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@stucka
Last active October 19, 2023 14:44
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Getting started on Bluesky

Use this code at bsky dot app.

A good way to get started is to identify some of the nexus accounts, people near the center of your social groups on Twitter, then look for them on Bluesky. If you find them, you can follow them -- but consider also going through their lists of who they're following, and who they follow, to find more of your crowd. Think about whether you really want to follow them, instead of automatically following them. Consider repeating this step periodically as Bluesky grows, because you may find more of your people have snuck in.

There was a web site called Fedifinder that tried to find your Twitter crowd in both Mastodon and Bluesky. It's been down the last couple times I've tried it, alas.

LifeHacker referred me to a Chrome extension I haven't tried yet, which tries to identify your Twitter people on Bluesky so you can follow 'em: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/sky-follower-bridge/behhbpbpmailcnfbjagknjngnfdojpko

Block liberally. Don't feed the trolls. Keep it from turning into a place many of us left.

The Android app is fine but you sometimes maybe need to hold down on the icon, go into settings, force stop it. Then go into storage and clear the cache to solve weird stuff. Do not clear data, only cache.

Other advice from @aendra that should be incorporated: I find the “just follow everyone you know from Twitter” approach to often be unhelpful. Some people I followed on Twitter are very active on Bluesky, others very much aren’t. If you follow a bunch of people who’ve created accounts but aren’t actually using Bluesky, it adds to the “well nobody actually uses Bluesky yet” narrative (and is why I suspect I keep seeing shit takes from journalists about how “dead” Bluesky is — no, you just haven’t followed anyone who actually uses it, or engaged with custom feeds!)

Custom feeds are a really key part of the Bluesky experience. Flag them to new users early, flag them to new users often.

It’s often a good idea to mention that everything posted on Bluesky is viewable on the public web by people who don’t have Bluesky accounts yet, even though it’s an invite-only service at the moment.

Encourage new users to self-verify by using a domain name as a username. It’s a lot easier to start with a domain name username than to switch to one later (offsite links to that username will 404, you kind of almost have to use up an invite at the moment to prevent someone from taking the old username).

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