Iron Raptor@downey @DataDrivenMD The social media equivalent of moving into the country and then complaining there are too many farm animals stinking up the place.
@Ironraptor gentrifiers FTL
Robert Thau@downey @DataDrivenMD This is an... odd response to a demonstration that previously established practices are so easily gamed as to be unsuitable for purpose.
Ownership of a domain name proves nothing else about the owner (that they own it, sure, but not who they are otherwise). And control of a web page at that domain proves even less. If the community reacts to hearing that by trying to shoot the messenger... that's not a healthy community.
Siun@downey @DataDrivenMD i am new to mastodon but remember quite clearly in the old Usenet days that folks were expected to listen and learn the culture for at least several weeks before posting let alone rearranging the furniture. Always seemed like good manners to me (though yes I am posting early).
Gina@DataDrivenMD Yeah, verification to a corporate website would be more effective for clearly recognizable websites like npr.org, but there's always risk of look-alike websites. However, that's also a risk for Fedified, at least right now, since it's new and the masses may not feel comfortable trusting your work. Hopefully this will teach more people to verify through multiple means if they can.
@thekat03 They don't have to trust the work. They can literally click on the respective links and see the proof for themselves.
Moreover, those that go out of their way to cast doubt on the work aren't the ones who need the site in the first place. Fedified is not for people that that been on Mastodon for years, it's for those that are willing to give Mastodon a try.
@DataDrivenMD Yes, and if it makes the transition from Twitter to Mastodon easier, I think that's only good. Anyone who distrusts it can ignore it.
j.r / Julian@thekat03 honest question: why should someone trust @DataDrivenMD verifying everything correctly and in making sure that no third party could manipulate the fedified website? IMHO this is quite a lot of trust you need to put on a single authority.
Sam Lanning 
@DataDrivenMD ooh that's a good trick... Maybe verified linked should be case-sensitive 🤔
Дурдомова 
@DataDrivenMD and why should we trust the random guy on the internet to do all the verification job for us instead, then?.......
@sarasapfir People can choose whether or not to trust @DataDrivenMD and Fedified, just as they can choose whether or not they trusted twitter's verification prior to EM breaking it. They can also choose whether or not to trust other forms of verification. Sooner or later, someone else is bound to make their own version of centralized verification, based on whatever process they feel is trustworthy. Nobody has to use these tools, if they don't trust them. It's easy enough to ignore.
Speaking of which... Here is a journalist verification site. Looks like it also works by carrying over verification from Twitter.
https://www.presscheck.org/
Hopefully at some point there will be verification processes that don't rely on Twitter or having edit access on one's own website, so that it's easier for people to find potentially reliable sources of the most current information from others with expertise on the subject.
@thekat03 @sarasapfir @DataDrivenMD but then why are there Twitter expat tutorials just blindly telling about this service without warning about the risks? I think the whole concept of outsourcing the verification part is flawed, if you really care as a user you should go yourself, take a look on the Twitter of a person and if they linked to their Mastodon account. Or encourage users to use decentralised verification like @keyoxide
Lesley Carhart 
@thekat03 @sarasapfir @DataDrivenMD it all feels like much ado about nothing to me. Just yesterday I spoke to a really well known journalist who has no site to put verification code on and is already being faked on here. Your list is a really good solution. Nothing nefarious.
Adam@hacks4pancakes @thekat03 @sarasapfir @DataDrivenMD Time to bring back key-signing parties but add a step where we also post cryptographically signed messages of attestation to our feeds that include relevant public keys, and then we can each collect those attestations on our profiles like Pokemon to demonstrate our bona fides to potential followers. It's so easy! What could go wrong?
TJ Klug @sarasapfir @DataDrivenMD @thekat03 verification is inherently non distributed by nature. We go through verification all of the time. AirBnb is a good example. DMVs etc. I think the first person to go one of those routes and doesn’t allow name changes (or verified name changes) solves the issue. I’d be curious though if anyone has ideas of decentralized identification. When seconds matter to credibility.
ZagTheRaccoon 🦝 (Essayist)@thekat03 @sarasapfir @DataDrivenMD I'm sure your familiar with the concept of systemic pressures and how obviously things that "are easy enough to just ignore" become less so as they amass centralized power.
Paul Misner@DataDrivenMD That is so wonderful that you did this, DOC. I'm going to short sell some stock now.
slimepsychic@DataDrivenMD Your lack experience on the topic has made a terrible mess. Isn't that the behavior that made you come here in the first place?