4 ms·

I don't think the suggestion is for Mastodon to replace internal communication, but to use it as a social media outlet for your organization.

MBCook 4y ago
Right. Mastodon doesn’t have an equivalent to Twitter’s (old) verification system. So it’s on users to check if each individual is who they claim. But if there is an official CNN Mastodon instance, it’s suddenly real easy to see if someone claiming to be a CNN reporter is real or not. Are they @john.smith@cnn.news? If not they’re a fake. It would also work for official Microsoft accounts or Colgate-Palmolive or the government. Seems like a good idea to me. And if you like federation it sounds better than a semi-official instance everyone uses that verifies things, sort of recreating a mini-Twitter “super” instance that is “more equal” than the others.
- rambambram 4y ago
  Can't a domain name, webserver and email address do the same thing? Or am I missing something?
  - MBCook 4y ago
    That’s what the instance name (hosted on their domain) provides. I can put an @microsoft.come email in my profile, but it’s meaningless because it’s not verified. But if MS has their own instance, then your handle(?) proves you have an account on that instance. And presumably only employees and company accounts would be allowed to have such user accounts.
- sdiacom 4y ago
  That's right, and self-hosting on a trusted domain is indeed the recommended form of indicating that an identity is trustable in the Mastodon docs. Note, however, that Mastodon has a sort-of identity-ish verification system, in that a website link in your profile will be shown with a green check if the website links back to your profile with a `rel=me` attribute. https://docs.joinmastodon.org/user/profile/#verification https://docs.joinmastodon.org/user/profile/#verification
  - MBCook 4y ago
    Oh neat. Thanks for pointing that out.
- gfaster 4y ago
  Mastodon does have a feature where you can verify you own a website by putting a hidden tag on it that links to your profile.
- fragmede 4y ago
  Sound ripe for confusion and we see this today with domain names and phishing. Are they @john.smith@cnn.com or @john.smith@cnnn.news or @john.smith@cnn.newss.com or @john.smith@cnn.news.hackers.ru?

MBCook 4y ago

Right. Mastodon doesn’t have an equivalent to Twitter’s (old) verification system. So it’s on users to check if each individual is who they claim. But if there is an official CNN Mastodon instance, it’s suddenly real easy to see if someone claiming to be a CNN reporter is real or not. Are they @john.smith@cnn.news? If not they’re a fake. It would also work for official Microsoft accounts or Colgate-Palmolive or the government. Seems like a good idea to me. And if you like federation it sounds better than a semi-official instance everyone uses that verifies things, sort of recreating a mini-Twitter “super” instance that is “more equal” than the others.

rambambram 4y ago
Can't a domain name, webserver and email address do the same thing? Or am I missing something?
- MBCook 4y ago
  That’s what the instance name (hosted on their domain) provides. I can put an @microsoft.come email in my profile, but it’s meaningless because it’s not verified. But if MS has their own instance, then your handle(?) proves you have an account on that instance. And presumably only employees and company accounts would be allowed to have such user accounts.
sdiacom 4y ago
That's right, and self-hosting on a trusted domain is indeed the recommended form of indicating that an identity is trustable in the Mastodon docs. Note, however, that Mastodon has a sort-of identity-ish verification system, in that a website link in your profile will be shown with a green check if the website links back to your profile with a `rel=me` attribute. https://docs.joinmastodon.org/user/profile/#verification https://docs.joinmastodon.org/user/profile/#verification
- MBCook 4y ago
  Oh neat. Thanks for pointing that out.
gfaster 4y ago
Mastodon does have a feature where you can verify you own a website by putting a hidden tag on it that links to your profile.
fragmede 4y ago
Sound ripe for confusion and we see this today with domain names and phishing. Are they @john.smith@cnn.com or @john.smith@cnnn.news or @john.smith@cnn.newss.com or @john.smith@cnn.news.hackers.ru?