A Mastodon Server with Verified Identities
By now, you must have heard about Mastodon, the decentralized social network where you control your data, but perhaps you were unsure which server to join. You might have applied for an account on a server that looked interesting, but did not hear back. Or you heard of the moderation problems on servers with open enrollment. If you are looking for a server where everyone uses their real identity, Hellō now has the server for you – verified.coop – a Mastodon server that requires verified identity.
You won’t need to apply to join verified.coop – you will need to verify your identity by linking at least three services, and using a name you use on two services, and a username you are already using. We suggest you use your most commonly used username on Mastodon as part of a unified digital identity, as I have done with @chrisheuer.
After creating your account, we will send you to the Hellō Mastodon Builder to reuse your digital identity assets to build a complete profile.
If you already have a Mastodon account, check out Hellō Mastodon Builder, our tool for reusing your digital identity to build a complete Maston profile.
A Complete, Verified Mastodon Profile
A verified Mastodon profile
Here is what my profile looks like:
Notice the purple check mark after my name. This will show up beside your name across the fediverse, signaling to others that it really is you.
Unlike centralized social media, the Mastodon server you choose becomes part of your identity on Mastodon. You may have already seen the social handle schema in use, like @chrisheuer@verified.coop. No, it isn’t an email address, you treat it more like a URL, which is really https://verified.coop/@chrisheuer .
If you decide verified.coop is not for you, you can always move to another server and bring your followers with you later — a feature of Mastodon so that you are not locked into a specific server. If you want the identity verification features of verified.coop, you can also move your account there. For example, I started at https://sfba.social/, a ‘local’ Maston server for the San Francisco Bay Area (SFBA), and have now moved to verified.coop.
Why it matters
Since verified.coop only accepts verified users, we expect there will be less unwanted noise and spam in the local and federated feeds. When people see your profile on verified.coop, they will know the account is really yours. Given our fondness for people, especially verified people, and our dislike of spam bots, we think that hanging your Mastodon hat with verified.coop says something meaningful about us, about you, and in time, to the whole of the ‘fediverse’.
Get started by signing up for verified.coop today.
Hellō is on a mission to make digital identity reusable. We would love to hear any of your feedback or suggestions. You can find us, and join us, on Mastodon at https://verified.coop/@HelloCoop or leave a comment below.
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