[marius_k]

We should not call it verification IMHO. The malicious user can create random website and add the rel=me. The "green" link makes impression that the user is "verified".

(I would prefer to have some chain of trust like pgp but with a better UX.)

[simonw]

I would hope the design doesn't lead to that effect, because it's not like Twitter where there's a blue tick mark that means "verified" v.s. "non verified".

Instead, there is an area on your profile page with links, and the links themselves that are verified are shown in with a tick - which should indicate "this user is verified as being linked to this website", not "this user is a verified user".

I'd be interested in research that shows that the Mastodon approach confuses people. My hunch is that it doesn't, but it's just a hunch.