If they have no profile info and zero posts...I block them Almost all of them are sex bots or MAGA types. it seems Bluesky started requiring email verification today. Vet your followers, please. Don't engage...block. Let's keep the trash out of here.
Good, glad you did. I hope more step up and report the fakes. I saw that in a starter pack. Thought I'd share to alert folks. I posted on my feed too. I am following the real one. OG Star Wars gal here.
There has to be a valid, reliable “are you human?” procedure. I do research on bad behavior online #BBOL, & it has shown that anonymous is OK but no human check is *bad*. BTW, CAPTCHA is v. popular but not effective. Twitter had something like 50-60% bot traffic, conservatively speaking.
Oh can we self ID with https://ID.me integration maybe??
I'd love to use something to submit my ID etc and verify.
These guys are being used by the VA now too.
Verified ID gets a badge, Celebs one, news, etc. Please no paid verification.
When I saw you and other familiar people following, I raised the alarm. "His" @ was misspelled. The Mark would never.
Reported & msg him on twit/x.
Gotta protect our National Treasure.
Obviously one can switch ones handle to a verified by a trusted domain already associated with ones enterprise (https://ft.com, https://npr.org, etc.) but on top of that one could publish a public key and sign really important posts with a hash.
What would be cool if Bluesky did the verification step for you.
If you mean old-twitter style bluechecks, you can change your bsky handle from @muellershewrote.bsky.social to @mswmedia.com (or @ag.mswmedia.com or whatever)
Nobody can forge that without control of https://mswmedia.com's DNS which is pretty conclusive
In my experience they let you in w/o email verification but they do email you a link. Maybe they bring down the hammer after some time? I guess they are solving for minimum barrier to onboard now but will probably tighten up.
I’m new here and was prompted to verify my email address. I’m grateful for whatever protection we can get from trolls and trawlers here in the land of the blue butterfly.
Most of the primary people I have been following show enough style indications that they are who they are (like you).
Ignoring blanks and unsolicited unless they were part of a discussion...mind you I am being chatty here.
Blocked a couple of bozos.
I think they did post something about that.
But I haven't gotten out of the habit of vetting followers. I haven't seen any impersonators here yet, but I think I'd know--at least those I've been following for years.
The private domain feature is built in as a way to have verification without being verified. So if you have https://muellershewrote.com domain, you can change your username to your private domain name. Pretty cool.
For well-known people, look at the page. Look at the posts and replies. Does it seem like the person you know? Look at who else is following that person. Hard to do with complete strangers, I admit. But for MSM people, fakes are easier to pick out.
I am still the worst witch he has ever known. I just moved here for positivity. And cant stand that white south african racist. Definately human.☮️🐞🌊🌠🦀🧜♀️🧚♀️💜
They are doing what they can with this explosive growth. There was a Mark Hamil, that was labeled as an impersonator. A few hours later the "official" one showed up.
Holy shit! Just logged back in and saw that my stupid joke has turned into an educational PSA. On the hell site, this would've ended with about 500 blocked accounts and a lot of swearing. Nice work, everyone.
Yes, that's how those lists work. You just subscribe to the list as a block list and everything on the list is blocked (or muted, if you select that option) along with anything added in the future.
Well, I'm a little bit obsessive. When people follow me, I automatically check their feed first. Then I check who follows that, and if they're followed by porn accounts, I block those porn accounts.
I see. So hard to mitigate all sick in the head humans but hopefully we can individually do our part and stay on top of it. We know that Bluesky has a huge target on it's back now due to it's skyrocketing popularity. Block and report!
I have only had 1 in the last week. But i don't have a wide reach here. And I wouldn't have even known had she not reached out via chat. Um, no thank you. Mute/Block.
Not sure what the official process is for verification, but changing your handle to your domain name is an excellent way to show it is really you. :) @muellershewrote.com
Unfortunately, everyone has to expect that a lot of those X accounts we wanted to get away from are going to come rolling over here in droves. Just need to check spellings and be cautious and see what's in their bio. Also, look at their spellings and grammar. A giveaway.
For those who don't want to use a domain name to verify themselves, it wouldn't take much for some trusted third party to set up a labeler for "verified by " … then people could just subscribe to the labeler.
I'd be surprised if they don't start cracking down on it soon. i think they got caught off guard by how fast it's growing. Perhaps verifying from their Twitter from followers that yes they're following you with their bsky profile. Probably all the maga's and Musk bots trying to destroy the place.
I have my daughter’s expired hamster as my profile pic. I should probably replace it with a picture of my cat or one of my dogs, but I’d like to think the former biting/pooping machine would have appreciated the gesture.
They're rolling in from X like crazy. But for a lot of the X accounts, their accounts on here are not going to be the money makers they had before so I'm not sure how long they hang around.
I was wondering the same.
I got mad at the Mark Hamill fake, and reported them.
I'm gonna be upset if the only Weird Al profile that shows up turns out to be an imposter. Might have to cut somebody.
It makes it harder to create multiple accounts, but not impossible.
I suggested they have a $1 one time fee to get some kind of verification badge to proce you're real, one verification per credit card. That would crack down multiple bot fake accounts.
Thank you for noticing. I've just spent 1/2 hour blocking people who were dissing you. I couldn't believe it was 100$ dudebro insult feed. Took me a while to find the real you.
That sounds right. They are doing an amazing job here with so many new accounts flooding Bluesky. I’m sure there will be some growing pains, but I have confidence that those issues will be resolved.
I know!
I had written something nice, and then as I read through the comments, I saw people pointing out the problem.
I deleted my original post and put up the body snatcher meme.
Nor does it prevent people from falsely claiming to officially represent government agencies, like https://bsky.app/profile/officialnps.bsky.social appears to be doing. (The actual National Park Service is not on Bluesky yet.)
It does, people aren't accustomed to checking handles though. It's a great first step to see that a profile is or isn't associated with who they claim to be. The profile you linked isn't using a .gov domain so the assumption is it isn't run by a governing body.
I’m new here but I hear there’s something like the starter packs for blocking people. I would like it if reliable, real accounts put out those for the impersonator accounts, in addition to all the bots and trolls.
But cybersquatting exists, and it's not always easy to verify that the domain is actually the one controlled by the public figure, and definitely not without leaving the app to go look it up somewhere.
No offense intended. I just feel kind of sorry for the programmers and system engineers working under these circumstances and dealing with such rapid growth.
I have noticed the same thing. The replicators are out in force, and some are very clever imposters. We need a way to know if it is the real person or not.
I just saw a post from bsky informing us that they are starting to require email verification of new users.
Established users may have to verify email before being allowed to post.
I’m so glad to see you posted this, because somebody’s doing it to me right now. It is my exact replica page from Twitter. The fake page is -
@trixie-is-back.bsky.social
I’ve already reported it a few times, and I know other people have also.
I’m trying to be patient, because I know they’re busy.🙁
I was just wondering about that. Someone posted a Mark Hamil account and I was eager to subscribe but then someone pointed out that the name is misspelled so...
That was me. I was alarmed at the number of well known accounts following "him". Pointed out his @ was misspelled. Questioned him. No answer. Reported to BS & sent a msg to the Real Mark on TwitX.
Reporting illicit impersonators seems to have worked up to the day after the Election just fine… but given the overwhelming influx of new accounts, that policy might need a bit of a rework. 🤔
those peoples would not know how to empersonate me. i am unempersonatable. 1 of a kind. my wardrobe for instance. no 1 got these clothes this hat my style. no 1 got my way with words. 1 of a kind.
I think the Bluesky team thought when they started they did not need a verification system, but they badly do now. I suggested blue butterfly's by users who have been verified by their names.
That would be nice. I would pay for it. I would just hope that it is not heavily priced like Threads/Instagram or Twitter. Or better...just a one-time verification fee that is only charged if it goes through.
Comments
I am dating my age but saw the first at a drive-in 😂
I was a wee whipper snapper lol
Now? My son is a huge SW & spinoff fan.
https://bsky.app/profile/safety.bsky.app/post/3lazocxicmc2k
https://bsky.social/about/blog/4-28-2023-domain-handle-tutorial
https://bsky.app/profile/safety.bsky.app/post/3lazocxicmc2k
I'd love to use something to submit my ID etc and verify.
These guys are being used by the VA now too.
Verified ID gets a badge, Celebs one, news, etc. Please no paid verification.
Reported & msg him on twit/x.
Gotta protect our National Treasure.
What would be cool if Bluesky did the verification step for you.
Nobody can forge that without control of https://mswmedia.com's DNS which is pretty conclusive
Ignoring blanks and unsolicited unless they were part of a discussion...mind you I am being chatty here.
Blocked a couple of bozos.
But I haven't gotten out of the habit of vetting followers. I haven't seen any impersonators here yet, but I think I'd know--at least those I've been following for years.
https://bsky.app/profile/safety.bsky.app/post/3lazocxicmc2k
Another example. Cussing / blaming with a word by “possible f@ke / impost3r” (e.g., word -> L3ft1st - I used # instead of letters to avoid algorithm)
We can educate each other more. Just saying.
Go to the page, subscribe, and hit that upper right corner and block list!
Super easy and fast.
There are several of those on here.👍
You can even check them out before you block.
High School Principal: "I have a list of students that have been caught selling pot."
Me: "Can I look at that list so I know which kids to avoid?"
And the cops all were amazed I was never burned. “Usually they figure it out”
No sir. Cuz any time they sold and got busted. I bought from them more the next few weeks. Winning. 😂
https://bsky.social/about/blog/4-28-2023-domain-handle-tutorial
https://bsky.social/about/blog/4-28-2023-domain-handle-tutorial
https://bsky.app/profile/safety.bsky.app/post/3lazocxicmc2k
Bigly
Bluesky’s architecture is designed for external means to do what in other platforms would require internal people to handle.
Journalists should use their IT departments to get proper handles. For others, there are other ways.
For those who don't want to use a domain name to verify themselves, it wouldn't take much for some trusted third party to set up a labeler for "verified by
The trolls are seeding real accounts into lists of trolls so that blanket block also blocks big blue accounts.
I got mad at the Mark Hamill fake, and reported them.
I'm gonna be upset if the only Weird Al profile that shows up turns out to be an imposter. Might have to cut somebody.
I suggested they have a $1 one time fee to get some kind of verification badge to proce you're real, one verification per credit card. That would crack down multiple bot fake accounts.
The account is @ official mark hammil
Should be @ official mark hamill.
I had written something nice, and then as I read through the comments, I saw people pointing out the problem.
I deleted my original post and put up the body snatcher meme.
https://bsky.app/profile/safety.bsky.app/post/3lazocxicmc2k
If you’re looking at an academic, look who follows them.
Established users may have to verify email before being allowed to post.
@trixie-is-back.bsky.social
I’ve already reported it a few times, and I know other people have also.
I’m trying to be patient, because I know they’re busy.🙁
Interestingly, as the team itself is actively engaging here, maybe ask them? It'd be hella informal but might just be acceptable here 🤔
See here for instructions: https://bsky.social/about/blog/4-28-2023-domain-handle-tutorial