Hey. Apologies for not reading the whole thing... My eyes are really tired and I'm about to eat and go to sleep, but I did read the screenshot you included... I think it's unfortunate that they are requiring this of you, though it's also not that difficult to make an introduction post and I can see on some levels why they did that... That being said, there should be other ways for you to verify who you are without making an introduction post! Like, just having a conversation with you and asking you for those details instead of some rigid hoop to jump through.
Sorry you went through that, but hopefully you are able to find a solution!
The first thing I did when I joined this platform was make an #introduceyourself post and that's one of the main pieces of advice I gave to everyone who I had sign up here... So, in my opinion it's something that would be beneficial regardless. But, it shouldn't be forced on you if you don't wanna do it in such manner. There are other ways to try to verify if someone is genuine or not.
It is quite a long post, and the responses that I made below it go into even more detail as to why this was an issue for me. The situation was less about the actual introduction post and more about the principle. I would have been happy to come up with something on my own accord, and in my own time. But doing this on demand, without talking about it first felt wrong. It was the way in which I was asked, and the moderators lack of communication that prompted this post. I would not have minded verifying myself in some other way, but that option was not offered to me. The mute was being held against me, even though the article checked every box in the posting rules, and even deemed useful to the community. There are certain privacy concerns to think about as well. It would be a bit of a long shot, but I would be in danger were my real name, photo and location to be discovered by certain individuals in my past. It would always be in the back of my mind and cause stress, which is enough of a reason to refuse. And at the time, I doubted using a nickname and artistic less identifiable selfie would have been enough, and that is still most likely the case. It is not my intention to be difficult, but when someone orders me to do literally anything and it will not pass through basic reasoning - the immediate very strong reaction is to do the complete opposite. I wanted my first and future contributions to speak for themselves.