I have been sitting here for about an hour sifting through the "needs verified" category. I think it's important that I play a role in that because I feel you earned the rank and not getting voted for feels shitty. It's not a popularity contest. All we have to go on is the evidence you present.
However, I am running into some trouble with many profiles. Here are some things I recommend:
1. Post many pics of you at your current rank.
2. If you have a certificate, post it (just take a picture)
3. Post pics of when you got promoted. Some people actually took a pic of their instructor's FB posts that talk about the promotion
4. Competition photos are great because they show that you were in the division of the rank you're claiming.
5. Pictures with famous people (who didn't promote you) do not help much.
6. If your instructor is on here and verified, have them verify you. I will automatically verify anyone who is verified by their instructor.
7. Black and White photos are useless...the belts have color.
8. Photos of you rolling and your rank isn't showing are uselss in verifying.
What criteria are others looking at? These are things I've been noticing.
If I don't know you personally/haven't met you or don't know about you from the scene, most likely not getting my vote. But that's just me. I like to keep it simple.
I’m a lowly 1 stripe white belt.
How do you get the photo verified? I did the selfie with the name/date/website on it, but nothing after almost a week.
Also, after photo verification, can you change the profile pic? Thanks all.
"I’m a lowly 1 stripe white belt. How do you get the photo verified? I did the selfie with the name/date/website on it, but nothing after almost a week. Also, after photo verification, can you change the profile pic? Thanks all."
I train with you and you would attend my school as soon as you verify your profile with your identity I vote for you and will give you 75 points. If I know you and verify you and Bill Jones will verify it because if I vouch for you he will vouch for you
"I train with you and you would attend my school as soon as you verify your profile with your identity I vote for you and will give you 75 points. If I know you and verify you and Bill Jones will verify it because if I vouch for you he will vouch for you"
Ha ha, yeah man! It’s the photo that’s holding me up. I think an admin has to approve the photo.
Bill may not remember me exactly, but we drank a shot together of Gentleman’s Jack for NYE nogi in our Boardman gym.
Actually, I had 2 shots because Jessie doesn’t drink whisky, ha ha
"Gotta get all your training pals to get registered so you can vouch for each other."
I donno, it says photo needs to be verified before I can get votes.
Besides, white belt needs zero votes so I believe once I get the photo approved I’m gtg
"Ha ha, yeah man! It’s the photo that’s holding me up. I think an admin has to approve the photo. Bill may not remember me exactly, but we drank a shot together of Gentleman’s Jack for NYE nogi in our Boardman gym. Actually, I had 2 shots because Jessie doesn’t drink whisky, ha ha"
Lol. I don't remember that. But it was definitely me
"I donno, it says photo needs to be verified before I can get votes. Besides, white belt needs zero votes so I believe once I get the photo approved I’m gtg"
You can see from "Edit profile" options if your profile pic & name has been verified (green tick).
Approving a profile photo should take like half a day the very maximum, typically way less. Yours has likely been rejected without you noticing the notification, so try to uploading it again. (Or you have, perhaps, uploaded the note selfie as the profile pic and the profile pic as the selfie, which is one reason for rejection.)
You can change the profile picture afterwards, it just needs to be verified again (so that it is you = that the face matches the "note selfie" you have uploaded). But that shouldn't take long.
I’m more than halfway there thanks to some gracious people that took the time to look at my profile. In the meantime, I’m trying to improve my profile by attempting to find pictures and competition records from back in the day before I joined any social media. Luckily, it’s really not necessary for your rank to be verified to enjoy the site.
"If I don't know you personally/haven't met you or don't know about you from the scene, most likely not getting my vote. But that's just me. I like to keep it simple."
To be honest that makes sense to me. I don’t expect random people online to verify my rank, I wouldn’t expect random black belts I’ve casually trained with to do that either
"If I don't know you personally/haven't met you or don't know about you from the scene, most likely not getting my vote. But that's just me. I like to keep it simple."
Yep, same. If I don't know you, I won't vote for you. There's more than enough people able to vote on here, meaning we can each choose our preferred approach. :)
"Yep, same. If I don't know you, I won't vote for you. There's more than enough people able to vote on here, meaning we can each choose our preferred approach. :)"
I think most can respect that stance. For me, I’ve been enjoying going through all the profiles and seeing other people’s Jiu Jitsu journey.
It's almost set up like a pyramid scheme. You get verified by getting everyone you know to sign up. Get X amount of people to sign up and you get bonus points! Yay! Lol hopefully I kept at least a good picture log of my ranks going up so far that I'm at least somewhat believable. I know I'm a shitty blue belt, you dont have to roll with me to know how shitty I am. Lol but if you do...I'm in Dallas and love to meet people who share the same obsession. I'll sweat on ya a bit for funsies. Lol
"I have been sitting here for about an hour sifting through the 'needs verified' category. I think it's important that I play a role in that because I feel you earned the rank and not getting voted for feels shitty. It's not a popularity contest. All we have to go on is the evidence you present. However, I am running into some trouble with many profiles. Here are some things I recommend: 1. Post many pics of you at your current rank. 2. If you have a certificate, post it (just take a picture) 3. Post pics of when you got promoted. Some people actually took a pic of their instructor's FB posts that talk about the promotion 4. Competition photos are great because they show that you were in the division of the rank you're claiming. 5. Pictures with famous people (who didn't promote you) do not help much. 6. If your instructor is on here and verified, have them verify you. I will automatically verify anyone who is verified by their instructor. 7. Black and White photos are useless...the belts have color. 8. Photos of you rolling and your rank isn't showing are uselss in verifying. What criteria are others looking at? These are things I've been noticing."
my problem with all of that is as follows:
1) no one in my gym is on this site
2) I was promoted like 8 months ago and haven't competed at brown belt yet (so no pics)
3) I didn't receive a certificate when I was promoted
I understand that people want to make super sure that they're giving votes to people who deserve it. Nobody likes a fake belt. My feeling is that anyone who bothers to make a profile on this site and goes through the trouble of verifying their identity and putting out other personal information about themself.....is likely legit. Fake belts aren't as big of a problem in this community as some hope it to be. We all love the drama.
"Yep, same. If I don't know you, I won't vote for you. There's more than enough people able to vote on here, meaning we can each choose our preferred approach. :)"
There are only 10K+ people on this site. There are like 7+ billion people on earth. I can see how some random person who stumbles upon this site trying to get verified will have a real shitty time if everyone adopts your stance on voting. Especially if they don't already know someone from the popular academies that frequent this site.
I can't wait to get verified so I can give the benefit of the doubt to every single person with a pic of themself with their belt and a pineapple.
"my problem with all of that is as follows: 1) no one in my gym is on this site 2) I was promoted like 8 months ago and haven't competed at brown belt yet (so no pics) 3) I didn't receive a certificate when I was promoted I understand that people want to make super sure that they're giving votes to people who deserve it. Nobody likes a fake belt. My feeling is that anyone who bothers to make a profile on this site and goes through the trouble of verifying their identity and putting out other personal information about themself.....is likely legit. Fake belts aren't as big of a problem in this community as some hope it to be. We all love the drama."
I think you underestimate the lengths that fakes go to. Beyond that, no one from my gym has verified me, I’ve never been given a promotion certificate, and I’m ugly so I avoid cameras. Nevertheless, I was able to get verified. Have some patience, relax, and just be active within this community.
Another piece of advice which I've seen people mention is be active. Of all the people that voucher for me I think I have rolled with maybe one of them and was known by maybe one more. With that said, by being active on there forum and people probably going "who is this guy"and then clocking in my profile, which I had filled out, they then felt comfortable voting for me.
With that said, I do believe there should be another status of being verified. The fact that Marcelo Garcia would have to go through the same exact process as a blue belt, no offense to blue belts, is a little extra in my opinion. And, while that's an extreme example as everyone on here knows Marcelo is legit, there are other well established individuals, who would have to go through just as much hoops and ladders, that doesn't seem as necessary. ie. If I were the highest ranking 10th Planet person I believe that is verified. Now you can say, well more 10P people should sign up. Ok, well then how do they get verified? Well they interact like everyone else. So then it's more about being social, then being able to verify your promotion. And, I'm just using that as an example, as I know a handful that didn't even compete their profile. Lol. With that said, I'm just speaking to the other side of the point, that I feel people struggle with.
This super cool resource/service is still growing. I know it will continue to grow and the verification process will become more accessible. I just wanted to share an opposing view, although I do still 100% agree with Bill.
P.S. At the end of the day our verification is on the mat.... But it is nice seeing that green "verified"
While I see your point with your Marcelo verification comment, the shortest verification time so far has been 12 minutes. I’d be surprised if he was not verified in less than 5 minutes if he were to ever join.
One thing that helps for me is some of your competition history if you have one. I am not saying you had to have competed to be confirmed, but its really easy when you are for example, a purple belt and have competitions as a purple belt listed so that I can easily look up on the tourney website. Even if you just got promoted its helpful to see a history at earlier belts leading up to your current belt. I can see that you competed two months ago at purple and your promotion history says you made it to brown last month. That makes sense to me.
For the record I even jumped on Flo Grappling once to watch a guy's fight 2 win to confirm what he put on his profile. Now I know for sure his rank is legit because he was killing that other guy. It was good so I stayed to watch the whole bout.
"do believe there should be another status of being verified. The fact that Marcelo Garcia would have to go through the same exact process as a blue belt, no offense to blue belts, is a little extra in my opinion. And, while that's an extreme example as everyone on here knows Marcelo is legit, there are other well established individuals, who would have to go through just as much hoops and ladders, that doesn't seem as necessary. ie. If I were the highest ranking 10th Planet person I believe that is verified. "
We are not doing preverification any longer, it makes no sense at this point.
So let’s think about it. What is the exact problem/“hoops” for a famous person to join? That they have to wait for verification like everyone else? Or that they have to fill out their profile themselves like some kind of peasant? :D
Being active on the forum is not necessary to become verified. 91% are verified and 91% are not active in the forums.
"well then how do they get verified? Well they interact like everyone else. So then it's more about being social, then being able to verify your promotion."
No they don’t, they just have to wait a little bit. Everyone who completes their profile will eventually become verified, the stats are showing this very clearly :)
Of course, the less effort they want to invest in building their profile, the longer they might have to wait.
It’s not about being popular. It’s about contributing :)
"If you guys ever come to Memphis, TN, I'lll be more than happy to roll and be verified."
I voted for you. When this pandemic is over and you find yourself on I-81 in Virginia then feel free to stop in for that roll. We are right off the Interstate about 20 minutes before you get to the eastern panhandle of West Virginia.
"No they don’t, they just have to wait a little bit. Everyone who completes their profile will eventually become verified, the stats are showing this very clearly :) Of course, the less effort they want to invest in building their profile, the longer they might have to wait. It’s not about being popular. It’s about contributing :)"
Can’t wait to be verified so I can help others get verified.
