Bluesky onboarding post

So... I'm going to give Bluesky a chance. However, I'm going to use it differently than I've used other "social media" platforms. Pretty much, it'll be where I post personal thoughts, photos, etc.

Hopefully, you'll join me in adding alt-text to the visual elements you post -- photos, memes, etc. -- to improve accessibility. I know my eyes don't work as well as they once did!

I am setting my filters to hide things I don't want to see. I will set them proactively and aggressively. That means that I may not see everything you post. And that's okay! You do you and I'll take care of me!

What I hope my Bluesky filters will allow me to see:

• What's happening with you - happy or not. Life is real.
• Photos of kitties, puppers, capybaras, pretty clouds, sunrises, sunsets, eclipses, galaxies, etc. Basically, beauty and awe (natural and human-created).

What I hope my Bluesky filters will hide from me:

• Discussions of high-profile people that I do not know personally.
• High-trauma subjects.
• News -- I will get my news from reputable news media sources (such as they are).
• Things that will get people I love and care for (including me) in trouble with the new regime and their jack-booted lackeys.
• Disseminating private information that I don't think any commercial, corporate, or government entity needs to have or infer about people I love and care for (including me).

Please note: This is how I am going to use it. I am not advocating for, requesting, or requiring that you do anything different from what you're already doing! The Bluesky filters will make me happier and if I know you, I think you'll be okay with that. If not, you can unfriend me (or whatever the term for that is in Bluesky). I won't hold it against you. Really. Unfortunately, if I can't get the filters to work to my satisfaction, I may need to mute people with posts that get through the filters. Again, don't take it personally, please.

My initial list of filters (there will be more!) is: Trump, Elon, Maga, RFK, POTUS, SCOTUS

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

If you like this (or don't!) and want to leave me a comment, use the guestbook feature in the upper right corner. On a phone, tap the "hamburger" (three-bar) menu button. Please mention which article you're referring to.

I love it when I get an email telling me that someone clicked one or more of the react buttons at the bottom of the post. However, I have no idea who did it. If you're so inclined, leave a guestbook note!

Written and posted and copyrighted on 2025-01-23 by me. Quote me if you want (linking to this post would be nice, too) but no one and no thing have permission to slurp this into any LLM vomit factory as training data.