Verification is just another name for privacy invasion. I know my opinion about this is not a popular one, however it’s quite true. You can’t verify without giving that up. One thing if you’re a very well known name; otherwise not good.
Platform users are best placed to spot/report many fake accounts. I doubt that Rod Stewart or Elon Musk (!) have any interest in me, not the mention the plethora of medical doctors looking for a genuine heart (!)
Bluesky need to pay proper attention to/act promptly on reports from the frontline!
Don’t forget about Bluesky allowing your verified domain name as your handle. So if an account’s handle is the domain name known to be associated with the company or person instead of a .bsky.social handle, that is a form of verified account. Just like @techcrunch.com has.
I did notice one problem though with the domain handle. Let’s say you create your account as @username.bsky.social for example, but then change to @username.com using your verified domain, @username.bsky.social becomes available again for registration by someone else, which lead to an impersonation
I don’t understand why more people who have a custom domain don’t use it for their handle. That seems like a pretty decent validation for the most part.
I did that but I can’t see any way the site tells other people that I’m “verified” in that sense. So how does this step promote knowledge / confidence re who’s verified and who isn’t?
It’s not verification, but it is a trust signal that allows the reader to determine how authentic the account is. If I go to your website, and it’s a legit website with detail and depth, I know that you needed direct access to the DNS in order to claim it.
Verification inherently has privacy issues. Either you’re paying to be verified (which isn’t actually verifying you) or you’re sharing biometrics with a tech company…and god knows what they’ll do with them (not looking at Bluesky here).
I don’t have a big enough audience to start this dialogue, but I think it’s an important one and one that I wish @jay.bsky.team and @rose.bsky.team would highlight more. The domain as a trust signal is clever and more the way I think we should go.
But I’m surprised that people who do have custom domains (most politicians, authors, artists, etc.) and most likely then do also have tech support of some kind, don’t do it. I did it for 2 accounts I manage, and it took less than 10 minutes.
This sounds extremely stupid, so if you think so, I don't blame you, but perhaps they are *also* unaware of it (not that they don't know how they can do it, but that they just don't know it's possible).
Squarespace (and I imagine other CMSs) have the ability to tap into whatever API a registrar uses to let you add records to a domain. If the Bluesky app could do that, then maybe that could help remove that barrier to do that.
Assuming Bluesky doesn't do this, if someone were to create a site to do just that (have the user log into their Bluesky account, give the custom domain name, and then automatically handle the record adding for you), do you think that would create or remove that barrier?
I should clarify: when I said "let you add records to a domain," I mean, they will automatically have you go to the registrar's website, and the website will grab the records Squarespace sends them, and automatically does that work for the user.
I imagine not everyone understand that in order to use a custom domain, you have to actually have control of the registration as well, and so therefore don’t understand how strong of a signal it could be?
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Disgusts me to be an adult and you can't be yourself. You have to play.
Bluesky need to pay proper attention to/act promptly on reports from the frontline!
1/
It's the only thing I can think of at the moment.
My brain, for some reason, is unable to process what you meant by that. Sorry. 😅
Could you explain what you meant by that? Are you referring to the domain registrar?