1. Follow lots of people to ensure you have lots of content to read. Use starter packs to find accounts of specific interest - these are highly effective ways of finding people quickly. But try to follow people not on starter packs too!
Second point is important. Starter packs have been great for finding accounts of interest and enabling a quicker transition as people move across to Bluesky. However, they have eliminated organic growth, with larger profiles being the main beneficiaries.
2. Use feeds for filtering more specific content. It's not true to say there are no 'algorithms' here, it's just they are completely transparent - the following feed is just reverse chronology of posts, and other feeds are clear about what they show you.
If you select the three lines in the upper left corner you will get a menu that includes Feeds. Select that and scroll down to search on topics that interest you. I chose things like art, gardening, cooking etc. They will show as specific feeds to choose from along the top of the screen.
Click feeds & scroll down to Discover New Feeds. That suggests some, but you can also type topics (eg knitting) into a search bar. Then you click the + to add them to your view/timeline/whatever we're calling it.
3. Welcome people when they join the platform - there are a lot of new people here, and it's helpful to tell others that someone has arrived at the party...
4. There is a culture among of civility here (well, relatively speaking!) - proactively blocking is an important part of this. Don't amplify hate, grifting or trolling. Bluesky's 'nuclear block' removes all your interactions with an account - this is highly effective in reducing toxicity.
5. I prefer to manage who I block myself, but Bluesky does offer blanket moderation lists - in the app, search for moderation lists and you'll find a range of options that others have prepared for you.
Be careful with those lists though. Seen a few people who say they have been maliciously added to a list and found themselves blocked through no fault of their own.
The simple option is to create your own list via the menu, and add all the accounts you want to see. I believe creating a feed requires a bit of programming.
I appreciate that. I'm not big on self-promotion or groupthink, so I don't wind up in anyone's starter packs. Yet, I've been active on social media, blogs, and even had a space for my daily opinion at my city's newspaper for a time. "Little" people go all too unnoticed on big platforms.
I followed you because you had an interesting profile. Do feel free to follow me back. If you don’t find my profile interesting enough, I’ll cope. Somehow🤣🤣🤣
Thankyou. I tend to follow people with interesting profiles. If people follow me who don’t have one I don’t follow back but I do invite them to put up a profile.
Comments
Did you say we have to follow certain people to get things to work here? Why?
The reply with a pin thing doesn't do anything.
https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:q6gjnaw2blty4crticxkmujt/feed/my-pins
Thank you so much
Newbie here; just deleted my X account.