So you decided to make the leap from Twitter to Blue Sky, or maybe you've just decided to join Blue Sky out of the blue. I made the jump earlier this week, and I made this video to share a few things I've learned with you that will

make the transition easier. So get ready to stretch those butterfly wings and fly the blue sky, but first a few notes. I'll be sharing a few links here, but I can't put them inside the video, so I'll post them both on Blue Sky and YouTube.

I'll also include the transcript of this video along with inline links to make it easier 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 task with the transcript.

open. I'm only showing you 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 it you should be able to intuitively figure out in the app, except for the

tools that require the extensions. There are a couple of tutorials already made. The CEO of Blue Sky, Jay, has shared a doc that is very detailed. Not all of it is included in this explainer, so I'd advise giving that a look. And a user named Joshua Fredman has

put together a thread to help you out. But since some people are visual learners, I have put this video together, and I hope it helps. I'll walk you through how to find most of the folks you followed on Twitter over here, how to use starter

packs, feeds, and lists some of the tools users have developed to make things easier, and the rules of etiquette. Some are a bit different from Twitter, so make sure you watch that. While I will include detailed instructions for the sake of time and not just being boring, I won't read them.

off. You important thing is that they're there when you get to it. So let's start off with how you can find that community that was dear to you over on the other site. There is an extension called Sky Follower Bridge that will scrub your Twitter followers and then allow you to

follow all the ones it finds in Blue Sky with one click. After you've installed the app, just go ahead and follow the instructions that are listed. Now you should at least have a base of people you are following and that should be a big help, but let's add some more

people. So first let's get you going on starter packs. Your next question is probably, "What's a starter pack?" The 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 interest to find all kinds of starter

packs. When you find one you like, click on its name. It will open up in Blue Sky 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 Blue Sky 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 back in social media. The next thing up is feeds. Feeds are fantastic. They are what makes Blue Sky so much better than Twitter. They are how

you can curate your own content, as Jay puts it. Feeds are generally focused on one topic or group with common interest, such as like football. A use your curated group of people or a way to seek contact and connect with your people. So, for instance, you might have a feed called Mutual

which is all the people you follow that you follow them, and the feed shows you what they're skiing. 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 and find more feeds you can add. There's a search bar if you want to look for particular topics. Just click the plus sign to add yours. To change the order of your tabs,

add or remove the pin ons or remove the 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 need to first unpin it, then throw it away. Now let's talk about lists. Lists are simple, user-created collections of accounts that can be pinned to anyone's homepage as a feed. They are different from starter packs, and that starter packs are ways to find

People to follow where lists are ways to access those people's 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 homepage to get a tab for it.

So now let's talk about the tools because Blue Sky is open source. There are a lot of nifty tools that can enhance your experience. Note that for some tools, you'll need to provide a login that isn't your actual password. There will be an arrow in the password box of the site. Just click on that, and it'll take you to your account where it will give you a password to put in there. Now let's talk about some of these tools.

Clear Sky is a great app that lets you see who you're blocking, who is blocking you, and which list you were on. So if all of a sudden your account starts blowing up, you might have been added to a starter list. Clear Sky would be a good place to go check and see if you were added to a list.

Blue Sky Follow Back All finds all the people who follow you and who you haven't followed back yet, and all you have to do is just click "Follow All", and it will automatically follow back everyone you're not following.

Sky Feed and Deck Blue are great apps if you're looking for a kind of TweetDeck alternative. These 

are apps that let you look at several different columns at the same time. Blue Sky thread reader lets you read busy threads more easily. It trees out the branches and lets you open and close them to make it easier to follow. Blue Sky Network Analyzer is a

nifty app that looks for accounts that a lot of people who you follow follow but you don't follow, and then it recommends them to you. It's a nice way of finding accounts you'll probably like. Finally, at Awesome Blue Sky, there's a curated list of apps that you can look

through and maybe find something you would like. Now let's talk about Sky etiquette. These aren't terms of service, but they are part of the culture you've joined, and it's nice to respect that culture. First, play nice. Don't engage with MAGAs and trolls.

Just block them and move along. Don't give oxygen to the fire. For that reason, parody accounts don't really work over here either. Second, respect what's already here. There is a great culture generated by the folks who are building it up before the mass exodus. Respect it and

them. Blue Sky didn't start when you joined it. Third, use alt text. Alt text is a descriptive text that describes what an image is. Visually impaired users have text readers that read this text, allowing them to know what's in it. So make sure when you write your alt text

it explains why the image is there. Don't just write a caption. For example, if there's a joke involved, describe what's in the image that makes the image funny. You can even make alt text mandatory as a way to remind yourself. The instructions for that are in the

Doc, don't post screenshots from Twitter. It's like the same rules with people who crank up their music too loud in their car and you're thinking, "If I wanted to listen to your music, I'd be sitting in your car." Generally, the feeling is if

people want to see tweets, they'll go to Twitter. Also, same goes for the images of the fat orange felon. No pictures of him. Next, 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 your own feed in so

many ways. There's no real reason not to, and it makes the communication feel more like a two-way street when you have a big account and a small account. And lastly, don't DM. Just don't do unsolicited DMs. Other than that, engage. Put the

social and social media. You'll find this is a great place to heal after all that happened on Twitter. I'm glad to be here, and I'm glad you are here. If you want to find me, I'm @kellyscaleta or machine pun Kelly, both here

and on Blue Sky. If you give me a follow, I'll follow you back. Thanks for watching, and remember to like and subscribe, but only if you like the video.

BlueSky for Beginners

BlueSky for Beginners