It seems to me this feature would be much better if users could subscribe to verifiers the way they can labelers, perhaps with the official verifier subscribed by default. The current implementation feels centralized in a way that conflicts with BlueSky's stated goals.
I'd agree that would be nice, but at least they can change into that in the future if they want.
Hilariously, it's kind of less centralized than I expected: there's no "Bluesky is the web of the root of trust" here, only "Bluesky chooses which records convert to UI" which leaves the whole system open for others.
After further consideration, I think the entire idea is a mistake. Labelers already provide a way for anyone to assert things about an account, which could include "@bsky.app says this account belongs to a famous person".
It would be better to lean into BlueSky's feature set than to mimic Twitter.
Labelers have different semantics, I agree that you could do it that way, but there's also good arguments that that's not the right use-case. Changing my personal information won't invalidate labels, for example.
They do have different semantics, but the more I think about it, the more I think that's better.
The blue check on your account doesn't tell me what about the account has been verified. It probably means you're the Steve Klabnik that shows up a bunch of places in a web search, but that would mean much less if someone else also had that name and a web presence.
Your verified domain name tells me much more, but I recognize that's not the right verification approach for everyone. What I think would be more meaningful is labels like "@rust-lang.org says @steveklabnik.com is a Rust core developer" or perhaps a label with some metadata given special treatment in the UI showing mutual affiliation, e.g. "@rust-lang.org and @steveklabnik.com say they're affiliated with each other".
Edit - a further refinement: instead of verificatiions, allow accounts to feature labels placed on them by others for special treatment in the UI.
That’s how this feature works. If you click on the blue check, it even shows which account did the verification.
It’s true that it’s not generally exposed yet. We’ll see if they do. I think that would be neat but I also am unsure if that’s what non-power users truly want.
It's close, but it falls short on two points: verification doesn't tell me what the verifier is asserting about the account, and the current implementation doesn't embrace decentralization, at least in the UI.
