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This and the many other ways of creating one time or disposable email accounts illustrates that email verification does not and can not prevent spammers. Becaus

This and the many other ways of creating one time or disposable email accounts illustrates that email verification does not and can not prevent spammers. Because similar services exist for phone numbers, SMS verification does not stop knowledgeable people either. I recently setup a new social media instance and simply setup hcaptcha with no email or phone verification. If I really need to verify people, I can use a feature on my Nextcloud server to video verify people. When they click a link, it calls my phone for a video call and then an approval by me before they can proceed. https://nextcloud.com/blog/unique-sharing-security-video-verification/ https://nextcloud.com/blog/unique-sharing-security-video-ver...

yomlica8 3y ago
SMS and email verification aren't really for spam prevention though, they're for user tracking/advertising. Otherwise they would only require the verification to send or post, not just read. And they wouldn't use dark patterns and extortion like tactics to get you to cough the info up instead of putting the requirement front and center.
- kornhole 3y ago
  This may be true of many corporate platforms, but this article describes what was done with a Mastodon instance. Mastodon instances are generally commercial/advertising free. This and my social media instances are not trying to harvest any data or identify people. The main intent of the email verification is to allow password sets and resets, but it provides some small impediment for spammers. Little is foolproof to stopping spammers, but we can mitigate.
- OfSanguineFire 3y ago
  In addition to Mastodon as the other poster mentions, Signal (obviously not a business tracking/advertising users) will require a mobile number to sign up even after usernames are rolled out, all in the name of spam prevention.
geraldhh 3y ago
email/sms verification is foremost for data harvesting, prevents some spam too. likewise the fence around my property is to remind others of a legal/personal border; it can and will not stop determined folks, but surely dogs and the likes.
plumeria 3y ago
This sounds similar to what Revolut and other fintech companies ask to do for identity verification (selfie and photo of id). There is also Stripe Identity [0], which costs $1.50 per validation. Are there other cheaper or similar reputable services to this one? [0] https://stripe.com/identity https://stripe.com/identity

yomlica8 3y ago

SMS and email verification aren't really for spam prevention though, they're for user tracking/advertising. Otherwise they would only require the verification to send or post, not just read. And they wouldn't use dark patterns and extortion like tactics to get you to cough the info up instead of putting the requirement front and center.

kornhole 3y ago
This may be true of many corporate platforms, but this article describes what was done with a Mastodon instance. Mastodon instances are generally commercial/advertising free. This and my social media instances are not trying to harvest any data or identify people. The main intent of the email verification is to allow password sets and resets, but it provides some small impediment for spammers. Little is foolproof to stopping spammers, but we can mitigate.
OfSanguineFire 3y ago
In addition to Mastodon as the other poster mentions, Signal (obviously not a business tracking/advertising users) will require a mobile number to sign up even after usernames are rolled out, all in the name of spam prevention.

geraldhh 3y ago

email/sms verification is foremost for data harvesting, prevents some spam too. likewise the fence around my property is to remind others of a legal/personal border; it can and will not stop determined folks, but surely dogs and the likes.

plumeria 3y ago

This sounds similar to what Revolut and other fintech companies ask to do for identity verification (selfie and photo of id). There is also Stripe Identity [0], which costs $1.50 per validation. Are there other cheaper or similar reputable services to this one? [0] https://stripe.com/identity https://stripe.com/identity