Bluesky is an emerging social media platform that offers a fresh and user-friendly experience, making it an excellent choice for sewists looking to connect, share projects, and find inspiration. As well as those looking to get away from centralised, ad-driven social platforms (Facebook, Insta, etc.). Here’s a straightforward guide to help you get started, understand its basic features, and see how it compares to platforms like Instagram and Facebook.
Getting Started with Bluesky
- Sign Up: Visit Bluesky’s official website or download the app on your smartphone. Click on the “Sign Up” button and fill in your details, including your name, handle (username), email address, and birthdate.
- Set Up Your Profile: After registration, personalise your profile by uploading a profile picture and writing a brief bio that reflects your sewing interests.
- Follow Accounts: To tailor your feed, start following other sewists, fabric stores, pattern designers, and sewing communities. You can use the “Discover” feature to find accounts that match your interests. More on this below.
Basic Features of Bluesky
- Posting: Share updates, photos, and videos of your sewing projects. Each post can include text (up to 300 characters), images, and videos.
- Engagement: Interact with others by liking, reposting, and commenting on their posts.
- Custom Feeds: Choose feeds that suit your interests, ensuring you see content that’s most relevant to you. The default feed is a chronological list of posts created (or reposted) by only the people you follow.
- Direct Messages (Chat): Like most other social sites, you can also chat privately to other users with messages, found in the “Chat” tab.
How Bluesky Differs from Instagram and Facebook
- Decentralisation: No single company controls the entire platform, offering users more control over their data and experience.
- Algorithmic Choice: You have flexibility to tailor your feeds.
- No Ads: At present, there are no ads on the platform, and Bluesky has stated that it aims to explore alternative funding models.
- Moderation and Safety: Bluesky has built-in moderation tools that allow you to block, mute, and report users.
- Search Hashtags: You can easily search hashtags and view recent and top posts using them.
Starter Packs
It can be sometimes be difficult to find other people to follow on new social sites which is where Starter Packs come in. These are curated lists of users and feeds which anyone can see and create. From the Starter Pack you can choose to follow everyone or manually select individuals you’d like to follow.
We’re creating a Sewing Starter Pack so if you’d like to be included then fill out this quick form and we’ll add you to it (separate packs for personal and business accounts).
Custom Feeds
One of the most exciting features of Bluesky is the ability to customise your feed based on your interests, rather than being at the mercy of a platform-wide algorithm. Unlike Instagram and Facebook, where the algorithm determines what you see (often prioritising sponsored content and viral posts), Bluesky allows you to follow custom feeds that focus on specific topics, communities, or content styles.
For example, if you’re only interested in seeing posts about sewing, you can follow a sewing-specific custom feed (we’re looking into creating one) that filters out unrelated content. There are already feeds dedicated to different hobbies, niche interests, and communities, and new ones can be created by users.
Follow Stash Hub
Of course Stash Hub is on Bluesky @stashhubapp.com.