Terence Eden’s Blog
An Easy Guide To BlueSky Verification
The new Twitter-Wannabe BlueSky has an interesting approach to verifying accounts. Rather than you sending in your passport, or paying a 3rd party, or bribing an employee - you can self-verify for free!
This opens up verification to small organisations, individuals, and anyone who wants to prove who they are. Brilliant!
Verification means that your @username will change to @Your.Website.com - this means that everyone can see your BlueSky account is owned by that specific website.
Here are some organisations and people at risk of impersonation who have already done this:
- UK Newspaper https://bsky.app/profile/theguardian.com
- Trade Union https://bsky.app/profile/utaw.tech
- Labour MPs https://bsky.app/profile/sarahowen.org.uk
- Small Publisher https://bsky.app/profile/canongate.co.uk
- Fun Website https://bsky.app/profile/openbenches.org
There is an easy way to get verified and a hard way. Let's do the easy way!
1) Sign Up For BlueSky
Sign up and register a username. This can be anything you want. For example, I registered edent.bsky.social
2) Change Your User ID
Follow these steps:
- Visit https://bsky.app/settings
- Scroll down and select "Change Handle"
- Click "I have my own domain"
- Select "No DNS Panel". The screen should look like this:
- Type in the domain name you want to verify
- Click "Copy File Contents"
Keep this web page open.
3) Copy and Save Your DID
On your clipboard, you will have a bit of text which looks like this did:plc:dip7ueksh627fxacagfrdyz2
Save it in a text file called atproto-did
It is very important that the file doesn't end with .txt - it must be called atproto-did and nothing else.
The file should only contain the text you copied. Nothing else.
4) Upload The File To Your Website
This is the only technical bit of the process. You need the ability to upload a file to your website. I don't know whether you use FTP, a control panel, or email things to the person who manages your site.
You need to save the atproto-did file in a folder called /.well-known/
If that folder doesn't exist, create it. The folder name must be typed exactly like that, with the dot at the start.
You can check it has worked by visiting YourWebsite.com/.well-known/atproto-did
If you can see your DID, it worked!
5) Change Your Username
Go back to the "Change Handle" web page you opened in Step 2.
Click "Verify Text File" and then "Update".
6) That's It!
Feel free to share this guide with people and organisations who want to get verified on BSky.
Leave a comment if you found it useful or want me to clarify something.
