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Navigating the Bluesky 101

Handy hints and tips


Audio available in the Substack mobile app

You might have noticed that there has been a mass exodus to Bluesky from Twitter since the US Presidential election. The platform has been gaining speed considerably over the last few months. But with more functions enabled by its upgrades; the concern around online safety on Twitter due to the new ‘blocking’ rules and now the influence of Musk in the upcoming administration, there has been a significant uptick.


Yet, it’s not always easy to leave an established community on Twitter, especially if one is energy-limited. So, we’ve been Sky Geeking, so you hopefully don’t have to.

This article (which is also a thread on Bluesky) covers: CULTURE; ACCESSIBILITY; ENGAGEMENT; FINDING YOUR TRIBE; TWEAKS; COOL TOOLS and FUNKY BISCUITS.


ALT TEXT: Shot from Avatar the movie. It shows 2 blue people who are on flying green monster birds in the Blue Sky.


☕CULTURE


There is a deliberate, distinct culture on Bluesky. It is designed to be anti-toxic and open source. That means it’s a starve trolls and antagonists of oxygen approach so:


Block strong, use your mute tools, don’t engage.


No quote dunking (this is where people repost with an aggressive or snarky remark) - you can also unhook your quote if someone quote dunks you or set no quotes like this 👇


ALT TEXT: A screenshot of a post on Bluesky showing how to detach a quote.


💫ACCESSIBILITY

Since the beginning of Bluesky, there has been a strong emphasis on ALT Text & Accessibility. The rates that people are using is it is already going down, so do apply it. 


In Settings there is a ‘require alt text’ button & other cool features. The disabled auto-play feature is also super handy.


Image displaying Bluesky’s accessibility settings menu, highlighting features for users with diverse needs and preferences.

Here are some good reasons to use ALT text: context - translation - screen readers & more

If you’re running out of steam to create ALT text, you can use an ALT text generator 👇

Illustration explaining the benefits of using alt text, showing six scenarios: slow internet loading images, improved findability through search content, accessibility for screen readers, translation options, enhanced readability of text in images, and disambiguation for clarity. Bright blue background with doodle-style graphics and text.


👭FINDING YOUR TRIBE

There are numerous ways to find your tribe and customise your Bluesky. 


STARTER PACKS

These are awesome ways to connect. You can find a directory of them here.

We also have a mega 🧵 of Long Covid, ME and Disability packs which you can search through to find community.


📝LISTS

These are also super cool to curate your Bluesky. They can include more people than a Starter Pack. You can make your own or follow others. To turn your list into a feed, press the pin to home button.


We have collated a series of lists that include:

Long Covid/ME: SCIENTIFIC - NEWS - ORGS - POLITICAL - COMMUNITY - VENTILATION


👩‍💻FEEDS

This is a broader way to find content you are interested in. Feeds capture hashtags, i.e. #LongCovid and keywords.


You can search feeds here on your feed panel & customise your profile by pinning and unpinning them. There are good ME/CFS and Long Covid feeds that pop up in the search.


ALT TEXT: Visual instructions for integrating a new feed into your BlueStacks application. Shows the Discover new feeds search bar.

There is another handy way to use feeds, and that is with the pushpin emoji. Just add it in the replies of a post you want to save and it will be saved in this ‘my pins feed’. It works very much like the Bookmark function in Twitter.


🕵️‍♀️ALGORITHM

This is where Bluesky gets funky. It is designed to be like the web. In fact your handle is like a mini web address/domain that’s why it’s -  bsky.social


It does have an algorithm but it doesn’t corporately control it for evil. It just does a reverse chronological feed for you. It is designed to be open and interoperable. So it won’t suppress your links, art, writing etc.


Other platforms will suppress keywords, topics and sites. Like that other place deboosted Long Covid, COVID & Substack. So we can post away happily here without censorship 🥳


👋ENGAGEMENT

Bluesky runs differently. The engagement is driven by you, in a sense you are your own algorithm. So, it’s reposting & commenting that’s emphasised, not likes. If you want engagement - engage meaningfully with the community.


Jean-Luc Picard of Star Trek. A balding man in a red and black uniform, holding his right hand and finger up. Text/meme says Engage!

You will likely find that your engagement here will be stronger with less followers. Why? Because of deboosting & chattiness & connection is the algorithmic choice!

Bluesky is also the no.2 app in the US & no.3 in the UK. So engagement will increase organically.


ALT TEXT: A humorous meme, showing Morpheus from the Matrix, featuring the phrase “What if I told you, you must become the algorithm” created with Imgflip.

 

🏄‍♀️TWEAKS

It’s worth taking your time to fine tune your Bluesky. In SETTINGS there’s all sorts of tweaks - Accessibility - Moderation - Feed Preferences - Appearance. Especially important if you have sensory limitations.


ALT TEXT: Settings menu interface on a mobile app, featuring options like Accessibility, Appearance, Languages, Moderation, Following Feed Preferences, Thread Preferences, My Saved Feeds, and Chat Settings. An illustrated character holding a heart is visible on the right.

There is also a handy translate feature that will take you straight to Google Translate when you click on the 3 dots of a post (below the post on the right). In the Settings you can also adjust which languages you want to be included in your feed.


👩‍🎤COOL TOOLS

There are some really fun things to play with. This website will show you some ANALYTICS so activity, punches, following graphs & what animal you are like! 🦚 Yes, apparently we are ‘Epic Famous Peacock Conversationalists!?’


ALT TEXT: Insight analysis graphic titled Epic Famous Peacock Conversationalist, featuring colourful circular progress bars. Highlights strengths in dialogue, meaningful exchanges, and self-assured communication style. Optimized for social sharing and personal reflection.

If you need an ultra-safe site and need an extra-level customisable block tool then Blockenheimer is for you.


Need to fine tune your search you can find posts you are mentioned in or your own posts by searching:

from:me

mentions:me 

More on search from Bluesky


ALT Text:  A pink arrow towards the search bar with the text in the search bar saying search:me This shows how to search for posts that’s mention you.  A screenshot showing a social media post mentioning a petition to reintroduce PPE in UK hospitals, aiming to improve air quality and reduce COVID-19 transmission. The post encourages support and includes relevant hashtags and links to further resources.

If you need a way to transition your Twitter network to Bluesky you can use the Sky Follower Bridge - it works as an add-on with Firefox & Chrome.


One of the latest features that came in the new update this November was the ability to create threads. This has been a major tool for some awesome Science Communication on Twitter so it’s great to see it here. Only point would be to not create them on your mobile if you have to switch between screens as it does get lost, sometimes (as we found out)!


🍪FUNKY BISCUITS

Okay, there aren’t any biscuits, it’s just to keep us going. Bluesky doesn’t hate-farm, it doesn’t boost clicks through doom. There are no ads, corporate interests, it’s federated - open & decentralised using the AT (atmosphere) Protocol. It’s old school. Here's some more details: Bluesky Algorithm Blog


To finish here’s a comprehensive sheet of tips. Well done you made it to the end! ☕🍪

We hope this helps you find a home in the Bluesky. If you have any other handy tips do please include them in the comments. We are still learning too!


  Guide for transitioning from Xitter to Bsky, emphasizing profile setup, turning off NSFW filters, connecting with friends via SkyFollowerBridge.com, and following interest-based feeds. Tips include blocking trolls and content scrapers, using alt text for accessibility, and understanding notification settings. Encourages rebuilding and sharing content on new platforms.

The final point is about ethics. There are good reasons to stay on Twitter and there are good reasons to leave. The issue we predominantly have in our community is having the spoons to actually move. It takes cognitive and emotional effort to start a new social platform. Yet, much of the work has been done, as there is an established community now on Bluesky, so it should be a soft landing. We are hoping this guide helps, as it can be shared with individuals and social media. But if you have severe or very severe ME and/or Long Covid and are struggling to move over you can DM us on Twitter and we will try to help.

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