London (AP) – Searching for a fresh social media platform as X, Threads, or Mastodon haven’t met your needs? Give Bluesky a shot.
Many looking to escape the chaos, noise, and political drudgery following the US elections are reportedly finding a different vibe on Bluesky, with significantly fewer trolls.
The site announced a rapid growth of a million new users just a week after Election Day, positioning itself as one of the fastest-growing competitors to Elon Musk’s X and similar platforms.
If you’re interested in exploring this new space, here’s a guide on how Bluesky operates:
Learn more about the Ones series
Getting Started
Not ready to create yet another social media account? No worries! All posts and profiles are public, enabling you to browse Bluesky without signing up.
The platform’s design is quite reminiscent of X, giving you a sense of déjà vu. This is no coincidence, as Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey was among the early supporters of Bluesky (he is no longer involved; Bluesky is independently operated).
If you decide to take the plunge and create an account, you’ll need a username. Keep in mind that Bluesky handles default to the site’s domain, .bsky.social.
You can personalize your handle to make it more memorable, either by linking it to your website domain or by purchasing a custom domain through Bluesky, although this may not be necessary for most new users.
How to Discover Interesting People
Bluesky claims to offer users “algorithm choices,” allowing them to adjust the content they see rather than depending on a centralized system.
“Our online experience doesn’t have to be dictated by billionaires making unilateral decisions on what we view,” they state.
This means you can follow custom feeds created by others or design your own. Click on #Feeds in the left-hand menu to see default options like cat photos and gardening. The “My Banger” feature highlights the most popular posts, while the “catch-up” section displays trending content from the last 24 hours. You can explore and tap the feed button for more details.
Bluesky also provides a standard “discovery” feed for suggested posts and a timeline feed for accounts you follow.
To assist new users, Bluesky has Starter Packs that recommend feeds and accounts that anyone can create and share. While they won’t show up in Bluesky’s search results, you can find them in the Online Directory.
Someone might share a pack with you. After I signed up, a colleague shared with me a pack featuring major news outlets. There are thousands of starter packs spanning topics from mainstream interests like Taylor Swift to niche areas such as cargo biking or British comedy. You can opt to follow entire packs or scroll through to choose specific accounts.
Curious about followers from X? There’s a browser extension called Sky Follower Bridge that helps track X users transitioning to Bluesky. Just make sure to check the accuracy before clicking to avoid confusion with users who may have similar display names or handles.
How to Post
Eager to engage in the conversation? You can write posts and respond to others, keeping the character limit to 300—20 more than X. Uploading photos and videos is also possible, though videos must be under 60 seconds. GIFs and emojis are available too.
You can tag others by tapping the heart icon or using hashtags to highlight topics alongside entering their usernames. Bluesky has added a menu that displays various posts or mute options related to specific hashtags when clicked.
What About Trolls?
The decentralized philosophy of Bluesky reflects in its user-controlled content options.
To begin with, users can select from the menu whether to see or quote replies, reposts, or other quotations in their feed. Users have the ability to mute specific words or tags, and they can individually mute or block accounts, or create moderation lists for bulk blocking. Additionally, you can adjust the visibility of adult content in your feed.
Bluesky employs a team of content moderators to oversee illegal or rule-violating materials. However, the platform adopts a unique approach by implementing a Content Moderation System that aims to resolve issues related to traditional moderation’s lack of transparency and user control.
Consequently, individuals or groups can create custom content filters or labels beyond what’s provided by Bluesky. These labels can be used for organizing and blocking content or users, in addition to serving informative and creative purposes, like curating or verifying content.
Labels can identify news posts and highlight AI-generated images. You can explore the list of available labels online. After joining, I encountered labels in my feed warning about posts like “! Donald Trump” or “! Democrat Politician,” which were hidden unless I clicked on them.
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Follow Kelvin Chan on Bluesky
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Have any technical questions that need clarification? Feel free to reach out via [email protected]
Source: apnews.com