Because let’s say you’re Tom Hanks. And you get [email protected]

Well, what’s stopping someone else from adopting [email protected]?

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.

  • vamp07@lemmy.world
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    13 days ago

    I see this as a benefit. Generally speaking celebrity posts are the most useless threads on most platforms.

  • 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 ℹ️@yiffit.net
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    13 days ago

    What’s stopping that same 7 year old taking [email protected] before the real Tom Hanks even knows about Lemmy?

    It’s not the lack of unique usernames that’s a problem. It’s the lack of identity verification. Which, I mean, understandably is lacking because it’s not like there are high profile people making accounts here. Well, except of course for Margot Robbie.

    • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.worldOP
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      13 days ago

      If “TomHanks” is his username on every other service, like twitter, and youtube, and tiktok, and instagram, then he would want to use it when he comes to the fediverse. Now, if only ONE person can have the username TomHanks (and it just so happens to be @Lemmy.World), then he could send a cease and disist letter, and if that doesn’t work, a lawsuit. Madonna did it in the 90s with Madonna.com.

      However, if [email protected] can exist, and [email protected] can exist, and [email protected] can exist and…and…and…then it gets a little impossible for him to really own that username, because it can be duplicated on an infinate amount of instances, some that may not even exist when he shows up to the fediverse.

      But if only one instance can have TomHanks, than he could absolutely show courts he’s had a vested interest and usership of that identity and thus that’s HIS username. Even on services he’s never signed up for. Like if he doesn’t have an instagram account at all, but someone else starts using TomHanks on instagram, he can take it to the courts that they are not allowed to do that, because that’s his username.

      But the way the fediverse is currently set up right now, that’s not feasible. Because he could enter a court battle with [email protected], and then 5 more instances with his username popup. And eventually it becomes harder and harder to prove that people know his ownership of that username if there’s 500 other people also using the same username. It’s the reason you can’t email celebrities. They can’t control their presence in email, so they don’t use that as their identity.

  • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
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    16 days ago

    You seem to be under the impression that it’s good if this place grows explosively. It’s not. There’s no VC to pay back here (and thank fuckin god for that). There’s no ad revenue here (again, this is good).

    Also, not entirely sure what exactly to make of the weirdly targeted quip about a Chinese child, but spidey sense says it’s nothing good.

      • 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.worldOP
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          13 days 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.

  • Meldrik@lemmy.wtf
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    16 days ago
    • Take picture of proof you are Tom Hanks
    • post picture on Lemmy
    • Pin it to the top on your profile (once that feature exist)
    • ???
    • profit!

    Either way, celebrities will probably never use Lemmy or other social media unless it goes mainstream.

  • AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world
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    16 days ago

    It should work the same as email: you can trust it’s them if the user account is hosted on their own site, or their employer’s, or if they link to it from another confirmed source.

    • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.worldOP
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      16 days ago

      But look below in the comments. Can you even tell which of my comments came from Lemmy.World, and which comments didn’t? Some platforms will just show Lost_My_Mind. I can’t tell which platform @AbouBenAdhem is posting via. I just see AbouBenAdhem.

        • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.worldOP
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          16 days ago

          I’m just using a web browser that came with my phone. And if they were all hidden, it wouldn’t matter.

          You’d just register your username. And this would be good for all the fediverse platforms. Once you register your innitial name, only you could register other services under that name. So it’s always you. Even if you never register for a service, you registered the name.

          Then, if you register a new service, even years later, you still have your name.

          • Blaze@feddit.org
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            16 days ago

            Who manages that centralized service? What prevents it from being bought out, or attacked?

            • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.worldOP
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              16 days ago

              Because it’s not centralized. Every platform/instance just uses the same protocols. Any that try to go against that get defederated by all instances.

              • Blaze@feddit.org
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                16 days ago

                Any that try to go against that

                How do you identify them? Lemm.ee registers Tom Hanks, does every other instance have to check what information they provided to trust them?

                What prevents someone to bribe a small instance to register a celebrity username on their instance?

                • If anything we want to encourage this.

                  I like the example of SAG AFTRA hosting their own instance to be official, for example. Celebs typically have their own domains and websites, so easy enough to hire a team to create and manage their own instance that supports the celeb but federates. And you know it’s legit just because it’s on the celeb’s own domain. Ditto for gov’t agencies having their own instances.

  • AstralPath@lemmy.ca
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    16 days ago

    The fix for this is for the guilds and unions that represent these celebrities to spin up their own instances. The suffix of the username granting the legitimacy.

    • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.worldOP
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      16 days ago

      It would solve the issue for people who look into it. But what if I registered [email protected]? I could pretend to be you. And because most people won’t check, I’d get away with it until people caught on.

      Now if you make your living off your public image, and I say horrible things, your career could take a hit. Even if nothing I said is true, and its proven it was never you.

      People will just remember “Hey, remember that time AstralPath admitted to having sex with their grandmother?”

      “No, that wasn’t actually them.”

      “Are you sure? I remember reading about it in (insert tabloid here)”.

      And suddenly you have a legit reason not to use a platform that easily ruins your career through no fault of your own.

      People will ALWAYS attempt to troll online for the memes. Remember Boaty McBoatface?

        • A difference between kbin (and mbin?) vs lemmy (and pyfedi) - the former would show the entire name, including instance. If instance was not included, it was because it was local (so you could assume ‘@kbin.social’)

          On lemmy/pyfedi the name shows up alone - though you can hover over and see the instance name. But at a glance I can see how someone could get confused. Not the best UX IMHO.

    • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.worldOP
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      16 days ago

      The other night 337K people all registered to vote, simply because Taylor Swift sent one message on instagram.

      People come to the platforms FOR the celebrities. And that’s just ONE celebrity. The more celebrities on the platform, the more fanbases come with it.

      But celebrities are picky. If they think something will hurt their image, they won’t do it. Even if theres minimal chance it hurts their image. They have to be protective.

      So they need assurance that when they post something, there’s zero chance someone else could be posting “as them”. Ironically enough, that was the original purpose of twitters blue checkmark.

      • Dr. Wesker@lemmy.sdf.org
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        16 days ago

        Fuck the celebrities. They aren’t your people, peers, or friends. They adopt platforms only when they determine they can make a buck from it. They’re the kids that break your new toys, and you’re suggesting we keep inviting them over to play.

        They will only bring enshittification. Having a platform that isn’t celebrity friendly is a boon.

        • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.worldOP
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          16 days ago

          With the celebrities come their followers. Which is like 97% of the world. I’m trying to get that 97% to adopt the fediverse.

          But they don’t come on their own. They go where their celebrities go. The celebrities bring content for their followers to consume.

          • Dr. Wesker@lemmy.sdf.org
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            16 days ago

            You’re arguing quantity over quality. I do not care the least for bootstrapped growth at the detriment of the platform. I also do not care about people who idolize and platform hop in order to follow celebrities. I suspect very few will bring with them value beyond increased traffic.

            If you want this, Reddit is still an option available to you.

            • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.worldOP
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              16 days ago

              Right now Lemmy has something like 16K users, and a few hundred instances. Most of which are small instances hosting less than 10 users.

              What I’m suggesting is a few hundred thousand instances, with millions of users, if not billions.

              And I assume the instances would face a point where they need organization. So certain instances start hosting certain types of content.

              So if you personally don’t want to read on home and garden topics, you don’t read those instances. That’s what I’m suggesting. If you want to stick to your small corner of the fediverse, you do that.

              What you’re suggesting is that the fediverse never expand beyond the people you deem worthy of contributing content.

              I tried to give peer-tube a chance. None of my youtube creators are producing content on peer-tube. I gave up when every single instance I found was just linux content.

              With more celebrities bring more content. With more content brings more users. With more users brings more communities, and more niches.

              I’m trying to bring down reddit, and instagram, and youtube, and twitter, and everything else thats considered social media. In its place, social media will default to the fediverse.

              You on the other hand are trying to keep the fediverse from growing.

              • schizo@forum.uncomfortable.business
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                16 days ago

                None of my youtube creators are producing content on peer-tube.

                That’s probably more of a monetization issue than anything related to peertube. If your job is making Youtube videos, then at least some portion of your income is AdSense. Sure, it’s not what it was, but at scale it’s not nothing, and the peertube alternative is… $0.

                (Also, for the non-commercial ones or the ones that are funded outside of Youtube, maybe ask if they’ll use Peertube. I’ve had luck with a couple of people I watched being willing to upload to multiple platforms, but you don’t know if you don’t ask.)

                • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.worldOP
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                  16 days ago

                  I can’t ask, because years ago I watched a video on twitter. It was funny. I tweeted “That killed me”.

                  I was banned for inciting death threats by an automod.

                  They’ve never heard of mastodon.

                  And unless I just have no idea where it is, youtube doesn’t seem to have a direct messaging system. Everything these days is twitter.

                  So I’m trying to change that.