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Celebrities will never adopt the Fediverse until usernames are centralized. (lemmy.world)

submitted 3 months ago by Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world to c/fediverse@lemmy.world

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Because let's say you're Tom Hanks. And you get TomHanks@Lemmy.World

Well, what's stopping someone else from adopting TomHanks@Lemm.ee?

And some platforms minimize the text size of platform, or hide it entirely. So you just might see TomHanks, and think it's him. But it's actually a 7 year old Chinese boy with a broken leg in Arizona.

Because anyone can grab the same name, on a different platform.

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[-] pruwybn@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 3 months ago

Taylor Swift's Twitter handle is @taylorswift13 and it doesn't seem to be a problem for her.

[-] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 0 points 3 months ago

Because there can only be one taylorswift13.

There aren't multiple instances on twitter.

[-] pruwybn@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 3 months ago

My point is there could be a @taylorswift but it doesn’t matter because people know which account is hers.

[-] m4t@h4.io 1 points 3 months ago

@pruwybn same for drakes instagram (champagnepapi)

[-] abff08f4813c@j4vcdedmiokf56h3ho4t62mlku.srv.us 1 points 3 months ago

Even without federation and such it's an issue. Old twitter actually did a really good job of this, but other social networks have had problems in the past,

https://www.dailydot.com/debug/katie-hopkins-impersonated-parler/

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/02/republicans-parler-trolls-347737

We don't have to guess if trolls will try to impersonate celebs and be successful at it, because it's already happened elsewhere.

That said, there are two nice things about the fediverse. First, verification is explicitly not offered, so folks have to do the digging themselves to see if an account is official or not. (Which is as easy as checking a person's web site). Or perhaps confusing a regular person's account with a celeb of the same name.

Second, you can host your own instance. Celebs might not bother, but official gov't agencies set up their own domains and websites - and in particular under domains like .gov which aren't open to regular folks. So seeing if a gov't agency is really authentic is potentially as simple as checking the domain that the instance is using.

[-] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago

I mean sure......but essentially you're using the facts as they stand as justification that it will never work, when my whole point is that these facts as they stand need to change because they will never work unless we change them.

People keep using email, and domains as reasons for why it's not an issue, but there's a reason celebrities aren't known for their email. You can tweet at celebrities, and you can follow celebrities on instagram, and all the other services, but you generally can't email them.

Now, the reason for this is that celebrity wants to own the exact spelling and exact letter/number combination that they're known for. I like to try to make things relatable to the person that I'm talking to, but let's face it, abff08f4813c is a really really bad username for branding purposes. But, be that as it may, IF you were a celebrity, and everybody knew abff08f4813c on instagram, and everybody knew abff08f4813c on twitter, then if you were to come to the fediverse, you wouldn't want a second abff08f4813c to exist. You would want to own "abff08f4813c" on every platform, even if you're not on that platform. Even if you don't use tiktok, you would want to make sure nobody else has the name abff08f4813c on tiktok.

The problem is, the fediverse is so fractured that's not really logistically possible. Because if you try to sue one person on one other instance that has abff08f4813c, now suddenly 300 more abff08f4813c on 300 different instances all pop up.

What I'm suggesting is, no matter which instance you're on, if you search abff08f4813c, the search should find that username, and direct you to the profile that corrilates with you. And even though that profile is only on one instance, it would make it so if I tried to make abff08f4813c, on another instance, I would be told that username is already taken.

From there, you could absolutely create an old twitter style verification system. And NOW celebrities will be more willing to use the fediverse. But until that changes, I don't see any celebrity who values their own brand on an international scale, be willing to publically announce they are on the fediverse, and their fans can migrate to the fediverse to follow them.

[-] abff08f4813c@j4vcdedmiokf56h3ho4t62mlku.srv.us 1 points 3 months ago

I mean sure…but essentially you’re using the facts as they stand as justification that it will never work

More or less.

when my whole point is that these facts as they stand need to change because they will never work unless we change them.

I think to make that argument you'd have to first argue that this works elsewhere. But we see warnings like this, https://web.archive.org/web/20221104001618/https://old.reddit.com/r/TaylorSwift/comments/yljj15/swifties_be_warned_that_this_is_a_fake_account/ or like this, https://www.instagram.com/czaronline/p/CvAts_9MFDf/

then I'm not at all convinced that this is the case.

You can tweet at celebrities, and you can follow celebrities on instagram, and all the other services, but you generally can’t email them.

Perhaps it's a generational thing? Back in the day you could. Bill Gates used to be reachable at bill.gates@microsoft.com and Jeff Bozos at jeff@amazon.com

On the flip side, just because a celebrity has a handle on a particular social media service doesn't guarantee you can reach them. Taylor Swift has a tumblr but she hasn't publicly used it in years.

People keep using email, and domains as reasons for why it’s not an issue, but there’s a reason celebrities aren’t known for their email.

What's the reason? Two things come to my mind: first, Bill Gates supposedly said he had an entire team whose job was just to read and respond to his public email.

Second, email is direct contact, like a DM rather than a tweet (that everyone sees). The email equivalent would be a mailing list. If you want that, you can join Taylor Swift's mailing list over at https://www.taylorswift.com/#mailing-list

you wouldn’t want a second abff08f4813c to exist.

I wouldn't mind that much, tbh. Though considering the username in question, it's very unlikely.

Even if you don’t use tiktok, you would want to make sure nobody else has the name abff08f4813c on tiktok.

Much harder with a name like Taylor Swift. How many other people have the same name? Even on twitter there's a different taylorswift - so the famous singer is taylorswift13 there.

now suddenly 300 more abff08f4813c on 300 different instances all pop up.

My username is probably the wrong one to use for this example.

But more generally - does anyone want to be taylorswift@hotmail.com and taylorswift@gmail.com and taylorswift@outlook.com and taylorswift@yahoo.com all at once? (Well, okay, yes there probably is someone who wants that, with bad intentions, but practically speaking it's kinda obvious that these aren't all official email accounts by the singer.)

Because if you try to sue one person on one other instance that has abff08f4813c,

But Taylor Swift may not be able to sue the other person - she's not the only one named Taylor Swift after all.

What I’m suggesting is, no matter which instance you’re on, if you search abff08f4813c, the search should find that username, and direct you to the profile that corrilates with you. And even though that profile is only on one instance, it would make it so if I tried to make abff08f4813c, on another instance, I would be told that username is already taken.

And then someone tries to be abffo8f4813c or abff08f48i3c.

I don’t see any celebrity who values their own brand on an international scale, be willing to publically announce they are on the fediverse,

uh ... https://joinfediverse.wiki/Notable_Fediverse_accounts

and their fans can migrate to the fediverse to follow them.

I mean, there's no accounting for the fans, sure. If anything, celebs seek out platforms that have lots of people to connect them with fans, rather than them bring fans to a platform, I'd guess.

From there, you could absolutely create an old twitter style verification system.

Sure, but it's not a required step.

Mastodon.social could implement a mimic of the old twitter style verification system for folks who join that particular instance - and those joining another instance simply wouldn't have the guarantee.

And then threads can implement the verification system for folks joining directly through threads - and again those joined on another instance simply wouldn't have the guarantee.

And then Bluesky can ...

I don't really see anyone but a commercial company even trying to do this - it'd be a headache - and probably expensive - in terms of the requirements to protect the data used (such as identify card verification).

[-] abff08f4813c@j4vcdedmiokf56h3ho4t62mlku.srv.us 1 points 3 months ago

But I'd add - if someone could draft this up and show me a working prototype, I might be easier to convince. It's a lot easier to think about something when you can play with an idea.