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Harold Mansfield
07-19-2016, 06:34 PM
For those not familiar with the blue badge, think of it as a way for Twitter users to know that the accounts they are seeing or considering following or retweeting are “key individuals or organizations” that are authentic and not some troll account. You’ll see the blue badge next to public figures, musicians, celebrities, fashion brands, politicians, athletes and sports organizations, and journalists or news outlets.

Source: Twitter Will Soon Let You Apply to be Verified | Droid Life (http://www.droid-life.com/2016/07/19/twitter-will-soon-let-apply-verified/)


or just hop over to : https://verification.twitter.com/welcome

Owen
07-19-2016, 11:14 PM
I submitted an application. I'm gonna be feel so famous if I get a verification.

Harold Mansfield
07-20-2016, 12:05 AM
Just curious, why does your signature say "Sorry, Harold"?

Harold Mansfield
07-20-2016, 12:56 AM
I submitted an application. I'm gonna be feel so famous if I get a verification.
I'm totally expecting to be denied. Based on what it says, seems like if at least your twitter handle and URL match and you have other properties that match verbatim it should be a no brainer. If for nothing else your own name.

But who knows with Twitter? They seem to kind of make it up as they go along.

Owen
07-20-2016, 01:46 AM
Just curious, why does your signature say "Sorry, Harold"?
Because you usually tell me what I should do but I still end up doing something else. For example: you said to focus on learning more about it, but I'm starting another company, except with investors this time. :P you've only said I'm better off trying to learn more about 50 times, which I'm still doing, but I really am an impatient person.

Harold Mansfield
07-20-2016, 02:08 AM
Because you usually tell me what I should do but I still end up doing something else. For example: you said to focus on learning more about it, but I'm starting another company, except with investors this time. :P you've only said I'm better off trying to learn more about 50 times, which I'm still doing, but I really am an impatient person.

Dude this is a discussion forum. I merely made some suggestions in the spirit of offering some advice. No one here has all the answers and you don't owe anyone any explanations.You do what you feel you need to do for you. For all I know your instincts may cause you to fall ass-backwards into something completely different that's wildly successful.

KristineS
07-20-2016, 03:47 PM
Hmm, not sure how I feel about this. I have a suspicion that it's part of the whole Leslie Jones thing, and the fact that Twitter can't seem to stop the harassment and unpleasantness that some people seem to bring to the site. I'm not sure how verifying accounts will change that though. It makes sense to verify public persons and organizations who may be the target of impersonators. Verifying regular Twitter users doesn't seem to add much value. Maybe I'm missing something here though.

Harold Mansfield
07-20-2016, 04:03 PM
From what I've read it does seem targeted at exactly the kind of users you're talking about. Brands and people who use their actual names.

vangogh
07-20-2016, 04:54 PM
Because you usually tell me what I should do but I still end up doing something else

That made me laugh.

I'm not planning on applying to be verified. I barely use Twitter anymore, but even if I did I don't think I'd care. It seems like something that makes sense for a celebrity so you know which is the real account, but unless you have the kind of popularity that leads to copycat accounts, how important is it to be verified?

Harold Mansfield
07-20-2016, 04:58 PM
That made me laugh.

I'm not planning on applying to be verified. I barely use Twitter anymore, but even if I did I don't think I'd care. It seems like something that makes sense for a celebrity so you know which is the real account, but unless you have the kind of popularity that leads to copycat accounts, how important is it to be verified?

Cause it's there and I want it so that I look "official". Whatever that means. I don't have any intelligent argument for it, I just want it because other people get it and they've made it so exclusive. :)

Fulcrum
07-20-2016, 05:21 PM
It'll just make things easier for big brother to keep track of who says what. Although, it might help cut down on the internet anonymity and start cleaning up the "funny" trolls.

Harold Mansfield
07-20-2016, 06:10 PM
They just banned a well known troll Milo Yiannopoulos. If you've never heard of him, he's notorious for being racist, misogynist and everything else and leading some of the most relentless attacks on people on Twitter with his band of minions.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/20/technology/twitter-bars-milo-yiannopoulos-in-crackdown-on-abusive-comments.html

Fulcrum
07-20-2016, 07:27 PM
In a brief interview on Tuesday evening, Mr. Yiannopoulos said, “This is the beginning of the end for Twitter.”

“Some people are going to find this perfectly acceptable,” he said. “Anyone who believes in free speech or is a conservative certainly will not.”

This line sums it up quite well. It's the same approach that the french satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo, used along with those who are looking for an excuse to leave ethics behind. Simply put, it is my opinion that it's bully tactics these guys use and they try to use free speech to justify (or is it appease their conscience) their actions.

I believe in free speech and can be considered "orthodox conservative" (to coin a phrase), but this guy does not speak on my behalf nor does he speak on behalf of the rest. He speaks only for himself, though he's trying to throw the rest of us under the bus at the same time.

To Leslie Jones (if she may read this by chance),
On behalf of all the other free speech defenders, as well as those considered politically and socially conservative, please accept this as a public apology. This person does not speak for the bulk of us.

Owen
07-20-2016, 11:10 PM
I don't post on Twitter often at all. I only post when I'm really angry about something I need to throw in some shade. My family knows my Twitter and my mom actively looks at it because she's nosy and she also likes all the memes I sometimes retweet, versus Facebook where it just seems wrong. I could probably post something incredibly vulgar on Twitter and not have a second thought, but if I even say 'sucks' on Facebook I sometimes consider rewriting the post. I really seem Twitter as a more of a popularity contest whereas Facebook is more personal.

Harold Mansfield
07-22-2016, 01:04 PM
My first account was denied, as I expected. It's my name as my brand. Website, email, phone number everything matches the name and is consistent across the web. Exactly.



Thanks for your request to verify @HaroldMansfield.

We reviewed the account, and unfortunately it is not eligible to be verified at this time. Please visit our Help Center for more information about the types of accounts we verify.



Best I can figure is that it was denied for not having a personal picture of me in the profile, even though that's not my brand.



A verified phone number ✓
A confirmed email address ✓
A bio ✓
A profile photo (my logo) ✓
A header photo ✓
A birthday (for accounts that are not company, brand, or organization accounts) ✓
A website ✓
Tweets set as public in Tweet privacy settings ✓


For extra measure I also submitted links to my LinkedIn profile, G+ profile, Facebook, my book on Amazon...still not good enough.


Apparently it's still as janky and selective as it's always been. No, "hey if you just change this one thing...". Just a blanket "no". I'm sure if I was a celebrity things would be different. Some of those profiles don't check half the boxes, and are magically verified anyway.

I'll be honest, I'm a little pissed about it. I did what they asked and they're still the same old Twitter.


Here's the link they sent about guidelines
https://support.twitter.com/articles/20174631#

Owen
07-22-2016, 03:12 PM
I got denied too :( I guess I'm not famous enough

Harold Mansfield
07-26-2016, 10:54 AM
Upon further investigation it's not really what was reported at first. It's still only open to a select few people, the only thing that is new is that there is a form now.
It's only open to people who Twitter deems important enough. The rest of the 300 million users are out of luck. No matter how much verification information you submit, your just not important enough for all of Twitters features, and protections to be available to you. So it's really not about "verification" and it's really not open to the public.

Yep, I'm steamed about it. Every time it looks like Twitter is about to do something that makes users happy, they snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and continue to run Twitter like an exclusive club and not like they truly want more users. It's just not in them and at this point it's clear that nothing is ever going to change.

KristineS
07-26-2016, 11:00 AM
"Verified" was always sort of a status symbol, and really only made sense for those who might be impersonated. For everyone else, it would just be a status thing. I think Twitter would have done better to just leave things as they were. Make the form, if necessary, but don't publicize that verified status was going to be available to everyone. It's not.

So, yes, once again, Twitter shoots themselves in the foot.

Harold Mansfield
07-26-2016, 11:28 AM
"Verified" was always sort of a status symbol, and really only made sense for those who might be impersonated. For everyone else, it would just be a status thing. I think Twitter would have done better to just leave things as they were. Make the form, if necessary, but don't publicize that verified status was going to be available to everyone. It's not.

So, yes, once again, Twitter shoots themselves in the foot.

Yep, totally agree.

However, it could be important for everyone. Business professionals, small businesses, actually anyone. I've followed the wrong account many times because I thought it was someone else. They may not have been a publicly well known figure with millions of followers, but it was important to me. Which is what Twitter was supposed to be all about.

For people who use their real name, real brand, or real company on Twitter I think they all deserve to have the option open to them so that people know "Yes, this is the real deal and their identity has been verified" .

I think it also helps the horrible trolling, misogyny and racism problem that Twitter has. Most trolls do so in anonymity. It would help victims of trolling know that followers are real people who are using their real or at least verified names, rather that it just being a total crap shoot. Also verified accounts have better tools to screen replies, mentions and DM's. Why not just make that available for EVERYONE to better protect themselves, not just the ones that make in the paper? Is a high school girl with 300 followers less important than a celebrity with 3 million?

This is the one time that Twitter actually could separate real people from bots, trolls, and spam accounts and they flubbed it.

What Twitter is saying, and saying it openly, is that there are only a few accounts that are important.

KristineS
07-26-2016, 12:59 PM
Yep, totally agree.

However, it could be important for everyone. Business professionals, small businesses, actually anyone. I've followed the wrong account many times because I thought it was someone else. They may not have been a publicly well known figure with millions of followers, but it was important to me. Which is what Twitter was supposed to be all about.

For people who use their real name, real brand, or real company on Twitter I think they all deserve to have the option open to them so that people know "Yes, this is the real deal and their identity has been verified" .

I think it also helps the horrible trolling, misogyny and racism problem that Twitter has. Most trolls do so in anonymity. It would help victims of trolling know that followers are real people who are using their real or at least verified names, rather that it just being a total crap shoot. Also verified accounts have better tools to screen replies, mentions and DM's. Why not just make that available for EVERYONE to better protect themselves, not just the ones that make in the paper? Is a high school girl with 300 followers less important than a celebrity with 3 million?

This is the one time that Twitter actually could separate real people from bots, trolls, and spam accounts and they flubbed it.

What Twitter is saying, and saying it openly, is that there are only a few accounts that are important.

You make a good point. Verified does eliminate the possibility of someone being anonymous. So it could have been a good tool for Twitter in helping to eliminate the real problem they have with people who are bullying others or spewing hateful language or whatever it is that they're doing that isn't conducive to a pleasant atmosphere. I originally thought the whole verified open to every thing was in response to the horrible time that Leslie Jones had on Twitter and that maybe that experience had awakened Twitter to the nasty things that happen on their platform. Sadly, if opening up verified to everyone was an effort to combat that problem, they've screwed it up.

So, verified again becomes mostly a status symbol, and those people who could be vulnerable and need protection are left at the mercy of trolls. That's sad, and definitely not good for Twitter.

Harold Mansfield
08-02-2016, 02:29 PM
My second account was also denied. Checked all of the boxes. Apparently I'm not important enough for a simple identity verification. Twitter is full of it. Same old tone deaf company.

Fulcrum
08-02-2016, 03:22 PM
And this surprises you Harold?

Harold Mansfield
08-02-2016, 04:18 PM
And this surprises you Harold?
Nope. But for some reason I keep rooting for them, and they keep telling me I'm wasting my time.

Fulcrum
08-02-2016, 04:47 PM
I think this sums it up quite well:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQoC5tIXA3s