Regarding all of my lists

All lists are for my personal use, and I’ve never shared them anywhere myself.

If I’ve added you to any of my lists

By posting about having been added to my lists, you are giving them unwanted publicity and increasing the chances that anyone besides myself might use them. I don’t want that responsibility—I’m not any kind of an expert and could easily misidentify accounts—and I’m sure you wouldn’t want to encourage that, either.

If you’re thinking about using this list

Obviously I can’t stop you, but be warned that I could delete this list or adjust the criteria at any time. Regarding this list specifically, I may decide to move the accounts posting in Japanese to a separate list. There are also better lists and labelers out there, to which I will link at the end.

Extended list description

This moderation list is meant for followback hashtags. Initially, I added accounts that were using the following hashtags in English:

• #NoDemUnder1K
• #NoDemUnder5K
• #NoDemUnder10K

This might make it look like I’m targeting Democrats, but it’s because I’m already muting or blocking MAGA through other lists. (Also, I’m not familiar with MAGA hashtags.)

I was going to add other hashtags in English, but I haven’t been updating the list actively any more because I’ve since decided that I trust some users enough to use their lists or labelers.

I did add hashtags in Japanese, but I think the vast majority of people who would want an explanation are those who have used these #NoDemUnder hashtags.

In a nutshell, I see these hashtags in English as an easily identifiable form of follow farming.

What is follow farming?

See this thread by Rahaeli (@rahaeli.bsky.social‬).

I will copy and paste the relevant posts in case you can’t see them, with the first post slightly modified to apply for my list specifically:

Your actions on Bluesky meet the criteria for [my follow farming–related] moderation list. Follow farming is any system where someone can use a hashtag, reply to a post, repost a post, use a specific emoji, etc, and receive a large number of followers in return.

Follow farming is a problem because it creates the environment for scams and disinformation operations to thrive. When anyone can use a hashtag and expect to have a lot of people follow them, scammers, spammers, and bad actors start using the hashtag too.

The extremely high number of inauthentic accounts using those hashtags -- and getting followers from them -- means that anyone who participates in follow farming has a high chance of being exposed to, and reposting/sharing, disinformation, scams, and influence operations without realizing.

Inclusion on the moderation list is not a value judgement about your account or on you as a person. It is a neutral list that lists anyone who is engaged in follow farming behavior. I do not remove accounts engaged in follow farming from the list.

She also has another thread with links to other related threads, if you want to learn more.

How I use this list

For what it’s worth, I have the list on mute, not block. The goal was to keep follow farmers off my feeds, but I’ve noticed a second use case where it can actually help me avoid accidentally adding users to some other unrelated lists, because the names of moderation lists that are set to mute or block are shown next to user handles, much like labels.

Side note: Hashtags in Japanese

I’ve also added accounts that either use the following hashtags in Japanese, or have the hashtag terms in their display names (without the hash):

• #フォロバ100
• #相互フォロー
• #フォロー返し
• #フォロバ
• (and similar)

The hashtags in Japanese could also lead to follow farming, but I’m not sure there are enough Japanese-language users on Bluesky for it to be a significant issue just yet. I haven’t actively searched for accounts using these hashtags for that reason and am just adding them as they happen to pop up in unrelated searches and my feeds.

Better resources

There are many lists and labelers out there that address follow farming. I’m no expert on the subject, but here are some examples I know of.

If my opinion matters, I would advise you to set all labels to “Show badge” or “Warn” rather than “Hide” and to use moderation lists by other users for muting rather than blocking, unless you’re absolutely sure you can trust them and/or you’d be okay with fully hiding/blocking potential false positives.

Labelers

• Bluesky Moderation Service (@moderation.bsky.app) or the official Bluesky moderation labeler that’s enabled by default has a label for “Engagement Farming,” but I’m not sure I’ve seen it much, if at all. Label description: “Insincere content or bulk actions aimed at gaining followers, including frequent follows, posts, and likes.”
• The Engagement Hacks Labeler (@engagement-hacks.bsky.social) has a label for, surprise, “Engagement Hacking.” Label description: “Users performing engagement hacks, such as mass following & then unfollowing users.”
• Like the official moderation labeler, Skywatch Blue / Anti-Alf Aktion (@skywatch.blue) has a wide range of useful labels.
  • Their “Follow Farming” label and corresponding list, which could be used for muting or blocking, are specifically reserved for accounts that use followback hashtags (source). Label description: “Applied to accounts which engage in indiscriminate follow farming and follow-back networks and applied to posts using hashtags or linking to sites utilized for follow-farming.”
  • They also have a separate label for accounts that have the blue heart emoji in their display names and/or descriptions, as well as a corresponding list. Label description: “Username and / or Description contains 💙.” Note that this may also include users who are not participating in follow farming themselves.
• There’s also Automo (@automo.bsky.social) for accounts that mass follow large numbers of accounts at once, which seems like it would be useful for this purpose, but it’s currently not active. Label description for “Observed Mass-Following”: “Users who appear to follow a large (typically 1000+) number of profiles in a short amount of time.” They also have a corresponding list, though it’s “[n]ot currently maintained (as of 2025-01-31).”

Moderation lists

There are countless moderation lists out there, but be extra careful in determining which ones you can trust.

Personally, I trust Rahaeli (cited above) very much, based on her extensive experience in moderation and my perception of her character and integrity through her posts. She has a list for “Follow farming,” which I would recommend over my own.

There are also other lists that I haven’t decided whether I could recommend for other people or not that I have muted on a trial basis.

You can search (most?) lists on Bluesky through this website, though I’ve noticed it doesn’t seem to cover absolutely everything and/or doesn’t run searches in Japanese well: Bluesky Lists - Bluesky Directory

Labelers and lists in Japanese

As far as I know, there’s just one moderation-related labeler in Japanese right now, BlueCosmos (@blue-cosmos.bsky.social), which has a “フォローが多すぎ” label for accounts that are following more than 5,000 accounts.

I don’t know of any lists I could recommend (nor have I really looked).