How does a WP site verify itself?

[cogdog]

I've been trying to answer a friend's question, they are new to using the plugin, but I have never gotten anywhere myself.

How do you create a rel="me" link that will light up my WP site with a verification? Should it not be done by default that a site running the plugin is automatically verified? Or what am missing as far as the URL to use? This is for my blog https://cogdogblog.com which is federating via @barking@cogdogblog.com to show this profile

I am seeing a lot of people confused with the domain attribution settings, which have nothing to do with verification. Just trying to understand so I can explain to others.

[pfefferle]

The plugin is adding rel-me... you can see it here: https://browser.pub/barking@cogdogblog.com

[cogdog]

Sorry but I don't think the plugin is adding that, it's one I inserted into my menus

And it works to show as a verified link on my personal Mastodon account https://cosocial.ca/@cogdog I am not seeing a verified green box/check on the blog's profile (search for @barking@cogdogblog.com) nor do I get any on another ActivityPub enabled wordprees (@splotted@sadlyrobotic.cogdogblog.com).

I think I am missing a detail or understanding here.

[pfefferle]

How have you added the link? As an HTML <a> or simply pasted in the plain URL? Can you please try the last option?

[cogdog]

Trying! In the ActivityPub blog profile settings, I changed to a plain URL:

It is not verified in the Mastodon profile for @barking@cogdogblog.com

[pfefferle]

But does it add rel-me!?

[cogdog]

Not seeing it in my blog source. It's no big deal, I just was curious if it worked.

[oliinykdm]

Two different things get called "verification" here.

1. The green check on a website field in a Mastodon profile. Mastodon fetches that URL and looks for a link back to the actor with rel="me". The link has to be a real

<a href="…">

not a plain string in a menu or in the profile extra fields.

2. Domain attribution in Mastodon settings. That is unrelated. It does not light up the website field.

For a WordPress actor such as @barking@cogdogblog.com:

• Put the homepage URL as a plain URL in the blog profile extra fields (no HTML).

• On that homepage, add an HTML link to the actor, for example:

  Fediverse

  Use the actor URL the plugin shows, not the Mastodon search string.

• The homepage must be publicly reachable, not blocked for Mastodon’s crawler, and not replaced by a cached HTML page that dropped the rel="me".

browser.pub showing a rel-me attachment only means the actor object mentions the URL. Mastodon still has to find the same rel="me" on the page itself.

A site does not verify itself by default. The plugin publishes the actor. The green check is Mastodon comparing the field URL with the HTML on that URL.

[cogdog]

Thanks for the explanation. I have everything covered:

but no verification

Got an example of a profile for WP site that shows a green box?

[oliinykdm]

I guess I got the problem. You'd like to verify https://cogdogblog.com and make it appears "Verified" on your mastodon profile, but on this page there is no mentioning "rel=me" at all:

<a rel="me" href="https://cogdogblog.com/@barking" style="display:none">Mastodon</a>

Just add it and check again, it should become as green here:

[oliinykdm]

The tag is already on the homepage. I was wrong about it missing.

There are two:

https://cogdogblog.com/@barking is a 301 to https://cogdogblog.com.
The actor id is https://cogdogblog.com/?author=0.
The actor url is https://cogdogblog.com.

Mastodon does not use the rel="me" inside the actor JSON. It downloads the extra-field URL as HTML and looks for an href that equals the account URL. "/@barking" is neither the id nor the url, so the strings do not match.

https://cosocial.ca/@cogdog can show a green box because that is two different URLs pointing at each other. @barking@cogdogblog.com is trying to verify its own homepage with a third, redirecting path.

If you want to test it, point rel="me" at the raw actor URL (just with style="display:none" anywhere for test):

<a rel="me" href="https://cogdogblog.com/?author=0" style="display:none">Mastodon</a>

and purge LiteSpeed. I still would not expect this to behave like a normal Mastodon website check. The green box was built for an external page, not for a blog actor whose profile url is already the homepage.

[cogdog]

Thanks for all the efforts and suggestions. I have a hyperling with rel="me" to the actor id https://cogdogblog.com/?author=0 but still no green light on my blog's profile. I can live with it.

It's of really little importance to me, I was more curious.