Social Media Payments and Perverse Incentives

Terence Eden — Sun, 15 Feb 2026 12:34:23 +0000

At the recent "Protocols for Publishers" event, a group of us were talking about news paywalls, social media promotion, and the embarrassment of having to ask for money.

What if, we said, you could tip a journalist directly on social media? Or reward your favourite creator without leaving the platform? Or just say thanks by buying someone a pint?

Here's a trivial mock-up:

Of course, this hides a ton of complexity. Does it show your local currency symbol? Does the platform take a cut or does it just pass you to the poster's preferred platform? Do users want to be able to tip as well as / instead of reposting and favouriting?

But I think the real problem is the perverse incentives it creates. We already know that relentless A|B testing of monetisation strategies leads to homogeneity and outrage farming. Every YouTuber has the same style of promotional thumbnail. Rage-baiters on Twitter know what drives the algorithm and pump out unending slurry.

Even if we ignore those who want to burn the world, content stealers like @CUTE_PUPP1E5 grab all the content they can and rip-off original creators. At the moment that's merely annoying, but monetisation means a strong incentive to steal content.

When people inevitably get scammed, would that damage the social media platform? Would promoting a payment link lead to liability? Now that money is involved, does that make hacking more attractive?

And yet… Accounts add payment links to their profiles all the time. Lots of accounts regularly ask for donor and sponsors. GitHub sponsors exist and I don't see evidence of people impersonating big projects and snaffling funds.

It is somewhat common for platforms to pay for publishers to be on their site. If you're starting up a new service then you need to give people an incentive to be there. That might be as a payer or receiver.

Personally, I'd love a frictionless way to throw a quid to a helpful blog post, or effortlessly donate to a poster who has made me laugh. Selfishly, I'd like it if people paid me for my Open Source or (micro)blogging.

I don't know whether Mastodon or BlueSky will ever have a payments button - and I have no influence on their decision-making process - but I'd sure like to see them experiement.

Or, feel free to send me a tip!

An Easy Guide To BlueSky Verification

Terence Eden — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 12:34:21 +0000

The new Twitter-Wannabe BlueSky has an interesting approach to verifying accounts. Rather than you sending in your passport, or paying a 3rd party, or bribing an employee - you can self-verify for free!

This opens up verification to small organisations, individuals, and anyone who wants to prove who they are. Brilliant!

Verification means that your @username will change to @Your.Website.com - this means that everyone can see your BlueSky account is owned by that specific website. When you change your name, you keep all your followers and posts.

Here are some organisations and people at risk of impersonation who have already done this:

UK Newspaper https://bsky.app/profile/theguardian.com
Trade Union https://bsky.app/profile/utaw.tech
Labour MPs https://bsky.app/profile/sarahowen.org.uk
Small Publisher https://bsky.app/profile/canongate.co.uk
Fun Website https://bsky.app/profile/openbenches.org

There is an easy way to get verified and a hard way. Let's do the easy way!

2) Change Your User ID

Follow these steps:

Visit https://bsky.app/settings
Scroll down and select "Change Handle"
Click "I have my own domain"
Select "No DNS Panel". The screen should look like this:
Type in the domain name you want to verify
Click "Copy File Contents"

Keep this web page open.

3) Copy and Save Your DID

On your clipboard, you will have a bit of text which looks like this did:plc:dip7ueksh627fxacagfrdyz2

Save it in a text file called atproto-did

It is very important that the file doesn't end with .txt - it must be called atproto-did and nothing else.

The file should only contain the text you copied. Nothing else.

4) Upload The File To Your Website

This is the only technical bit of the process. You need the ability to upload a file to your website. I don't know whether you use FTP, a control panel, or email things to the person who manages your site.

You need to save the atproto-did file in a folder called /.well-known/

If that folder doesn't exist, create it. The folder name must be typed exactly like that, with the dot at the start.

You can check it has worked by visiting YourWebsite.com/.well-known/atproto-did

If you can see your DID, it worked!

5) Change Your Username

Go back to the "Change Handle" web page you opened in Step 2.

Click "Verify Text File" and then "Update".

6) That's It!

Feel free to share this guide with people and organisations who want to get verified on BSky.

Leave a comment if you found it useful or want me to clarify something.

BSky – Terence Eden’s Blog