😆 💯 🎇 💥 👍 ✨ 🌟 😃

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.

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:

I do not agree with the idea of verification via photo or video. It's too much information in my opinion, and not needed. I do not exactly claim to be anyone. I'd like to discuss this in a post at some point too 😉

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 🙂