TL;DR: Hi my favorite penis-havers & penis enthusiasts, this is just a little information about getting verified and also some information about protecting yourself when chatting online (and inevitably exchanging/trading pictures of yourself) with strangers. If you already know what catfishing is, skip to PART 2. If you already know how to complete verification and why it’s important, skip to PART 3. If you already know how to protect yourself by reverse-image-searching pictures, skip to PART 4. Read part 4!
PART 1: Catfishing and impersonation is when someone is using pictures and claiming to be in photos that are not of them. They might find a random picture on the internet and post it to get karma or try to trick you into sending them your personal images and get your personal account information by enticing you with photos of someone else. People tend to catfish when they are insecure with themselves, and they steal more “attractive” people’s photos to get attention. Catfishing/impersonation is strictly against our rules and any other subreddit that asks members to post pictures of themselves. Catfishing is dangerous, selfish, a breach of trust, and simply not right from any moral standpoint.
PART 2: Verification helps combat impersonation by creating a culture of verifiers that make it harder for catfishers to get away with stealing others' images. People will be less likely to catfish when they know that there is a verification process in place. The more people that verify their Reddit accounts, the more effective it is. You can trust that anyone who is verified and has the appropriate flair is who they say they are. Your mind can be at ease knowing that the person in the pictures you see is the person you are talking to. You know someone is verified when they have the subreddits corresponding “Verified" flair next to their usernames. I'll include images of what a flair looks like on the wiki page and add a link here.
You DO NOT need to show your face to complete verification on most NSFW subreddits, and completing verification is really simple! All you have to do is follow these steps:
1. Take a picture of your fully visible penis, along with a piece of paper with the following handwritten information: your Reddit username, the subreddit’s name "r/penis", and today’s date (the date you are posting your verification picture.)
2. Upload and submit your picture to r/penis with the word “verification” in your title.
Alternatively, you can submit a link (from imgur.com or something similar) to your picture in modmail if you do not want to publicly post your verification picture. (This way can be quick and lazy, we don’t care about getting your very best nudes, we just want a clear image of your penis with a legible handwritten note.)
**If you have completed verification for another subreddit, you don’t need to do it again for r/penis, just send a modmail with a link to your original post or mention my username “u/borderlinejace” as a comment on the post, and I will be happy to add the "verified" flair to your username for r/penis
This goes without saying, but anyone who tries to manually add the “verified” flair to their own username without following the above process will be banned. I made the flair a specific color (you can’t tell the color difference on mobile Reddit; they just all look blue) and made it mod-only so I will know if you aren’t actually verified.
PART 3: Mods don’t catch every impersonator, so it is very important that you learn how to reverse image search pictures for yourself. Reverse image searching isn’t perfect as some images aren’t as popular and won’t be found through reverse image search. In some cases, images stolen from other Redditors and from new and otherwise amateur posters may not trigger a reverse image search, so always follow your instincts and go with your gut feeling about whether or not someone is catfishing you. It never hurts to ask someone to verify they are the person in the pictures privately for you or on their Reddit account before you trade pictures with them. Definitely try to get verification before meeting up with any stranger you meet online/on an app. Be cautious and be safe!
Here are the steps to reverse-image-search a picture:
1. Save the photo (typically by screenshotting it) and crop out any borders around the photo from the screenshot or black bars on the sides, top, and bottom.
2. Go to google.com/searchbyimage/upload on desktop (if on mobile, you’ll need to click the menu button and select “request desktop site”). You can also use Yandex.com/images and click the camera icon.
3. Click “upload/select image” and choose the image you wish to search from your library.
4. Google and Yandex will try to find your image and visually similar images of the one you uploaded. They then will provide links to other places you can find the image if it is found.
It is safe to suspect someone of impersonation if their picture gets a lot of reverse-image-search-hits, especially from various porn websites. Pay attention to when the picture was posted to these other websites and how new a Reddit Account is, both can lead to obvious signs that someone is catfishing. This method isn’t perfect, so try not to assume someone is catfishing you, and certainly do not insult or berate them for it. This is so you can keep yourself safe, not so you can be rude and attack people on the internet. (Read step 4.)
PART 4: If you think someone is catfishing by using stolen images from the internet or impersonating another Redditor, someone from Twitter, someone from onlyfans, etc. please REPORT THEM or send a modmail to the moderators about them and include links. Please DO NOT call them out in the comments saying they're fake or have stolen images. If you do this they will delete their post, and I will not be able to ban them from our community as I won’t be able to see their username anymore. At the very least, comment their username in your comment, so I can investigate their profile if they delete the post.
If you have any questions or if there is any other relevant information on this topic you think I should know/add to this post feel free to comment below so I can add it to the wiki as well.