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.
It’d be nice to see public libraries take over this sort of thing. They can do community-based physical verification, without cost. They can assert that someone is legit, without revealing any private info. They’d have to be low-drama, boring infrastructure, in that they merely assert “This person is real”, without getting into “This person is good”.
It’s not sexy like a new protocol or blockchain or whatever, but IMO it’s one of the few ways to really handle the problem, and also is a good way to help build local community.
That’s a step away from showing ID. It’s not okay because your local (government owned) library does it. Even wirhout much info, it still becomes easier to dox if you have the person’s location.
It would also be insanely complicated. How many libraries would need to be contacted and taught how to use some kind of software for this. It would be a mess.