CAPTCHAs and sign‑up quizzes annoy real people and barely slow down determined bots. As the fediverse grows, we need smarter, more humane defences, ones that don’t push away genuine newcomers. What creative, non‑intrusive ideas do you have? Trust‑based vouching, proof‑of‑humanity protocols, behavioural signals… what feels both effective and aligned with the open social web? I’m building a social media platform and I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic.
They would have to do so without keeping records of anyone, which might be difficult. Otherwise, this could be subpoenaed by an authoritarian government.
Any verification system must be created with that in mind, these days.
It would be doable, and libraries have been amenable to this sort of thing, like not handing over records about checking out books. This is even easier than checking out books, since you don’t actually need to record who is attached to the account. Libraries could obfuscate information that could lead to invasion of privacy. And because it’s distributed and local, it’s much harder to abuse. If someone tried creating 100 accounts, the librarians would start remembering them and refusing to give them more. Going around to 100 libraries would also be much harder than spamming a new account page on some website.