Nothing But Bluesky: Info Recording

Thank you Canada East for sharing this informative recording!

SCBWI Canada East hosted Nothing But Bluesky: The Conversation Continues on Saturday. This was a free session on the ins and outs of the Bluesky social media platform. Illustrator Charlene Chua (https://charlenechua.com/)  gave a fabulous demo of the platform and talked about the ins and outs of Bluesky. She provided a lot of great information for those who have a Bluesky account and use it regularly, those that have an account but haven't used it much yet, and for those that are not on it (and some that had not even heard of it).

We spoke after the session, and Charlene has generously given us permission to share the recording link with our members. The recording will be available for 30 days (until Nov. 25).

Recording link

Link: https://scbwi.zoom.us/rec/share/f62R3zXBP6oOcb8PxWjHImJIhqnQWd41G-iaC9dMxBUAGlAsDiR3PBfcVkTFZ8_A.upkq4Vh33tOZeaiY?startTime=1729961960000

Passcode: S+VE8f&*

Resources: 

The following are resources from Debbie Ohi and Brian Kirby that Charlene referred to in her talk:

• About the KidLit Mega Feed, how it works: https://blueskyfeedcreator.com/p/debbieohi.com/kidlit
• New to BlueSky Tips: https://debbieohi.com/2024/03/bluesky-tips/
• Lists, Feeds & Starter packs explained: https://boringstorybook.com/a-list-oflists-and-feeds/
• Break up with your X (or 'Why Twitter is not great for KidLit anymore'): https://boringstorybook.com/break-up-with-your-x/

And below is a quick summary of some of the tips/Q&A answers that attendees posted in the chat (with particular thanks to Brian Kirby for answering a number of chat questions). Feel free to share these as well as, as the chat isn't available via the recording.

• Look for “starter packs” tab on your profile to create your own
• You can only post videos under 30 seconds
• How many hashtags can you add? As many as you want! No punishing/suppressing algorithm. 
• Events on Bluesky:
• #kidlitart
• #kidliartpostcard
• #kidlitchat
• #skypitch
• To follow a chat event, look up the hashtag to see when it happens live, then show up and participate using the hashtag.
• “Paul Frazee’s Monster” is an account of a Bluesky developer, and he’s responsive and chatty. If you don’t follow him, you should.
• Can you edit a Bluesky post? Editing posts is a hard feature to implement because users could edit a post after it has been shared. I.e. someone could share an ‘I love baby bunnies’ post, which others might like and share. But, if the poster edits it to read ‘I love to eat baby bunnies," everyone who liked or shared it would appear to be endorsing eating bunnies. 
• Ideas for creating portfolios on Bluesky:
• Make a mini portfolio by pinning a post with a few illustrations to the top of your profile.
• Use unique hashtag and tag posts to sort into a portfolio-like feed - I.e. Brian tags posts of his art with #boringstories and he has created feed that shows only his posts using that hashtag
• Bluesky has an AI image labeler that lets you report AI images in different ways. Also, the “anti-social behavior” option in reporting is so much more effective than a “targeted harassment” option like the one on X.