Anyone familiar with the way Mastodon handles verifying URLs? At the Washington Post we're working on adding verified rel="me" and Mastodon links in our author profiles, but we're seeing mixed results on verification actually going through. It seems non-deterministic(?)

@dylan (me): works
@jeremybmerrill: does not work even though he's on the same server as me
@zubakskees : works
(+ more)

The author pages on the Post are identical in terms of linking back to Mastodon. #mastodon

@dylan @jeremybmerrill @zubakskees Mastodon doesn't re-verify unless you update the URL in settings. If you added the rel=me after adding the verification link, it'll never go out and check.

@brandonhorst @dylan @jeremybmerrill @zubakskees IMO Brandon's got it. Jeremy should remove the link, save, then add it back, and save. (note: URL *must* include https)

Source: lots of testing while writing the "Simple Mastodon Verification" plugin for Wordpress.

@opendna @brandonhorst @dylan @jeremybmerrill @zubakskees

Bah... Guess I need to letsencrypt my nearly-abandoned, long fallow vanity domain's homepage. :p

Maybe over the holidays.

@ferricoxide Putting it behind CloudFlare is sufficient... 🫢
@opendna Letsencrypt is completely free. :)