What I've Been Working On
A couple days ago I was hanging out on Steemit Chat and had an idea for a Steemit verification service. Turns out "Steem Verify" already existed, but it was extremely flawed.
Instead of creating a brand new service from scratch I decided to work with @steemitqa, as we both obviously have a passion for this project.
You can't apply for verification anymore. Instead reputable community members monitor the site and manually "verify" people who are at a high risk of impersonation.
I spent 2 days redesigning SteemVerify.com and building an API. Now all entries from our database of verified users are pushed to https://steemverify.com/api/verified.json every 30 minutes.
I also coded a simple jQuery script that automatically adds a verified badge by verified usernames. You can read more about that here.
If you're an old Steem Verify customer you're probably wondering where this leaves you,
We haven't forgotten about you. We'll be migrating you over to a different service with a different name, as we know there's still a need for you to be able to anonymously prove that you're a human. But you aren't "verified" anymore. We'll share more info soon.
From this point forward verification is specifically for community members who are at a high risk of impersonation.
Thanks everybody for your support. We are hoping that the revamped verification process helps prevent impersonation on this platform.
Thanks for everything you do.
😆 💯 🎇 💥 👍 ✨ 🌟 😃
This is a great move and I'm really happy you've joined @steemqa in this project! From day 1 I've thought that the verification methods involved were needlessly deanonymizing for those of us who want to remain anonymous, and misleading regarding the risks of that for those who don't care so much. Many many of the introductory notes and tutorials encourage users to verify and when I joined in December it was very accepted to do it.
From my introduction post:
Now of course it's always one's own prerogative whether or not to post pictures of oneself online on your account, but I am an advocate of minimal online presence, i.e. say and show only what you need to, and separate your accounts. Obviously there is an instant security win to linking these accounts, but I believe the trade off is not worth it, allowing tracking for profit (the biggest is advertising) and making information freely available to those who wish to do you harm (or may wish to in the future! information has a way of lingering).
That said, I've never had anyone challenge me on my identity and I chalk that up to a great community here with a more or less responsible culture.
Thanks and looking forward to see what you do, followed and resteemed 🙂
hah can i get a verification I'm the best human algorithm :D good work this service will be necessary and irreplaceable when e e another wave of "migrants" meaning new people and occasionally the cheaters and the stealers.
Still I do wish it wasn't so strict, I don't have a phone wit a camera or the want to picture myself and get some "points" also give people points :D badges are good but points are better :D team up with some verification guild :D