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Cover image for RIP Blue Check πŸͺ¦
Erin Bensinger for The DEV Team

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RIP Blue Check πŸͺ¦

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 crucialβ€”we never could have established the community we now have without the engagement, visibility, and connection that Twitter provided in our early days. πŸ’™

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.

Our blue check with the text
We think we're notable!! πŸ₯²

And today...it's gone for good. Thankfully, our community on Twitter is more than 300k strong, so we're not easily imitated. πŸ˜‰

How do I know I'm connecting with the real dev.to?

Our main Twitter account is DEV Community @ThePracticalDev, and that's not going to change.

We also maintain a Twittersphere 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 🌱

favicon fosstodon.org

Why not keep the blue check by paying for Twitter Blue?

Here at Forem, 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 growingβ€”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 on building the future.

Won't you join us? 😁

Top comments (61)

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thomasbnt profile image
Thomas Bnt β˜•

We made the decision not to reinvest in the past/current social media landscape in order to focus on building the future.

Yes! πŸ•ΊπŸΌ

I give you the blue check don't worry 🌱

DEV confirmed?

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erinposting profile image
Erin Bensinger

Thanks Thomas! Your blue check is all the validation we need 😁

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thomasbnt profile image
Thomas Bnt β˜• • Edited

You deserve any check, but... Does it have to be a check?
I could have put a coffee instead β˜•

DEV coffed

Because coffee/cappuccino > blue check

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thecheapaudiophile profile image
Griff Polk

Mmmmmmmmm… cappucino. STARBUCKS HERE I COME!!!! LOOK OUT!!!! (Proceeds to place order online for 300 cappucinos)

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thomasbnt profile image
Thomas Bnt β˜•

300 cappuccinos for us, no problem β˜•

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thecheapaudiophile profile image
Griff Polk

Honestly, I might have an unhealthy addiction but its worth it.

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ben profile image
Ben Halpern

Absolutely

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michaeltharrington profile image
Michael Tharrington

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.

A clip from Bob's Bugers of Bob saying "It's the principle" to different folks in a montage of memories.

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cheetah100 profile image
Peter Harrison

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?

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andrewmat profile image
AndrΓ© Matulionis • Edited

"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. πŸ’™"

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cheetah100 profile image
Peter Harrison

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.

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andrewmat profile image
AndrΓ© Matulionis

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

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assunluis80 profile image
Luís Assunção

Just don't bother to answer him. I think the guy has no clue of what are you talking about.

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michaeltharrington profile image
Michael Tharrington

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 β€” 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.

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stevepenner profile image
Steve P.

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.

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bsides profile image
Rafael Pereira

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.

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tonyknibbmakarahealth profile image
TonyTheTonyToneTone

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.

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stevepenner profile image
Steve P.

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?

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tonyknibbmakarahealth profile image
TonyTheTonyToneTone

Because they don't need to. You're either verified or you're not.

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stevepenner profile image
Steve P.

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.

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tonyknibbmakarahealth profile image
TonyTheTonyToneTone

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.

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ashleyjsheridan profile image
Ashley Sheridan

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.

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tonyknibbmakarahealth profile image
TonyTheTonyToneTone

Twitter, like most social media, was not made for corporations; it was made for people.

The blue check system is about verifying users.

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cbid2 profile image
Christine Belzie

I thought the payment requirement was a fluke until I saw this article . Now you know it’s bad when BeyoncΓ© is among the folks who lost it.

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andypiper profile image
Andy Piper

Now, add link rel="me" to DEV profile pages, and we can verify ourselves on Mastodon!

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erinposting profile image
Erin Bensinger

Added this to a Discussion in our public repo! Great suggestion πŸ₯³

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thomasbnt profile image
Thomas Bnt β˜•

So a good idea from Mastodon!

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billernet profile image
BillπŸ’‘

The blue check is meaningless now. Most of the ones I see are random people with... "hot takes". I agree with your decision to not pay for it!

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bdbchgg profile image
bdbch

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. :/

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rachelfazio profile image
Rachel Fazio

We made the decision not to reinvest in the past/current social media landscape in order to focus on building the future.

YES

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homezonic profile image
Akande Joshua

Twitter ain't the same anymore.
Regardless we move!

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michaelsynan profile image
Michael Synan

I prefer mastodon these days :)

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bsides profile image
Rafael Pereira • Edited

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!

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andrewbrown profile image
Andrew Brown πŸ‡¨πŸ‡¦

When will DEV role out unicorn purple checkmark?
I need to be verified lol