twitter sucks if you're still using twitter you should leave and go literally anywhere else - even offline completely!
bluesky also kind of sucks but it is not remotely as bad as twitter and it kind of feels like how you remember twitter being.
it looks very similar too
anyway here's my guide to make bluesky less annoying so you never go back to fucking twitter holy shit
we'll start with feeds, then move on to moderation tools, labellers, and finally any other stuff that might be neat.
so, Feeds
on the menu to the left, click on Feeds and you'll see this:
first of all, click on the gear symbol in the top right to customise your feeds.
Discover is the devil's feed and it will piss you off, get rid of it!
now free of Discover's evil grip, return to the previous page.
here you can add any feeds you like! I strongly recommend Popular With Friends (shows you posts the people you follow have liked in chronological order), and I lightly recommend For You (shows you posts related to those you have liked, but is very easily influenced)
you should also use the search bar here to look for feeds related to things you like!
these are my pinned feeds, just as an example
going back to that gear icon from before will allow you to un-pin and rearrange the order of your feeds, though Following will always be first
moderation tools!!
first and foremost!
blocking someone on bluesky is NUCLEAR, they become completely invisible to you and you become completely invisible to them. absolutely gone.
muting someone hides their posts and replies from your feeds and notifications, but they can still see and reply to yours!
content filters
bluesky has waaay fewer bots and fascist chuds, but this does not mean there are none - and like any social media you are bound to encounter somebody deeply annoying or be sick of hearing about something and that's normal and okay.
so on the menu to the right, click Settings, and then choose Moderation tools - scroll down and you'll see this:
bearing in mind that Bluesky's image tagging system is extremely fallible and constantly tags non-sexual naked bodies as explicit content, set these filters as you see fit and then be sure to click the Bluesky Moderation Service tab beneath too as there are further options hidden in there (including sexually explicit: cartoon for the sexy fanart enjoyers).
Personally, I have just about everything set to Warn, so that I'm not constantly being flashbanged by nudity while on the bus, but also nobody is being censored.
muted words
scroll back up and select Muted words and tags to get this pop-up:
as you can see, you get a ton of options here! this will completely hide any posts containing the words you add exactly as you add them (not case-sensetive) for as long as you choose to hide them - even in alt-text!
brilliant function for when there's a news story or a meme you're sick of hearing about, a person you hate, or even just spoilers you want to avoid.
interaction settings
does what it says! you can change these at any time while making a new post, the option is in the lower left of the post window
BLOCKLISTS.
a contentious issue, as a blocklist is only as good as its creator is well-intentioned. there's always going to be bad actors who say their blocklist is all homophobes but then they start adding people who they just have personal beef with.
so you should be cautious and do your due diligence before subscribing to a blocklist.
that said, here's one i absolutely recommend:
it is a pretty safe assumption that any account that is following more than 10,000 other accounts is either a bot, engagement farming, or straight up does not really understand how to use the internet.
labellerrsss
there's no easy menu to find these unfortunately, but you can subscribe to labellers to see extra the information they attach
some of these can be self-applied such as your pronouns, career, or fun things like what job you play in FFXIV, others are added by the creator of the labeller and might be information such as the date the account was created or that this account only ever posts replies.
other settings and fun tricks
lets look at my profile again and i'll go through stuff bit by bit
account handle
see how this is a bit like a website address? that's because it kind of is.
you can actually replace this with any website domain you own!
new today: pronouns!!
adding a pronoun labeller will make them visible on your posts to anyone subscribed, but you can now do this too
hashtags?
hashtags just work on bluesky, but also if you put them in your profile like this...
when clicked, there is the option to see all tagged posts by user!
another recent addition, you can add links as buttons on your profile, and verified donation services such as ko-fi, gofundme, throne etc all get a green background.
this one just lets you see which labels are applied to your account
alt text!!
this is in Accessibility in the Settings menu! i'm not going to say you have to turn this on because i'm not your mum, but i will say that not only is adding descriptive alt text to your images a kind thing to do for people who need to use screen-readers, but it can help add context to your posts and jokes, and also makes them searchable and muteable
this feature will ensure that you never forget to add alt text if you're into that.
app passwords
sometimes when you're linking bluesky to another site it will ask for an app password, you can find that in your Privacy and Security settings
deck.blue
do you miss.... tweetdeck?
deck.blue is like tweetdeck for bluesky!
extra features include tumblr-style hashtags that don't take up post space and cleaner inline hyperlinks
with a patreon subscription you can also schedule posts and set up a tumblr-style timed repost queue
starter packs?!
these are just lists of accounts that you can pick through or follow all at once, here's a couple of examples:
thats all i can think of for now and it's late but i'll update later if anything else comes to mind!!