I agree, photos with people holding up a piece of paper are not worth much as a proof. Actually, they can do more harm than good, as they create baseless trust.
Instead of trying to prevent impersonation, I'd suggest promoting truly original input and ignoring unoriginal, unless it's some kind of news and it's clearly marked as a re-post, like this one for example.
I think Google is reliable enough so that a content's originality can be verified by running a search on a random fragment of the text. This is what I do if I find a post worthwhile and the content claims to be original (i.e. there is no link supplied):
- I upvote, if Google search shows nothing by Steem.
- I don't upvote, if Google search shows other sources and there is no proof that the Steem account belongs to the original author.
Also, I think that if you are a good content creator, you should be able to create an introductory post on Steem that confirms your writing skills. If you don't want to bother with that, you are probably a fake.
To sum up: let's not fight with impersonations, instead let's concentrate on promoting original content and clearly marked re-posts.
We share the same sentiments regarding original content, but I do think that a verification/reputation system would prove to be very beneficial to Steem. Sure original content is great no matter if the author is verified as who they say they are or not, but what if the author is claiming to be Roger Ver? People would upvote regardless of the content most likely, simply because they claim to be Roger Ver. Then what happens when the person running the account, after making many worthwhile original content post, tries to setup some sort of business deal with someone on Steem? This is not a great example, just the first to pop into my noggin'.
We could also potentially run into issues with people claiming to be from a certain company, a certain crypto-magazine and on and on and they could be earning money off of the reputations others have built up in the cryptocurrency ecosystem or end up scamming someone once they've established a foothold on Steem. There are many users here that are not used to the kind of shenanigans that go on in the crypto-world. Even long-time crypto-enthusiast are taken by crafty scammers from time to time. I feel this type of system could help alleviate a lot of that from happening and put a lot of people at ease, make communication easier with high-profile account names and increase business for legitimate businesses and professionals.
No one wants to continually have to prove themselves to new people. Doing it once and getting it over with should be enough and then everyone will know this person/company is controlling a certain account and dealing with them should be less burdensome with all of the verification out of the way. They can just do business with a certain level of trust right out of the gate without having to repeatedly prove to a new reader/customer etc, that they are who they say they are.
I agree, im having trouble getting my photography posts off the ground, they only last for a few minuites before they dont show up in the category any more, so I dont know if its anything im doing wrong, but its hard to make your posts gain enough attention to stay at the top and get views.
Totally agree can game those soo easy. You need more proof, like social media, etc. But then marketers like me out there have 30+ social media accounts that are fake and have been active for 5+ years with pics, comments, activity, etc so you would never know if I didn't want you to....
if you guys do enjoy original content - i suggest you look at my posts - making creative content to uplife and inspire :)
i agree with you but sigh.... sad thing is I've post original contents and woke up to a (-5) with the new reputation thingy and found this post.