Bluesky 101
The Hidden Basics
Settings
Most of the settings are fairly self explanatory but I'll explain a few that many new users don't seem to be aware of.
Moderation
Muted words and tags
Simply a list of words you wish to filter out of your feed based on text and tags or just tags forever or a period of time.
Moderation Lists
A key feature of Bluesky that allows for shared moderation. You can subscribe to other's moderation lists and create your own to share with your followers.
Creating a mod list is easy then you can add users at any time just like a regular list!
To create hit + New here
You need to subscribe to a mod list, even your own, and choose mute or block the accounts.
Some mod list sources:
| Moderation Accounts |
|---|
| @skysentry.bsky.social |
| @mattdunham.bsky.social |
| @skywatch.bsky.social |
Well known accounts with good moderation lists you can subscribe to but be careful and check you want everyone on a particular list to be blocked or muted.
Muted Accounts & Blocked Accounts
Lists of users you have muted or blocked directly
Appearance
You can change the color mode and tweak the fonts in your view
Profile
See and edit how you appear in the app
Lists
Lists are a simple grouping of users created by anyone but are incredibly powerful. They can be used to create a custom feed of just those users' posts by pinning the list to your home page. The list will be pinned to the right hand side of the home page and if you click on it your feed will show only posts from that list. It also appears in scrollable tabs at the top of the feed.
You can also use a list as a source for a custom feed which I'll explain in the Current Limitations section.
Feeds
By default you will have the Discover and Following feeds.
Custom Feeds are built by Bluesky users on outside servers and are then published in the bluesky feeds page. Use the Discover New Feeds search bar or scroll down through popular feeds. Click the + symbol to add to your feeds.
A few popular feeds
I've explained how to create your own custom feed in the Current Limitations section
Chat
Direct messages are called chats on Bluesky. The New chat button lets you open a chat with someone.
The settings/options button next to New chat button lets you configure your chat preferences
Notifications
Updates about your account or posts
Current Limitations and Some Clever Workarounds
- I need bookmarks
📌 is a custom feed that will share all the posts you have added a 📌 to in the comments
- I need to edit my post
Once its posted there is currently no way to edit the post - delete and repost is the only option today....
- I need to save a draft of a post for review before posting
- I need to maintain all my followers from the dark side
- I need to schedule posts
There are a number of integrations with third parties which allow cross posting, creating drafts and scheduling posts. Several have a free option for those who don't need all the capabilities.
| 3rd Party | Drafts | Scheduling | Cross Posting | Free Option |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| buffer.com | ✔️ | ✔️ (Limited in free version) | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| postpone.app | ✔️ | ✔️ (Limited in free version) | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| fedica.com | ✔️ | ✔️ (Limited in free version) | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| postflow.app | ✔️ | ✔️ (No free version) | ✔️ | ❎ |
| publer.io | ✔️ | ✔️ (Limited in free version) | ✔️ | ✔️ but no X posting |
| deck.blue | ❎ | ✔️ (Not in free version) | ✔️ with Patreon | ✔️ |
| typefully.com | ✔️ | ✔️ (Not in free version) | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| swat.io | ✔️ | ✔️ (No free version) | ✔️ | ❎ |
| robopost.app | ✔️ | ✔️ (Limited in free version) | ✔️ | ✔️ |
- I use articles on the dark side and like long form posts
This article was written and published via White Wind
- I can't find a feed that meets my needs
Build your own on skyfeed.app or blueskyfeedcreator.com
Skyfeed lets you use all these options as input to your feed
and then you can include, exclude. sort and limit based on various aspects of a post...
where things get interesting is you can use a list or another feed as the source for your feed but use a second list to exclude some users (for example if there is a journalist list but you want to exclude writers from one newspaper you can use the first as a source and then remove a second list you create of users you want to exclude)
Useful Tools
- Total User Counter
- Look up stats about a Bluesky account
- Copy any list in Bluesky to a list of your own
- Create a starter pack from one of your lists
- Create a list from all the users in a starter pack
Useful Lists and Feeds
- Bluesky Team
- International posters who post about trending news around the world
- NYT Journalists
- LA Times Journalists
- Bay Area Journalists
- The Athletic Staff
- Bluesky Stats
- F1 Verified Accounts by the F1 reddit group
- Art Feed
- News Feed from verified news orgs
- Gardening Feed
- Science Feed
Use this link to search for more user lists
