Here's a wrinkle: I've been being pissy about verifying myself for Bsky messages and now I've come to the cliff edge because it looks as if I can't play Fortnite without doing it and that's one of my kid's fave things to do together...
Replies
Does gist.github.com/mary-ext/6e2... help?
aug 29, 2025, 2:49 pm • 1 0 • view
Oh, I work around it already, I just realised there's no point if I'm doing the thing anyway :)
aug 29, 2025, 2:54 pm • 1 0 • view
And it makes not sense to do it for Fortnite and refuse to use the same verification for Bsky. I mean, it sort of does maybe but I'd be *really* stretching the borderline between principle and making one's own life needlessly annoying.
aug 29, 2025, 2:45 pm • 11 0 • view
out of curiosity, why do you not want to do it here? the facial test is quick and doesn't keep any information, and you've presumably handed your personal info to a bazillion sites in order to eg buy things or sign up to things before anyway...? (not judging, genuinely curious!)
aug 29, 2025, 2:48 pm • 4 0 • view
It's irrational. I'm basically an irritable nine year old with a grudge who routinely connects through a VPN because I once wrote a novel about surveillance and never got over it. (But literally everyone should use VPNs for everything, clear their caches and obfuscate as much as possible.)
aug 29, 2025, 2:53 pm • 8 0 • view
VPNs went from being cutting-edge privacy research in the 90s crypto wars to "how many of us commute to work" in the 00s, to "how we watch country-restricted videos" in the 10s, to "bah, we actually need to protect privacy again" in the 20s.
aug 29, 2025, 5:07 pm • 0 0 • view
If that was Karla's Choice, I just discovered the other day that it exists, and am currently reading it :-) But verification on Bsky isn't super-important, unless you get attacked by scammers with fake account names similar to yours.
aug 29, 2025, 5:04 pm • 1 0 • view
:) It was Gnomon. But no, the verification thing is a UK age verification law which requires me to prove I’m not twelve to get DMs. It’s… mildly absurd and I’m being childish about it.
aug 29, 2025, 5:12 pm • 2 0 • view
Oh, right, that one. Yes, that's annoying and you might need to do it, at least if Bsky's cooperating.
aug 29, 2025, 5:15 pm • 1 0 • view
Well, strictly speaking I should but I don’t have to. Bsky’s implementation is, erm, unenthusiastic. It’s easily circumvented. But if I’m doing it for Fortnite, it’s the same service. It makes my tantrum a bit more overtly pointless :)
aug 29, 2025, 5:30 pm • 1 0 • view
(Because we are mapped SO MUCH and it isn't good for us at all.)
aug 29, 2025, 2:53 pm • 3 0 • view
see when I was an extremely stupid teenager I got given a free USB stick at a Fashion Week event held by the CHINESE EMBASSY and I used it for years, so I feel very relaxed about probably millions of people having access to every single thing I've ever done online
aug 29, 2025, 2:54 pm • 7 0 • view
It all depends a bit on your threat model. My concern comes out of the war on terror years and the trend for UK governments to suppress protest and police opinion, plus now the shift in the British right towards open authoritarianism. There's a lot of lists I'd rather not be on in 2030.
aug 29, 2025, 3:03 pm • 5 0 • view
oh yeah that's entirely fair, I was mostly being daft - I do think that ultimately, though, unless you're really deciding to be Very Offline there's just going to be a level of info out about you that you can't do much about, so eg age verification on here isn't the end of the world
aug 29, 2025, 3:04 pm • 4 0 • view
Yeah, you're not wrong, I just obfuscate habitually - I get the weirdest collection of accurate and bonkers online ads - and as I say: I have an irrational annoyance about this specific thing which I'm obviously going to put aside BUT SULK LOUDLY ABOUT :)
aug 29, 2025, 3:06 pm • 5 0 • view
I'm assuming you know that Bluesky and Fortnite use the same age verification service, KWS?
aug 29, 2025, 2:57 pm • 0 0 • view
That was my starting point :)
aug 29, 2025, 3:05 pm • 1 0 • view
Free associative moment: I sat with my back pressed against a safety barrier in Edinburgh and watched Chappell Roan on Wednesday and that was pretty amazing. Also they had great pizzas - really good crust, even if the tomato mix was waaaay saltier than necessary.
aug 29, 2025, 2:47 pm • 14 0 • view
Yes, you do need to get back to writing, don’t you?
aug 29, 2025, 3:57 pm • 2 0 • view
POV: You’re not doing it for Fortnite, but for your kids. Not to be dramatic or to inappropriately invoke transitive axioms. (Definitely been there.)
aug 29, 2025, 2:51 pm • 0 0 • view