TMF Jeff
TMF owner and co-founder
- Joined
- Apr 2, 2001
- Messages
- 27,055
- Points
- 83
One of the things I always have on my mind is the problem of catfishing on the forum, and ways to address it. It's mostly a problem of men pretending to be women so they can trick people into talking sexy with them, but sometimes it's men using pictures of much better looking men in their profiles too I think. I've seen a few accounts over the years that I know are fake, with pictures of super-buff young men in the profile.
And occasionally I seem to hear about someone who gets tricked into going to a meetup that's never going to happen, which is particularly problematic, and something I find extremely objectionable. To be fair, I don't think that's a significant issue for our community
...
So one option I've been considering recently is having a way for people to become Verified - we would ask them to appear briefly on Skype or another face-time app with a moderator, and then they would get a blue checkmark next to their username.
The way that I envision this eroding catfishing is that when someone has a bunch of pictures with their profile that seem improbable, someone could reasonably ask "If you're comfortable sharing your picture, why aren't you verified?"
And we would create a discussion forum that is only accessible to verified people as a way for real people to meet each other.
What do you think of that? Does it sound viable to you? Or does it sound like it would be unnecessarily intrusive?
Does it sound like an unwelcome burden? Or more like a way to rise above the fakes?
I've thought it through a number of times, but my brain is just an echo chamber for my own thoughts. What do your brains make of this?
And occasionally I seem to hear about someone who gets tricked into going to a meetup that's never going to happen, which is particularly problematic, and something I find extremely objectionable. To be fair, I don't think that's a significant issue for our community
...
So one option I've been considering recently is having a way for people to become Verified - we would ask them to appear briefly on Skype or another face-time app with a moderator, and then they would get a blue checkmark next to their username.
The way that I envision this eroding catfishing is that when someone has a bunch of pictures with their profile that seem improbable, someone could reasonably ask "If you're comfortable sharing your picture, why aren't you verified?"
And we would create a discussion forum that is only accessible to verified people as a way for real people to meet each other.
What do you think of that? Does it sound viable to you? Or does it sound like it would be unnecessarily intrusive?
Does it sound like an unwelcome burden? Or more like a way to rise above the fakes?
I've thought it through a number of times, but my brain is just an echo chamber for my own thoughts. What do your brains make of this?
