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Re: Follow up on last night's Twitter / Mastodon talk

  • Subject: Re: Follow up on last night's Twitter / Mastodon talk
  • From: Richard Guy Briggs <rgb [ at ] tricolour [ dot ] ca>
  • Date: Fri, 4 Nov 2022 15:21:19 -0400
On 2022-11-04 15:00, Brett Delmage wrote:
> On Fri, 4 Nov 2022, Richard Guy Briggs wrote:
> 
> >On 2022-11-04 13:50, James wrote:
> >>Nov. 4, 2022 10:25:49 Richard Guy Briggs <rgb [ at ] tricolour [ dot ] ca>:
> >>>How does paying for the account prove any trustworthiness?
> >>
> >>It is only to make money.
> >
> >That was my assumption, because I don't see the connection between the
> >two.  But it could also be used as a weeder, hedging that it will result
> >in a certain distribution of payers and those who care about the status
> >of that checkmark.
> 
> or being more trustworthy.

Maybe statistically-so, but certainly no guarantee.

> Right now a Twitter verified account (blue Verified badge) has very specific
> requirements to obtain which are specific to the class of account:
> 
> https://help.twitter.com/en/managing-your-account/about-twitter-verified-accounts
> 
> A monthly payment requirement may get rid of many trolls and bots, which are
> certainly a problem on almost every social media.

Yes.  It may also get rid of many legitimate users.  Who is to say where
this balance lies?

> I do not see how Mastodon is better than this at all. Does it have any web
> of trust like PGP/GPG signed keys?

It would not be any worse than current email systems.  Depending on the
size of the domain in terms of number of users, and reputation of the
domain, you can choose to trust a domain more than others.

> Won't Mastodon be overrun by Big Domain Name owners who already have name
> recognition of the domain part of the account handle? e.g. microsoft.com?

But this is the beauty of federation.  It delegates that authority and
reputation.  Smaller communities tend to be more accountable to each
other.

Do you trust email from @gmail.com?

> What is stopping *anyone* from setting up a "Linux Ottawa" or "OCLUG" domain
> on Mastodon and abusing it? (the only effective remedy that I am aware of
> for domain squatting is trademark law and protection).

That is already a problem for email and is already dealt with in terms
of reputation and trademark law.

  slainte mhath, RGB
--
Richard Guy Briggs               --  ~\    -- ~\             <hpv.tricolour.ca>
<www.TriColour.ca>                 --  \___   o \@      @        Ride yer bike!
Ottawa, ON, CANADA                  --  Lo_>__M__\\/\%__\\/\%
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