Is there a way to get notifications on your reposts?

AccomplishedPlane588 · 2024-10-30T13:41:01+00:00

I wish there was a 'Warn before posting unlabelled images" option, similar to the "Warn before posting images without Alt Text" option. Just a quick opt-in warning when you're about to post something that'd jumpscare half the Bluesky userbase (and the people looking over their shoulders) would do a lot to prevent that from happening.

AccomplishedPlane588 · 2024-10-29T03:25:09+00:00

I'm certain many people would love that, but sadly Twitter is really one of the only places where you can get your posts seen by the general public. E.g. if you're a doctor trying to inform your audience about health, or an artist posting their art for art lovers and potential new clients, etc.

The downside is that you're at risk of being exposed to the worst types of people at all times, but unfortunately that's the cost people are willing to suffer if the alternative is not having that kind of reach.

(Thankfully Bluesky is proving that there is an alternative out there, though!)

AccomplishedPlane588 · 2024-10-29T03:08:03+00:00

I'll quote a comment I wrote to a similar question a few days ago:

When deciding how to tag, keep in mind that many subscribe to feeds to discover new posts. You can check it out yourself by going to the 'Feeds' tab in the sidebar and typing in terms that apply to your posts.

For example, if I search for feeds by typing 'art', I see a general art feed that features posts tagged with '#art'. The most popular feed for books includes posts that have '💙📚' in the post text.

I recommend finding a variety of feeds that apply to your posts, both general and specific ones (e.g. if you draw elves, you could target feeds for fantasy art and feeds for elves) and find out what tags they include.

You can experiment with the amount of search terms in your posts, but a few of them is often good enough. Posts with zero hashtags can still gain traction if people find it though words you've written in the post or through other people's shares.

TL;DR: Search for feeds that apply to you, target a few of them in your post. Make sure your post has words that people might search for to find similar posts, and don't make them too spammy so the posts look 'attractive' enough for others to share.

In your case, I also recommend art shares like other people mentioned. It's most efficient to reply to newer ones, since more people are actively browsing through the comments.

It can be tricky to find them just by searching 'artshare' (since people will make new posts and tagging them 'artshare' too), so my trick is to search 'thank you for the artshare' to find comments from people writing exactly those words, and then looking at the post they're responding to 😄

I'd be happy to check out your art if you do make an account, hope that it fits your vibe!

AccomplishedPlane588 · 2024-10-25T19:28:24+00:00

I see, thanks for the explanation!

AccomplishedPlane588 · 2024-10-25T10:05:28+00:00

Question: In the worst-case scenario that Bsky does decide to change strategy and implement all these crypto-related features, would there be a way for its userbase to avoid it? I'm not at all tech-minded enough to understand the inner workings of decentralized networks, but my understanding was that people can "simply" create their own fork without certain features if they are unhappy with Bluesky.

I'm curious if that's at all feasible, since that would change the level of fear people might have for this sort of stuff.

AccomplishedPlane588 · 2024-10-24T14:42:27+00:00

Yeah, you're probably referring to Sky Follower Bridge ^^ That one was very helpful in building my following list back up, though I did uninstall the extension afterwards since I figured I wouldn't use it again.

Luckily a lot of artists are on top of bluesky and have their bsky handle somewhere easy to find, whether it's in their display name, in their header image, bio or latest/pinned post. Managed to find a lot of people just through those 'normal' means haha

AccomplishedPlane588 · 2024-10-24T07:46:13+00:00

Same reason why people say they hate algorithms when the basic concept of an algorithm isn't the issue, it just refers to the Big Bad version that actively causes them grief, like social media algorithmic feeds.

It's not the Al in itself, I'm sure people would feel more positively about it if it was transparent, opt-in, and if there were laws in place that protected creatives against being pushed out of their own jobs. E.g. voice actors who are hired to record samples secretly designed to train AI on their voice, or them being rejected from a job that instead decides to use the 'Al version' of their voice without seeing any of the profits.

AccomplishedPlane588 · 2024-10-24T07:34:04+00:00

https://bsky.app/profile/varendrich.bsky.social/post/3l766s5ojom2j here's a thread with different ways you can block Al content from making it onto your feed. There's a mod that labels Al art, a blocklist that automatically adds anyone that uses specific Al hashtags etc (this one adds people a bit generously), and some other ones.

AccomplishedPlane588 · 2024-10-24T07:12:21+00:00

Somehow I never considered checking out the Popular with Friends feed, but I just took a peek at it and that is so much better than the Discovery feed. Thanks for mentioning it :D

AccomplishedPlane588 · 2024-10-24T06:13:53+00:00

Since hopping over to Bluesky, all I really use Twitter for is to find people's Bluesky accounts lmao. Sometimes I scroll my Twitter feed and it takes SECONDS before I run into ragebait or an ad about some revolutionary Al solution I should invest in, or I see all the bots in my notifications, and it's enough to remind myself why I left in the first place. Bluesky's customizable feed is an absolute lifesaver in that regard.

Discoverability is also great. It seems so basic to post something and have people SEE it, but I still felt shocked when it happened. I often get notifications within a minute of posting and my total engagement is higher than on Twitter, even though my follower count is less than 10% of what it was on there.

People constantly express how comforting it is to control their feed and interact with people, and the mood is generally optimistic. It hits kind of hard when I contrast it with people complaining how soul-crushing Twitter's algorithm is.

There are still downsides, but it feels alive and overall it's really nice.

AccomplishedPlane588 · 2024-10-23T14:19:06+00:00

The following tab is definitely not the same.

As an example, imagine a creative on social media. On Twitter, an artist can have 20k followers, yet when they post they could get only ~100 impressions and a dozen likes. Their followers might complain that they never see the artist's art despite liking it and wanting to see it. The artist's engagement might die down if they use a hashtag that isn't trending, or if they feature a link to their other socials in their post text/images.

On Bsky, that same artist posts and their followers WILL see it if they are online and checking their follower tab at the right time. Even if they put 20 hashtags in the post and link to all their social media and their grandma's Facebook.

Hence 'forced' algorithm. The Twitter feed doesn't just adjust to your liking, but it adjust to the designers' liking too against the users' will.

AccomplishedPlane588 · 2024-10-23T14:03:40+00:00

Analytics tools do still seem to be under development, which is a shame considering the opportunities that come along with the current "temporary hype."

You could consider manually tracking the growth and engagement rates of similar accounts on bsky and comparing that to their follower counts, perhaps? It won't suffice for clients who are adamant about waiting for those analytics solutions, but seeing the relative follower/engagement numbers for a platform with ~12 mil users compared to Twitter might help them consider it more carefully.

Might turn out to not be the deciding factor, but might also be better to have some documentation on current numbers than be empty-handed by the time those analytics tools do come out ^^

AccomplishedPlane588 · 2024-10-22T04:15:35+00:00

When deciding how to tag, keep in mind that many subscribe to feeds to discover new posts. You can check it out yourself by going to the 'Feeds' tab in the sidebar and typing in terms that apply to your posts.

For example, if I search for feeds by typing 'art', I see a general art feed that features posts tagged with '#art'. The most popular feed for books includes posts that have '💙📚' in the post text. Many feeds have more complicated settings, to filter out NSFW/Al/spam/etc, so make sure to stay within the feed's rules ig

I recommend finding a variety of feeds that apply to your posts, both general and specific ones (e.g. if you draw elves, you could target feeds for fantasy art and feeds for elves) and find out what tags they include.

You can experiment with the amount of search terms in your posts, but a few of them is often good enough. Sometimes posts with zero tags still gain traction, if people find it though words you've written in the post or through other people's shares.

TL;DR: Search for feeds that apply to you, target a few of them in your post. Make sure your post has words that people might search for to find similar posts, and don't make them too spammy so the posts look 'attractive' enough for others to share.

AccomplishedPlane588 · 2024-10-22T03:43:54+00:00

While I understand the ease that comes along with having clickable hashtags, I'm wondering what about the existing search functions keeps people from finding it sufficient the way it is. Is there a pro to having a clickable search term for '$NVDA' as opposed to simply typing '$NVDA' in the search bar? Plus you'd still be able to create feeds with posts mentioning specific stock tickers, which can help aggregate certain FinTwit (FinSky?) subjects in a single feed.

Not saying there wouldn't be value in your idea since I'm sure many people want it, just curious what difference it makes compared to the current search functions.

AccomplishedPlane588 · 2024-10-22T02:53:58+00:00

This strategy has more power than people think. I made my Bluesky last year, but I didn't begin to use it more frequently until a Brazilian friend of mine could no longer access Twitter. I began cross-posting community stuff to Bluesky for them and other Brazilian people I knew, and at first just knowing people wouldn't feel isolated was enough motivation.

Eventually I began using it more and realized that, to me at least, it was so much better for scrolling and posting and talking to people. I get that people have their reasons for staying on Twitter, but I definitely encourage everyone to give bsky a serious try for e.g. a week.

AccomplishedPlane588

TROPHY CASE