Some Tips for Using BlueSky

The past week has seen the social media service BlueSky add one million users as people flee Twitter (which its owner insists on calling "X"). I have been on Bluesky for over a year (since October 29 2023) and in the past two days, both my followers and those I follow have doubled. With so many people joining BlueSky, I thought I would offer some tips I have learned over the months I have been using it.

Starter Packs: Everyone who has ever joined a social media service has had difficulty finding people to follow once they have joined a new service. I have to think many people wind up searching for their friends on the new service, something that can take time. Fortunately, this summer BlueSky introduced a solution to this problem. Starter Packs are a feature that allows users to find people and feeds to follow right away. Anyone can create a Starter Pack. All of the Starter Packs I have seen are devoted to a specific subject. I created one I call the Classic Movie & TV Starter Pack, which includes fans of classic movies and TV shows (most of them are from the TCMParty and Svengoolie crowds). I have seen others devoted to Comic Book Journalists, TV and Pop Culture People, the Reuters Newsroom, and so on. Starter Packs are a good way to find people to follow right away. I really wish BlueSky had them when I had joined.

Lists: In addition to Starter Packs, BlueSky also has lists that function pretty much in the same way as Twitter's lists do. Now some of you might be wondering what the differences between lists and Starter Packs are. Well, for one thing, lists only include users, while Starter Packs can include both users and feeds. For another thing, when one follows a Starter Pack, they follow every single person and feed in that Starter Pack. When one follows a list, they are not actually following all of the users on that list, even though they will see their posts in their feed.


Custom Feeds: Custom feeds are one of the things that really separates BlueSky from Twitter and some of the other microbloggers. While BlueSky's default "Following" feed displays posts from everyone and everything a user follows, custom feeds allow the user to create their own algorithm for a feed. For instance, one could create a custom feed where one only sees photos of people's pets. I created one that displays all posts using the hashtag Svengoolie. Custom feeds are good for someone who wants a more curated experience on BlueSky. There are websites that make creating a custom feed easy, including SkyFeed and BlueSky Feed Creator.

Hashtags: Like Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram, BueSky uses hashtags. As might be expected, hashtags are another way one can customize one's experience on BlueSky. If you click on a hashtag on BlueSky, a little box will pop up that reads "See (hashtag); See (hashtag) posts by user; and Mute (hashtag). If one wants to see posts for #TCMParty and one is looking at a post containing the hashtag, all they would have to do is click on #TCMParty and then click "See #TCMParty." Clicking "See #TCMParty by user" would show one all the posts by that user containing the hashtag. If one, God forbid, clicked "Mute #TCMParty," that would make it so that one would never see posts containing the hashtag.

Unfortunately, BlueSky is still a bit wonky when it comes to hashtags. For instance, unlike the primary "Following" feed, hashtag feeds can take quite a while to update on BlueSky. This makes live posting, such as #TCMParty and the live posts to #Svengoolie, somewhat difficult. Fortunately, there is a solution in the form of Deck Blue. Deck Blue is essentially the BlueSky equivalent of TweetDeck. With Deck Blue one can set how often one's feeds refresh. I have my #TCMParty and #Svengoolie feeds set to "15 seconds," which is a whole faster than they refresh on BlueSky itself!

Moderation: There was a time when BlueSky lacked a block button and content moderation was very much a work in progress there. Fortunately, that time was pretty much past by the time I joined in late October of last year. Today BlueSky has some of the best moderation tools of any social media service. Much like Twitter, one can mute words and hashtags. There are also moderation lists, in which one can mute or even block several users at once. As to the blocking function on BlueSky, it is fairly robust. Once a user is blocked, they cannot interact with the individual who blocked them in any way shape, or form.

As if all of this was not enough, one can disable or enable adult content, show or hide non-sexual nudity, and discourage apps from showing one's account to users who aren't logged in. Beyond all of this, there is also the BlueSky Moderation Service, through which one can hide everything from extremist posts to racist posts. This may well be why in the whole year I have been on BlueSky I have not seen much in the way of trolls.

Now one disadvantage to BlueSky that has, unlike many social media services, they do not have  private accounts. That means anyone can see one's posts except for those people they have blocked. This does not bother me, as all of my social media accounts are public except for Facebook, but it might be a deal breaker for some.

A number of alternatives to Twitter have arisen in the past few years, particularly since Twitter changed ownership in April 2022. And now it is fairly clear that Twitter is on its last legs. It would appear that many have decided BlueSky will be its replacement. Having been on BlueSky for over a year, I really cannot argue with that. It is a fine microblogger and feels a lot like Twitter had once been.