So you’ve decided to make the leap from Twitter to BlueSky. Or maybe you’ve just decided to join BlueSky out of the blue.

I made the jump earlier this week, and I made this video to share a few thing I’ve learned with you that will make the transition easier.

So get ready to stretch those butterfly wings and fly the blue sky!

A few notes first.

I’ll be sharing a few links here, but I can’t put them inside the video, so I’ll post them (both on BlueSky and YouTube).

I’ll also include the transcript of this video, along with in-line links to make it easy for you to find later.

So the best way to approach this will be to watch the whole thing from start to finish, then go back and perform your selected tasks with the transcript open.

I am only showing how to do this on a computer browser because I don’t know how to do it on my phone as I don’t use my phone for this. But I think most of this you should be able to intuitively figure out in the app, except for the tools that require the extensions.

There are a couple of detailed tutorials already made.

The CEO of BlueSky, “Jay” has a shared Doc that is very detailed. Not all of it is included in this Explainer, so I advise giving it a look.

A user named Joshua Freedman has put together a thread to help you out, too.

But since some are “visual learners,” I have put this video together. I hope it helps.

I’ll walk you through:

1. How you can find most of the folks you followed on Twitter over here
2. How to use “Starter Packs,” “Feeds” and “Lists.”
3. Some of the tools users have developed to make things easier.
4. The rules of etiquette. Some are a bit different from Twitter, so make sure you watch.

While I’ll include detailed instructions, for the sake of time and just not being boring, I won’t read them off. The important thing is that they’re there when you get to it.

So let’s start with how you can find the community that has been dear to you over on the other place.

There is an extension called “Sky Follower Bridge” that will scrub your Twitter followers and then allow you to follow all of the ones it finds in Blue Sky with one click!

[Screenshot]

After you’ve Installed the app follow these instructions:

1. Open your Twitter Follower page.
2. Press "Alt + B" shortcut or click on the toolbar icon to launch the Sky Follower Bridge
3. Input your Bluesky login email or handle and app password.
4. Press the Finding Bluesky Users button.
5. The modal will open and detect Bluesky users.
6. The `View Detected users will be displayed once the scan is complete.
7. Press the button to check the results.
8. You can either curate the list and follow one at a time, or click “Follow All” and follow everyone at once.

Now you should have at least a base of people you are following, and that should be a big help. But let’s add some more.

Starter Packs

So let’s get you going on Starter Packs.

Your next question is probably, “What’s a starter pack?”

A “Starter Pack” is an individual user’s list of people they think are worth following. You can either follow people on these lists one at a time, or all at once. They are a great way to expand your community quickly.

There are over 10,000 Starter Packs already, and that number is growing rapidly. So there’s a directory of Starter Packs you can pick from.

Just open the directory and search your interests to find all kinds of Starter Packs.

When you find one you like, click on its name. It will open up in BlueSky, and you can either follow individually or all at once by clicking “Follow All” at the top of the screen.

One thing I love about BlueSky is that algos don’t decide what’s in your feed, you do! So look at starter packs for your different interests to find people to interact with about those interests. Put the “Social” in Social Media.

Feeds

Feeds are fantastic. They are what makes BlueSky so much better. They are how you can curate your own content.

As Jay puts it, “Feeds are generally focused on one topic or group with common interests, a user curated group of people, or a way to see content and connect with your people

When you add a feed, you have the option of “pinning it” which means it will show up in your main feed as a tab.

To add feeds, just click on the hashtag at the left of any screen. Your current feeds are listed at the top.

Scroll down to find more feeds you can add. There’s a search bar if you want to look for particular topics.  Just click the + sign to add to yours.

To change the order of your tabs, add or remove the pinned ones, or remove tabs, at the top of the screen, click Edit.

Your pinned feeds are listed first, then your unpinned feeds. To pin or unpin a tab, just click the thumbtack. To remove a feed, click the garbage can. Note that to remove a pinned feed, you’ll have to first unpin it, then throw it away.

Lists

Lists are a simple, user-created collection of accounts that can be pinned to anyone’s home page as a feed.

They are different from Starter Packs in that the Starter Packs are ways to find people to follow where lists are ways to access their posts in a feed.

If someone else has a list, you can subscribe to that, or you can build your own.

To start a list, click List on the left, then “New+” at the top of the page.

Name and describe your list, then save it.

To add someone to it, go to their profile page. Click on the three dots at the top right and click “Add to List.” In the popup, click your preferred list, and you’re done.

You can also pin your list to your Home to get a tab for it.

Tools

Because BlueSky is open source, there are a lot of nifty tools that can enhance your experience.

Note that for some tools, you’ll provide a login that isn’t your actual password. There will be an arrow in the password box of the site.

Clearsky is a great app that lets you see who you’re blocking, who is blocking you, and which lists you are on.

Bluesky Follow Back All finds all the people who follow you who you haven’t followed back, and does that for you.

SkyFeed and DeckBlue are great apps if you’re looking for the “TweetDeck” experience.

BSKY Thread Reader lets you read busy threads more easily. It trees out the branches and lets you open and close them.

Bluesky Network Analyzer is a nifty app that looks for accounts that a lot of people who follow you follow follow, but you don’t follow. It’s a nice way of finding accounts you’ll probably like.

At “Awesome Bluesky” you can find a curated list of apps.

Sky Etiquette

These aren’t terms of service, but they are a part of the culture you’ve joined and it’s nice to respect that culture.

1. Play nice. Don’t engage with MAGAs and trolls, just block them and move along. Don’t give the oxygen to burn. For that reason, parody accounts don’t really work over here.
2. Respect what’s already here: There is a great culture generated by the folks who were building it up before the mass exodus; respect it and them. BlueSky didn’t start when you joined it.
3. Use Alt Text: Alt text is descriptive text that describes what an image is. Visually impaired users have “text readers” that read this text aloud to them so they know what’s in it. So make sure your alt text explains why the image is there and isn’t just a caption. For example, if there’s a joke involved, describe what is in the image that makes the image funny.

You can make alt-text mandatory as a way to remind yourself. Go Settings->Accessibility->Require Alt text before posting.

4. Don’t post screenshots from Twitter: It’s like the same rule as with people who crank their music up too loud in their car: If I wanted to listen to your music, I’d be in your car.  Generally, the feeling is if people want to see tweets, they’ll go to Twitter. Also, same goes for images of the fat orange felon.
5. Follow Back There’s a general feeling (but not a law) that you should be liberal with your follow backs here. Since you can curate their own feed so many ways, there’s no reason not to, and it makes the communication feel more like a two-way street.
6. Don’t DM: Just don’t do unsolicited DMs.

Other than that, engage! Put the social in social media. You’ll find this is a great place to heal after what happened to Twitter. I’m glad to be here, and I’m glad you’re here.

If you want to find me, I’m @kellyscaletta aka. Machine Pun Kelly, both here and on BlueSky. If you give me a follow, I’ll follow back.

Thanks for watching, and remember to like and subscribe, but only if you liked the video.