Thought I'd put together my own Bluesky guide. Hope people find this helpful!
Feeds
Bluesky doesn't enforce an algorithm on the content you see on your feed. Instead, it lets you build your own or use ones that other people have built. And you can have as many different feeds as you want!
Examples of cool functionality feeds:
- Mutuals - Posts from people whom you follow and they follow you back.
- Followers - Posts from your (non-mutual) followers.
- Quiet Posters - Posts from people you follow who post less frequently.
- Best of Follows - The most popular recent posts from people you follow.
- Bookmarks feed - Every post you've replied to with a "📌" emoji.
Examples of special interest feeds:
You can "pin" any of these feeds and they will appear on your home screen. You can also rearrange in which order they sit on your dashboard.
Browse through some of the most popular feeds here.
Feed creation
You can create your own feeds based on criteria of your choosing. This includes feeds that feature your own posts, allowing you to curate your content for other users in different ways. Feed creation can be done through third-party apps. Currently, one of the most popular feed generator apps is skyfeed.app.
A comprehensive user guide has been created by @spiritcrowart.bsky.social on Bluesky, so check it out and remember to click "Continue thread" as there's some great info under the cut!
Hashtags
Like on Twitter, hashtags on Bluesky can be used on a site-wide basis.
But similarly to Tumblr, they are also prioritised on a profile-wide basis.
So if you see a user has tagged a post with #art and you want to see all their posts that are tagged with #art, you can do a profile-wide search for their tagged art:
- 💻 On the desktop Bluesky website, simply click the hashtag
- 📱 On the mobile Bluesky app, long-press the hashtag
- 👽 Third party apps can choose themselves how to implement this feature (or not!)
Sadly, any hashtags you posted before the implementation of this feature currently do not work and do not show up with the rest of the results when you use this function. The Bluesky team might retroactively add hashtag functionality to old hashtags, or you may just need to make the post again. (I would appreciate if anybody is able to confirm for me!)
Starterpacks
Starterpacks are lists of recommended users and/or feeds related to a particular topic or community. They're a great way to find like-minded users to follow, and a great resource for people freshly arriving to Bluesky. Starterpacks also have a "Posts" tab which is a feed of all the most recent posts by the users featured in the starterpack.
If you end up getting featured in a starterpack you don't wish to be featured in, you can simply block the creator and that will remove you from their starterpack.
Direct messages
In order to recieve private chat messages, you need to enable it in your Bluesky settings.
Content moderation
The core content filters are in Settings -> Moderation.
You will need to add a[sic] date of birth to get access to the switches to turn on adult content.
Some users are uncomfortable with graphic imagery of various types, and in many countries the legal age for signing up to an online service (including Bluesky) is 13 years old. Therefore it's important to make sure you tag NSFW imagery.
You can tag a post as containing suggestive or explicit imagery by clicking the shield icon next to the Post button.
There are further, more granular moderation settings that control what you see on your feed in the Bluesky Moderation Service under:
Settings -> Moderation -> Advanced
Labelers
Labelers provide additional information and filtering on your feed. This system evolved out of the global moderation system. It can be used to filter content, but it can also be used to provide handy info badges next to users!
IDENTIFIERS: Self-assigned badge labels
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Subscribe to a labeler to see its badges appear next to people's usernames on your feed.
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Do the stated required action to assign yourself a badge that will display to everybody else who is also subscribed to that labeler.
- Sometimes this is by clicking 'Like' on the relevant badge's comment.
- Sometimes this is by sending a Direct Message which the server will process.
- If the labeller is a single badge or a randomizer, you may get the badge simply by subscribing with no further action necessary.
Identifier badge labeler examples:
- Pronouns labeler [Badge quicksearch here]
- Country flag labeler
- Content creator labeler
- Fursona species labeler [Badge quicksearch here]
- Furry content creator & commission status labeler
- Dev programming language labeler
- Harry Potter house labeler (randomized)
🖼️ Example of a user with a pronoun badge, content creator badge, and fursona badge - as they appear on the feeds of other users subscribed to the same labelers.
To prevent spam and server abuse, Bluesky limits how many interactions a labeler can send to the server in a given time period. This is called "rate limiting" and sometimes the more popular labelers can hit their rate limit. This may cause a delay of a few hours before your badge begins to display, so be patient!
MODERATION: Community labelers for content filtering/warning
The original core purpose of labelers is to allow users to choose for themselves how content is moderated on the platform. This means you can filter content based on your own values, ideals and levels of comfort. Some community moderation labelers run by algorithm, some run based on moderated user reports, and some are a fusion of the two.
When you report any post on Bluesky, you can choose which moderation service to report it to for review: whether that be the core Bluesky moderation service or one of the community moderation labelers.
To apply a community moderation labeler:
- Subscribe to the labeller for these labels to take effect.
- You can select how to treat posts that have recieved certain community labels:
[ OFF ]- ignore this label and display these posts as normal[ WARN ]- display a warning you need to click to reveal the post[ HIDE ]- do not display posts/users with this label at all on your feed
Filter labeler examples:
- AI image labeler
- Spoilers labeler
- Cryptocurrency spam labeler
- Ideologies labeler - Nazi, MAGA, TERF, Zoophiles, Alt-tech, Elon. This one also has some silly meme labels. It also has a filter for fundraising sites including Ko-Fi (similar to Patreon). You might want to ⚠️ switch off this label if you support artists/creators/etc. many of whom use Ko-Fi for commissions as a main source of income! This filter is intended for fake humanitarian aid fundraisers so I would caution against using it unless you encounter a lot of fake humanitarian aid requests.
Note: I'm not sure how active the reporters and moderators of these labels are but they illustrate the concept.
A good labeler will be transparent in how posts get labeled and moderated.
Bluesky provides guidelines on what is and is not appropriate use of labelers here.
Detatching replies and quote posts
Quote posts are great but on Twitter they were often used to harrass (known as "dunking"). Bluesky allows a user to disinherit replies and quotes from the parent post, completely detatching them. This means that the harrassing (or annoying) replies and quotes will posts no longer link to or display the parent post, severing the vector for harrassment and removing the offending party from the conversation.
Detatching a post detatches it for all users on Bluesky!
Community apps
As Bluesky and the AT Protocol are open source projects, people are actively encouraged to build their own applications.
These apps could be alternative Bluesky clients (alternatives to the official bsky.app web and mobile apps), or entirely new applications that provide a brand new service with (or without) your Bluesky ID!
Here are a few examples:
- deck.blue - A TweetDeck clone for Bluesky. You can see multiple feeds on the same dashboard and login with multiple accounts to see all your accounts' feeds and notifications on the same dashboard.
- WhiteWind - This is the site you are (presumably) reading this post on right now! This is a long-form content site built using Bluesky's AT Protocol. You can log in with your Bluesky account to make WhiteWind blog posts, and people can reply with their Bluesky accounts. At the bottom of the page you will see commentary from users who have shared your WhiteWind post on Bluesky. You can already check out your WhiteWind profile at:
https://whtwnd.com/<yourusername>.bsky.social - Smoke Signal - An event management / RSVP app. You could use this for irl meetups (conferences, socials, etc.) or for online events (VRChat hangouts, webinars, etc.).
- Firesky.TV - See every new post on Bluesky in real-time 💫😵💫💫
More community apps can be found at Bluesky's Community Showcase.
App Passwords
It's best practice to to log into third party apps with an App Password. You can generate App Passwords in your Bluesky settings. These passwords can revoked by you at any time to end the associated login session.
Custom web addresses as usernames
If you own a web address (or more technically, a "domain"), you can use it as your username! This was Bluesky's solution to verifying account authenticity in the wake of the devaluation of blue checkmarks. If you are @Disney.com, it means you own Disney.com and are therefore Disney. This also means casual users can get in on the domain name fun!
🖼️ An iconic (now-fixed) exploit from the early lore of Bluesky.
If you are going to buy a domain, the most important things to check are:
- Is the registrar (the domain seller) ICANN-accredited? Non-accredited registrars are riskier - they could be scammers or might simply turn around and give your domain to somebody else.
- Does the registrar offer WHOIS privacy? Some registrars (domain sellers) and some TLDs (the last part of the address e.g.
'.us';'.in') may not offer WHOIS privacy. When you don't have WHOIS privacy, your personal details such as name and home address are available for anybody who does a public WHOIS lookup on your domain name to see. Registrars offering WHOIS privacy will use their company name and company address as a proxy in the place of your own.
Once you own a domain, on Bluesky you can go to:
Settings-> Change Handle -> I have my own domain
Here you will be able to prove you own a given domain by copying the unique generated code and putting it either in the domain's DNS records, or in a text file at a certain address in the domain's /.well-known folder. This part is beyond the scope of this guide but you will be able to find helpful guides elsewhere!
It's worth noting that if you do change your handle, you will lose the reservation of your original <user>.bsky.social handle.
Alt Text on images
Bluesky allows you to provide descriptive text for images. This is encouraged for general image use as it can significantly help the visually-impaired and blind. Alt Text also provides an additional 2000 characters of text that can feed into search results, so being descriptive can be useful to increase the discoverability of your posts in global Bluesky searches and in custom user feeds.
However, some artists may choose not to provide Alt Text over concerns it provides easy AI training data labels. Other users may also avoid Alt Text as they don't want their post getting attention in the global search function.
Both these decisions are valid Bluesky etiquette and it is down to an individual user whether or not they wish to use Alt Text. Don't sweat it!
Data privacy
Bluesky uses the AT Protocol (ATproto for short) - part of what the Bluesky team is developing. You don't need to know anything about this or even what a protocol is. But the protocol governs rules about how data is handled.
One of the features of this system is that every user has a public data repository ("repo" for short) on a Personal Data Server ("PDS" - by default Bluesky hosts your data but nerds can host their own PDS). This is essentially a bucket relating to your unique user ID (your "DID"), holding different collections of your data inside. These are available for anybody to access.
This means that even if something isn't visible on bsky.app / the mobile app, it might be visible in your repo and therefore available to view in third party applications.
Things that are publicly visible in your PDS repo include:
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Your likes
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The accounts you have blocked
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All your previous username handles
🖼️ An example of the collections of public information in a user's PDS repo. For the core Bluesky service
bsky.app, this includes the user's profile bio, the custom feeds they have made themselves, their likes, posts, reposts, blocked accounts, and followed accounts. Direct messages are not public, but a publicbsky.chatflag tells clients whether or not the user is open to DMs. Data for the third-party app WhiteWind is stored in thewhtwnd.comcollection.
🖼️ An example of the username handle history of the Bluesky account@bsky.app.
You can view what kind of data is hosted in your own public repo by visiting a Bluesky PDS browser.
Bluesky is still very young in development and the team has said in their roadmap that they intend to develop private content spaces in the future.
From the Bluesky Team's post '2024 Protocol Roadmap' (May 6, 2024):
There's something about Bluesky I don't like!
Unlike more established social media networks, the head honchos of Bluesky play an active part in the community and have been more than happy to engage in constructive conversation.
The team have listened to concerns from the Bsky community on decisions in the past and adjusted their approach, so be politely vocal if you have recommendations for the team, illustrate your points to stress why the concerns are important, and be pragmatically realistic about technological limitations and the small team's immediate priorities.
Let me know if there's anything major I'm missing from this guide! (Bear in mind this one is for general Bluesky users rather than specific communities)
