Everyone else is talking about Bluesky so I might as well too

Screenshot of Bluesky’s Profile on Bluesky

In the wake of the election Bluesky has seen an influx of users, many of whom self describe as “TwitterX refugees” so to speak. As this uptake continues I decided to gather all my thoughts/best practices etc in one place.

The Elephant No Longer in the Room

First let’s address what it means to leave TwitterX. As the update of Bluesky has increased among the grassroots and grasstops of our movement, more and more organizations are deciding it’s time to get off the fence and make a decision about their TwitterX usage once and for all. Some are deciding to simply add Bluesky to their social media repertoire while others are abandoning TwitterX completely. I can see both sides of these decisions and encourage folks to make the strategic decision that’s best for them.

Personally I stopped posting on TwitterX over a year ago, and only ever even open the app to click on an occasional link from a friend or my uncle. Since then I’ve focused my time and efforts on FB, Instagram and Threads while actively lurking on both Bluesky and Mastodon. In recent weeks I’ve been more proactively posting on Bluesky and LinkedIn.

One important note: regardless of whether you and/or your organization leave TwitterX or don’t I would strongly urge you to not completely deactivate your account. Doing so opens up your user name for someone to grab it and then use it to active troll you and people who think that is you. If you do decide to not engage on TwitterX anymore, simply change your bio to indicate where you are active and let that be that. After that I do recommend just logging into the account on occasion to ensure Twitter doesn’t proactively shut your account down thus opening up your user handle for someone else to claim.

Some Bluesky Basics

Ok, you’ve made your decision about TwitterX and have decided to dive more deeply into the Bluesky world. Here’s some things you should know about the platform

1. Posts on the platform are referred to as “skeets” and “reskeets”. The powers that be at Bluesky resisted this terminology for ages but have now caved to popular usage.
2. Looking at Bluesky it may feel awfully similar to TwitterX and you’re not wrong about that. Bluesky was originally a protocol project of Twitter’s back before the manchild bought the platform and luckily for us was spun off from Twitter before the sale happened. All that to say, the 20 person team building Bluesky includes a lot of fellow Twitter refugees.
3. There is no algorithm on Bluesky. When you open the app the default feed it shows you is the Following feed which what old Twitter was- all the skeets from the accounts you follow in reverse chronological order (newest first). Y
4. But I keep hearing people talk about feeds on Bluesky? Yep, you do. That’s because Bluesky allows users to build their own feeds, or algorithms, and allows users to then follow feeds built by others. There are literally 1000s of feeds to choose from or you can build your own.
5. To follow feeds created by others click on the hamburger (3 horizontal lines) at the top left of the app or click on the # at the top right of the app which will take you directly to the Feeds page, click on Feeds, Scroll or search by keywords and then simply click the + symbol next to each feed you want to follow. After you have followed a feed it will appear as a tap at the top of the app next to the Following and Discover feeds. You can control the order in which they appear by going back to the Feeds page and click on the Hamburger Star symbol at the top right and then drag and drop the feeds into whatever order you want.
6. Similar to feeds and probably easier to create for most people, you can create Lists. These lists function similarly to lists on TwitterX with the big exception that if you add someone to a list they do not get notified of it happening and when you go to someone’s profile and click on the Lists tab you will only see the lists they have created, not the lists others have put them on. Unfortunately there are no private lists at this time, feel free to join me in occasionally skeeting begging for private lists :)
7. You can follow the lists others have created by clicking “Pin to Home” at the top of the list page and that list will now be a tab on your homescreen along with the feeds you have followed and your own lists that you have created.
8. Similar to lists there are also starter packs which are basically Lists and lists of Feeds combined and meant to be an easy thing to link to help introduce others to the world of Bluesky.
9. There are private messages on Bluesky that can be accessed thru the message icon at the bottom of the app screen. You can only private message people who are following you. Note: Private messages are not encrypted.
10. Skeet character limit is 300 characters inclusive of spaces. If you want to do a thread just click the plus button next to the character count at the bottom of the skeet screen.
11. You can include up to 4 images on a skeet and each image can (and should have) it’s own alt text. I highly recommend giving yourself an alt text reminder by going to Settings > Accessibility> “Require alt text before posting:
12. Videos you upload have a max length of 1 minute.
13. You can control who can interact with your skeets on a skeet by skeet basis
14. You can give other people access to manage your account without sharing the actual password to the account by creating an “App Password” in the Privacy and Security settings.
15. You can easily switch between accounts without signing in and out every time by long pressing on your profile picture at the bottom of the screen.
16. Moderation lists exist. You will find them in lists that people have already created or you can create your own. For example this list is a list of people promoting AI slop …click on the subscribe button then choose whether to block or mute. Note: Blocking people is not private information so if you don’t want people to know they’ve been blocked use the mute function instead
17. Verification is a self serve thing on Bluesky. It involves having your own domain and being able to edit the DNS records.
18. Tweetdeck (RIP) like apps exist like Deck.blue and Openvibe but tbh I haven’t found a need to use them
19. Bluesky is constantly rolling out new features. If you want to make sure to never miss such an annoucement you can (inserting shameless plug) sign up for my monthly newsletter or you can follow this Bluesky account that posts all updates when they happen

If you want to find me on Bluesky I’m @spedwybabs@bsky.social.