Verifying Links in Mastodon Using More Mastodon

2024-01-08 10:13:47Z (last updated 2024-01-08 10:13:47Z)

(Skip to the section "Verifying you control another Mastodon/Fedi account" if you want to skip the boring explanation)

Verifying links in your profile fields

In Mastodon (and probably the wider parts of the Fediverse as well), you can put links in your profile fields. Those links can also be verified.

Mastodon gives this thing that it asks you to put into your website:

Mastodon

The important part is the rel="me" part. It says "yes, this is me".

Of course, it would have to link to your actual Mastodon profile's URL, the above is just an example. But place that into your website and link your website in your profile fields and you'll have links verified.

That's the stuff you probably already know.

Verifying links in your profile fields without having the link visible

The HTML snippet I just gave you is one way to do it. Another way to do it is like this:

Put that within your element and now you can have links verified while actually having no links visible to the user.

Mastodon does talk about this, but doesn't give examples. If you needed one, there you go.

Verifying you control another Mastodon/Fedi account

What if you wanted to prove that you control an alt account? Or some other account?

For this example, there will be Account 1 and Account 2:

1. On Account 1, put the URL for Account 2 in a profile field

2. On Account 2, put the URL for Account 1 in a profile field

3. On both accounts, save your profile again (no changes needed, just save it). Then you should have the verification check marks on both accounts.

Important things:

• You cannot use your fediverse handle instead of a URL to the profile. It just won't work.
• Both accounts must link to each other.

The "Account 1" and "Account 2" in this example can be any fedi account, provided you control both of them. You can also have any number of fedi accounts linked, provided you have enough profile fields and put links to each profile in all profiles. It can get complicated quite fast.

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