Rawen's Musings

Yay, It’s been a while since I set something on fire. And if you were around for at least the last day you probably know where I’m going with this. So, sit down, kiddos. This grumpy grandpa woof has a little story to tell.

Those of you who happened to volutiarily expose your eyes to my social presence know that which spaces I inhabit; namely Bluesky and Mastodon. I already shared my thoughts on them previouslt when I was establishing myself in them and continue to use both on a roughly equal basis. Because a) my friend circles don’t 100% overlap and b) diversification is good and necessary for maintaining reach. Remember this next time you complain about social site turning to a swamp and you being worried about losing followers. Anyway, this is not the subject of my rant. It’s something that on one hand is quite useful WHEN used right but very hostile WHEN messed up. Yes, yes, I’m going to be ranting about the new (old and recycled) verification system.

That’s correct. Bluesky has introduced the all-familiar “”blue checkmark” to provide the quick indication that the account is in fact who they claim to be. In simple terms, if for example my company makes an account there, someone else, say someone from the HR team of a different division can say “Yup, that’s us right there”. Now, this of course requires a reasonable level of trust. To secure this, the system establishes a layer of “Trusted Verifiers” who a eligible for giving out the “verified” badge. Sounds simple enough, right? Whoo boy, is this ripe for abuse and total clusterfuck.

Ok, let’s get the obvious out of the way; the system is already tainted by the “competition” led by someone who has vastly more money than functioning braincells and managed to devalue this thing to something equivalent of a skin for your MMO character which you can get after spending 10000 hours in the game. Yes, it’s that vain and it’s this pointless. This however is the least of the issues. The actual first issue is that it’s blatantly throwing in the “appeal to authority” falacy. Like, sure, you’re going to put more weight into something said by someone of credible reputation but that also means that you need to know how that credibility is achieved. If anything, if you hear/read something from someone reputable, your response should be “Can you refer me to someone who can confirm your claim or at least give me another source?” And make sure that source isn’t someone too close because there’s a potential for corruption. Like, science is a massive field which pretty much stands on consensus and it’s the field which requires the most verification. Now, I’m not saying you need to start a dissertation on everything you happen yo stumble upon but still, at least the minimum effort should be exercised, no matter how many medals XYZ has.

Now, onto the next step; “Trusted Verifiers”. Trusted based on … what? What is the process of choosing these? Is there some for of rotation? Or are they given this position “for life”? What do they need to fulfil to be given this status? Certain following? Well-written letter of motivation? Proper performance of rectal alpinism? Do I need to continue? I’ve briefly glanced of the blogpost and there’s zero information this process. Zero. Zilch. Nada. Nul. And you expect me to trust this? For fuck sake, even the least functioning democratic states have clear description of their processes. Sure, how well they follow them is often a different story but still. And if you’re going to even think about telling me it’s to keep it safe then for everyone’s sake NEVER even think about touching anything even closely related to cybersec. Long story short, security through obscurity is bullshit.

To throw a bit more salt into the wound, you know what Blueskyt has? Domain-linking. Yes, you can link your own domain to your account. Not only is it a neat personalisation feature but also, wait for it, something that’s linked to you. You know, something YOU had to procure. Something YOU can control. Something YOU can be asked about and clarify. Again for those who can’t hear me over their ignorant cynicism — YOU CONTROL YOUR DOMAIN! Sure, getting a new domain is quite easy these days but again, it’s yours and it falls under a system independent to the site. And while not bulletproof, it’s still in my opinion a bit more robust system and harder to corrupt than having everything in one place. And if someone compromises your domain space then I’m afraid you have a train-load of bigger problems than a missing vanity checkmark.

So, in the end, this step from Bluesky is redundant, pointless and divisive to the space. It very easily falls into the “we’re not like them” falacy … except you are and you’re making sure to show it slowly. And you know what’s funny and sad? That if there were no issues with trust in general, then this system wouldn’t be needed in the first place. Ok, maybe something for crucial institutions such as environmental watchers, courts, healthcare institutions … you get the idea. But just for someone who’s having too much of a personal cult? Yeah, sorry but no. One really doesn’t need a checkmark for being a verified arsehat because everyone can already see that. And those who are actually authentic can earn their trust naturally without having to resort to pointless symbols.

R.R.A.