It's a sad occasion on this 21st of April: due to our decision not to purchase a Twitter Blue subscription for our main Twitter account, we've lost our blue check. 😭
The Story of DEV's Blue Check
We earned our verification badge in 2020. This was a huge honor, as DEV started as a humble Twitter profile way back in 2014 before becoming the platform and company that it is today. The growth we experienced on Twitter in those first six years was crucial—we never could have established the community we now have without the engagement, visibility, and connection that Twitter provided in our early days. 💙
Our blue check remained undisturbed for two incredible years until late 2022, when it endured a few rapid-fire design changes and eventually became a "legacy check" indicating that we may or may not be notable.
We think we're notable!! 🥲
And today...it's gone for good. Thankfully, our community on Twitter ismore than 300k strong, so we're not easily imitated. 😉
How do I know I'm connecting with thereal dev.to?
Our main Twitter account isDEV Community@ThePracticalDev, and that's not going to change.
We also maintain aTwittersphere of satellite accounts based on specific languages, frameworks, and interests. They're a little more specific than our main account, so we recommend following the accounts related to your interests!
And if you're done with the Bird App entirely, you can find us in the Fediverse@thepracticaldev@fosstodon.org, where we have a fancy green check verifying our identity.
#DEVCommunity (@thepracticaldev@fosstodon.org) - Fosstodon
8.46K Posts, 87 Following, 6.95K Followers · A community of software developers sharing coding resources and general commentary.Built on Forem, an OSS for building online community 🌱
fosstodon.orgWhy not keep the blue check by paying for Twitter Blue?
Here atForem, the company behind DEV, we're on a mission to build safe, modern, and independent communities on open source software. We understand as well as anyone that the social media landscape is always evolving, changing, and growing—and that we need to do the same.
We made the decision not to reinvest in the past/current social media landscape in order to focus onbuilding the future.
Won't you join us? 😁
Top comments(61)
- LocationFrance
- PronounsHe/him
- Joined
We made the decision not to reinvest in the past/current social media landscape in order to focus on building the future.
Yes! 🕺🏼
I give you the blue check don't worry 🌱
Thanks Thomas! Your blue check is all the validation we need 😁
- LocationFrance
- PronounsHe/him
- Joined
You deserve any check, but... Does it have to be a check?
I could have put a coffee instead ☕
Because coffee/cappuccino > blue check
- PronounsHe/Him
- Joined
Mmmmmmmmm… cappucino. STARBUCKS HERE I COME!!!! LOOK OUT!!!! (Proceeds to place order online for 300 cappucinos)
- LocationFrance
- PronounsHe/him
- Joined
300 cappuccinos for us, no problem ☕
- PronounsHe/Him
- Joined
Honestly, Imight have an unhealthy addiction but its worth it.
- Email
- LocationNY
- EducationMount Allison University
- PronounsHe/him
- WorkCo-founder at Forem
- Joined
Absolutely
- Email
- LocationNorth Carolina
- EducationBFA in Creative Writing
- Pronounshe/him
- WorkSenior Community Manager at DEV
- Joined
While it's a bummer to lose the blue check mark, I am really glad that@ThePracticalDev is not paying for it. I can't get down with the idea of paid verification... It's the principle.
- LocationAuckland, New Zealand
- EducationQBE
- WorkExecutive Director at DevCentre Limited
- Joined
What principle? A local newspaper put a paywall up and I stopped using them. Elon turned this into a "I'm supporting the platform I use" symbol. Now, twitter is about the same as it was; a pointless waste of time, for me anyway, but I'm curious about why people don't want to pay to help support a platform they apparently liked right up until being asked to help support it. Do you support dev.to by paying? Or are you opposed to paying them on principle too?
- LocationCampinas, SP
- WorkFrontend Web Developer at Nomad bank
- Joined
"Now, twitter is about the same as it was".
It is not, and no one is pretending it is.
"a pointless waste of time".
In the post it actually said the opposite:
"We never could have established the community we now have without the engagement, visibility, and connection that Twitter provided in our early days. 💙"
- LocationAuckland, New Zealand
- EducationQBE
- WorkExecutive Director at DevCentre Limited
- Joined
Wow, that's bad form. Immediately after I said "a pointless waste of time" I said "for me anyway". It isn't a community, and I think the illusion of community is at the heart of this.
- LocationCampinas, SP
- WorkFrontend Web Developer at Nomad bank
- Joined
You said you were curious to understand. I replied showing you how some of your assumptions were wrong, hoping to clarify why people are not so inclined to pay for the blue badge now
- Email
- LocationNorth Carolina
- EducationBFA in Creative Writing
- Pronounshe/him
- WorkSenior Community Manager at DEV
- Joined
The principle of having to pay month to month for a checkmark that verifies your Twitter account is indeed you is what feels off to me. I think people should be verified on the validity of who they are and not on if they got the cash to pay — I suppose I'm more of a fan of the old way. To be clear, I'm not totally against Twitter having some sort of paid membership option or coming up with some way for folks to support them monetarily, though I'm not sure what that'd be like... luckily, I don't have to think about it. But, I don't really like the idea of paid verification on a system like Twitter.
- LocationSacramento Valley
- EducationUniversity of California Davis, but in biochemistry, not IT
- WorkSharePoint "consultant" / "Info Tech Specialist I" if I were FTE
- Joined
Twitter's new management honors cash & currency and it's always been that for the new management. Whether it's the dollar or crypto, the only thing important other than their egomaniacal selves is how much you fill their bank accounts.
Making a billion or more selling zero-carbon electric cars is not the end in itself. Fighting against climate change is not the end in itself. These are just means to get fabulously rich...means no one else was exploiting.
- Joined
By comparing twitter to a local newspaper, your argument just went down the sink.
The mark was also about being verified, an authentic user or representative. It's now a no man's land with no interest of protecting information from fake news and all the sh*t we have to cover our heads from.
Also, it uses the same symbol, further misguiding what it once was.
It's very naive to compare to a local newspaper paywall. It's a lot more than that and I believe you know it. In that specific subject, a paywall is a choice for their business. Better media will come with different business choices if people don't support that specific one.
Also, twitter is not only a news medium, not it was supposed to be. It may change by the wish of it current owner but that doesn't change what people consumed so far. That limited vision is what is causing twitter to lose 89% of its advertisers - or I may be wrong, who knows? I can't wait to see how it turns out.
That's simply not true.
To pay for it, you have to verify that you're a real person.
Therefore you are VERIFIED.
Bots don't pay for checkmarks.
- LocationSacramento Valley
- EducationUniversity of California Davis, but in biochemistry, not IT
- WorkSharePoint "consultant" / "Info Tech Specialist I" if I were FTE
- Joined
I don't know who was not thinking things through at Twitter HQ--although those with bright ideas had probably been given severance the first week under new pathetic management.
The color scheme should have been carried through. VIP media (e.g. NYTime, WashPost, WSJ, etc) were given the gold checkmarks, government officials the silver or gray. Legacies with a certain number of followers (say, 100-500K, 500K-1M, 1-2M, and >2M) should have been given something like other web-safe colors, both paying and unpaying legacies with different colors, maybe dark color with light checkmark and light color with black checkmark.
If the military can come up with dozens of rank insignia, why can't Twitter?
Because they don't need to. You're either verified or you're not.
- LocationSacramento Valley
- EducationUniversity of California Davis, but in biochemistry, not IT
- WorkSharePoint "consultant" / "Info Tech Specialist I" if I were FTE
- Joined
There was only one purpose and role for verification under previous management: establishment of an influential identity.
Now there are two types. The one that existed under old (and respectable) management. And the new one, who is the person willing to help Elon at $8 per month try to recover to his facepalming decision to use $44 billion to acquire a property worth $5, maybe $10 billion now, and declining even more as "customers" leave the platform under dreadful management.
No doubt much to your annoyance, I think you're going to find that Elon will make Twitter an viable, profitable company. That began with dropping the dead weight, which is the action of good management.
Twitter doesn't need 450m freeloaders, it just needs 400m decent people with 200m who pay.
Which is where it's headed.
A blue checkmark now absolutely does not mean that the account is verified as it once was.
Take dev.to as an example. It's not a single person, so the blue check never meant the account was verified as a single person (which you've said it does if it's paid for). Account verification was more than just about identifying non-bots.
To put it into context, if I so wished, I could sign up for one of those throw-away payment methods online (the kind used to default fraudsters and spammers) and then create a new Twitter account right now complete with a blue check. Has it validated I am who I say I am? No, it's validated only that I've paid for an account.
Further muddying the water, Elon Musk himself has admitted to paying (or just administering) the blue check to accounts that specifically did not want to pay for it, like the Author Stephen King. This means that even if an account didn't pay, it could still be granted the tick on an apparent whim.
It's disingenuous to still claim that the current blue check system is about verifying users.
- EducationSUNY New Paltz
- Pronounsshe/her
- WorkWriting Tutor
- Joined
I thought the payment requirement was a fluke until I sawthis article. Now you know it’s bad when Beyoncé is among the folks who lost it.
- LocationKingston upon Thames, London, UK
- EducationModern History, Brasenose College, Oxford
- Pronounshe/they
- WorkFreelance consultant; DevRel at Mastodon gGmbH; open to opportunities.
- Joined
Now, addlink rel="me" to DEV profile pages, and we can verify ourselves on Mastodon!
Added this to aDiscussion in our public repo! Great suggestion 🥳
- LocationFrance
- PronounsHe/him
- Joined
So a good idea from Mastodon!
- LocationBerlin
- WorkFrontend Engineer at Tiptap
- Joined
I think dev.to will be my place to got for now. I'll miss the more general discussions over realtime events and news, but I'll dodge the site for good. The "For you" view is unusable right now because I only see unrelated Twitter Blue users. :/
- LocationLos Angeles, California
- EducationUniversity of Washington
- Pronounsthey/them
- WorkGraphic Designer
- Joined
We made the decision not to reinvest in the past/current social media landscape in order to focus on building the future.
YES
- LocationLagos, Nigeria
- WorkBackend Dev at Jamade IT Solutions
- Joined
Twitter ain't the same anymore.
Regardless we move!
- Email
- LocationNew York City, New York
- Joined
I prefer mastodon these days :)
- Joined
Like many here, I fully support the position to not buy the blue checkmark. It'd be weird to me to watch you support this nonsense. Thanks for sharing it!
- Email
- LocationSchreiber
- EducationStarfleet Academy
- WorkCEO at ExamPro
- Joined
When will DEV role out unicorn purple checkmark?
I need to be verified lol
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