Twitter/X/Twix is now little more than a creaking wreck. You may notice that your engagement is down, you aren't seeing who you want to see, and Nazis with blue checks outnumber even the spammy ads.
But there is an alternative, and one that this time, finally seems to be sticking. Bluesky is currently accessible only by invitation and is technically still in beta mode, so is it worth the hassle? YES. I won't spend too long convincing you why, if you're reading this you're probably interested already.
So, you've managed to get your hands on a code. Now what?
Download the app, select 'create new account' and enter your code, which will only work once. So far, so simple. Once you've got your profile in order, here's what you need to know next.
You can search for people using their handle, and most people who've migrated have chosen the same ones as before. Once you've added a few, you can mine their follow lists for mutuals, or you can click the 'search' icon with a blank searchbar and it will show you 'In Your Network' - the accounts with whom you have contacts in common. It's a quick way to build up your list. Don't feel too downhearted if it takes a while to find people or be found, the site is still in its infancy and chances are people are as in the dark as you are. You'll find everyone eventually!
Hashtags. Bluesky doesn't use them. Your primary feed shows you people that you follow, and you'll usually only see strangers if they're replying to your contacts or in reposts. If you want to expand what you see to relevant posts from people outside your immediate network, you need to look at Feeds. For instance, this one called Classics /Ancient World picks up every post with the terms BlueskyClassics, ClassicsBluesky and AncientBluesky. Follow that feed to see everything it picks up, and include one of those three terms in your own posts to boost who gets to see it. For anthropology and archaeology, this feed picks up any post with the ancient pot emoji. This feed is a handy streamliner - it will show you posts from mutuals only for when you don't want a lot of external noise. You can pick a feed to look at at any given time depending on what you wish to keep track of. Just click on the feed's page an select 'Add to My Feeds'!
There are no DMs yet, but they're a likely future addition. And threads aren't as easy to make quite yet, either. Quoteposting yourself works a little better than replying to yourself.
If you add a link to your post, make sure to click 'add link card' before you post.
If it seems a little quiet at first, you may need to adjust your settings. In settings, select 'Home Feed Preferences' where you can see 'show replies.' Make sure it's toggled to Yes, or you'll only ever see the first post in a conversation. The sliding scale should be set to 'show all replies.' With the next toggle, you can switch off reposts if you like, but until you're confident that you've found everyone you wish to reconnect with it's best to leave it on. There's a final toggle for choosing whether or not you want to see quotes, which I personally always leave switched on.
Blocking and muting work, but soft blocking won't. I've tried. Blocking and then swiftly unblocking will not discreetly remove a person from following you. You're just going to have to tolerate their presence or boldly block. At the moment, there is no option to have a private, locked account.
If you're the social media manager for an institution/blog/podcast etc, you can have a second account (with a second code, they only work once.) Under settings, you'll see 'Signed In As' and '+ add account.' Once you've added your second account and set it up, this is where you'll go to switch between profiles.
You can posts photos but not gifs. For the Elder Millennials amongst us, this will take the most getting used to. You can post up to 4 photos at a time. Of utmost importance!: Settings > Accessibilty > 'Require alt text before posting' - make sure this toggle is ON. There is no excuse not to add alt text to every image you post, it's simply to kind thing to do.
You can filter content you don't want to see under 'Moderation,' which is where you'll also find your mute and block lists. Select 'content filtering' - if you want to keep your feed entirely SFW, toggle 'enable adult content' to OFF. If you toggle it to ON you can choose what subtopics you wish to see, hide, or be given a content warning for. Categories are: explicit sexual images, other nudity, sexually suggestive, violent/bloody, hate group iconography, spam and impersonation accounts.
As for the atmosphere, it's generally one of relief, positivity and optimism. Engagement is up, and the enclave of classicists, archaeologists and ancient historians is rather large now, growing by the day. I've found people to be friendlier and more relaxed than they are on the Hellsite, and we're all very keen to welcome refugees. Let me know if this proved useful, or missed anything you think people should know!
UPDATE: Skyfeed
If you liked to use Twitter via a 3rd party app like Tweetdeck, or simply want more control over your Bluesky experience, you may wish to try Skyfeed.
When you first visit the page (and I advise doing it on your desktop,) it will ask you to put in your handle and app password. This does NOT mean your Bluesky password. In the bit where you enter your password, click the icon of an arrow leaving a square to take you to Bluesky in another tab, where you'll likely already be logged in. It will then ask you to generate a special password, separate from your log in, to connect the third party app. When you've chosen a password, Bluesky will generate a code that looks a little like your invite code. THIS is what you will put into the Skyfeed password box. Much like your initial invite code, it will only work once. If you lose it, you'll have to generate another.
So, back on Skyfeed, enter your Bluesky handle and the generated code, and you're good to go.
Skyfeed has 'Skyline' as your main feed. At the top, you can click 'reposts' or 'replies' to toggle them on or off, depending on what you want to see (highlighted = on).
Search: You may have noticed that on Bluesky, you can type the first few letters of a contact's name, and even if you follow them they'll still be the 12th search result. Here, Skyfeed shows your contacts first automatically,
'Likes' on the left is literally just a realtime feed of posts that people you follow have liked.
Notifications is a great boon, because you can see Mentions, Replies, Quotes, Reposts, Likes and Follows separately, or in combination, by clicking those options at the header to enable/disable them (again, highlighted = on.)
Some may find 'Themes' handy for accessibility, allowing you to adjust the screen colours. High Contrast in particular may be useful to some. Otherwise, you can just make it pretty.
If you're subscribed to feeds on Bluesky, you can also access them on Skyfeed using the left hand menu. You can add multiple feeds to your homescreen by pressing the pushpin icon at the top. They display in columns (worth mentioning, if you log out and back in or refresh, you'll have to do this again.)
There is also a feed builder tool. I'm not savvy enough to make one on Bluesky itself, so if you're a Luddite like me this will likely come in handy. Recently I submitted an article about how the alt-right discuss gladiator movies, so I'll talk you through how I might make a feed to help that research. I don't know how to code AT ALL, so if I can do it, so can you.
On the left hand menu, click Feed Builder
Give your feed a name. I chose Gladiatorial Reception.
On the right you'll see how your feed will look as you work.
'Input': who do you want to see posts from? If it's the whole of Bluesky, click 'entire network.' If you just want to see every time a specific person mentions a specific thing, select Single User and you'll be prompted to enter their DID code. To get it, visit their profile, click the 3 vertical dots icon next to 'follow/unfollow' and click 'copy DID'
Also in Input, set how long you want to search for. It won't search everything ever posted, but you can see all posts mentioning your chosen word posted in the last half hour, 3 hours, 12 hours, 1 day, 3 days or week. Once they're gone, they're gone, so screenshot posts or grab the post link if you'll need them later for research.
'Remove': you can elimate reposts, replies, duplicates, certain languages or posts with no/little engagement from being included in your feed
'RegExe': enter the word or phrase you want to pick up. I chose 'gladiator' and found that it also picked up 'gladiators' and 'gladiatorial'. So far I only worked out how to add one word, unlike Bluesky feeds that pick up 3. I tried adding another 'RegExe' box for 'Maximus' but then the feed preview on the right stopped showing results for 'gladiator'...
I found it handy to toggle on 'alt text' and 'links' in the regexe section to ensure I pick up every use of the term.
Lastly, 'Sort By' - The two most useful will be 'by creation date' or 'like count.'
Once you're happy, go ahead and publish. Your feed will be searchable, discoverable and available to subscriptions on Skyfeed AND Bluesky, and people will be able to share a link to it from both too. It's not anonymous. Bear this in mind if you're creating a NSFW feed on your main account, or are one of those odd people who obsessively track their own name.
I found that even though I made it, my feed was automatically included in My Feeds on Skyfeed, I still had to search for it in Discover Feeds and bookmark it manually. It is what it is.
You can change your feed settings at any time by going back into Feed Builder and clicking 'Update Feed' when you're done, you can also click 'Update Feed' to delete it.
Things Skyfeed can't (yet) do:
Schedule posts. I know this is a source of frustration for many. Let's keep our fingers crossed
Make feeds private
Quotepost. You can see quoteposts, but if you want to make one you have to do it in Bluesky
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