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How to join climate-bluesky
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How to join climate Bluesky

Published 0930 08/11/2024 Central European time

Last updated 2300 19/11/2024 CET

Ketan Joshi - @KetanJoshi.co

It is really, really wonderful that you want to join the climate community on Bluesky. It’s comprised of academics, activists, experts, journalists, writers, builders, community organisers and many more. It is still relatively new, but the more the merrier :)

Guides to joining Bluesky in general

Bluesky has a similar interface to X, but it has deep technical and cultural differences that you should be aware of.

Stuff that was common on Twitter, like quote-dunking, arguing in replies or just generally being argumentative are frowned upon, and there is zero tolerance for bigotry (even bigotry couched in the language of politeness). Bluesky is nice if you’re nice, and it will eat you alive if you’re setting out to punch down.

Instead of one secret algorithm, you choose and subscribe to custom algorithms, and you can even design your own. The ‘nuclear block’ gets used liberally. The interface still isn’t as polished as Twitter was, but you can upload 1min videos now. Alt-text is a must, on all images (it also helps you slow down and think about your posts).

How to get started on Climate Bluesky (starter packs)

Starter packs are simple: they’re a list of accounts that you can bulk-follow with a single click. They’re an absolutely brilliant way of quickly growing your network on Bluesky based on a trusted voice.

This is a searchable directory of all starter packs. I’ve listed a few below too, but they’re only a small selection of what you can find:

General climate related starter packs:

Brazil + Climate

News, information and organisations

Activism, justice, organising

Humanities, scientists, academics and research

Energy and technology starter packs:

How to use Climate Bluesky (feeds and content)

You know the ‘for you’ feed on Facebook, Threads, X etc? Bluesky lets you create custom versions of those, and share them with your friends. You can turn them on and off according to however you’re feeling at any point in time. Feeling ready to take on the world? Dive into a climate feed. Feeling shit and need a break? Dive into the Art feed, or the cat pics feed.

For example, back in May 2023, I created ‘Greensky’. This is a list of Bluesky accounts that I plug into a tool called ‘SkyFeed’, and it just returns everything posted by everyone on the list. A bit later I added a keyword filter because there were many accounts.

You can access the main Greensky feed here, or submit a request to be added to it here.

These are open source projects: a really nice guy called David created a custom version of Greensky that goes one step further and returns the most discussed posts. I also created a completely unfiltered version, called ‘Greensky Unabated’.

Here are a bunch of other feeds - please get in touch if I’ve left anything out!