It’s said that all good things must come to an end, and it would appear this applies to Twitter/X as well. Twitter was once a great place for providers to showcase our personality and offer social proof so that clients could get a feel for what a session with us might be like. For a long time it acted like a mini ad platform. Indeed many providers have found it to be a first contact point to their brand and referral source to their site. In fact, so many of us came to rely on the platform that it has made it difficult to part with, even as the site has become filled with fascist, racist, and hate-filled sentiment and increasingly aggressive surveillance and suspension of its users. For me, the biggest motivator to ditch Twitter came in 2023 when Grok, Twitter’s proprietary ai, was rolled out. Not only is it difficult-to-impossible to opt out of, but the recent change to Grok that allows it to generate nonconsensual sexualized images of people (including children) is utterly appalling and beyond the last straw. Additionally, beginning in about November of 2025, I strongly suspect that Grok became a mode of platform moderation resulting in the suspension of hundreds of provider’s profiles in the span of less than two months. It’s been a slow decline, but I think it’s time to let that site die.
Why Bluesky:
Fortunately for those of us who enjoy the format of a text-based social media platform, we now have Bluesky, a similar platform that offers the same short-form, text-forward capabilities as Twitter. There are several neat things about it. First and foremost for our purposes, the platform allows nudity. It does have a moderation filter for adult content (which is a good thing despite what some may think), but it doesn’t employ shadowbanning as a way of suppressing adult content. Instead, the filter allows people who don’t want to see nudity, etc on their feed to have the experience they want, while also allowing those who do want nudity to see as many naked bodies as they like (more on how to enable this later…).
It also doesn’t operate on the same type of algorithm as Twitter which so often pushed whatever content it assumed you wanted to see, or whatever white supremacist talking point du jour that Elon was into, while burying the stuff you actually did want. Instead it uses a pretty simple algorithm of boosting whatever has the most comments, reposts, likes, etc. It’s more like how social media platforms used to function before they were all enshittified.
As of now there are also no ads. What a world! It’s hard to imagine a platform with no ads or sponsored content. I’m hoping this lasts for a long time. There’s also no proprietary ai scraping your content. Again, I hope this stays true and at least for the time being I’m thrilled it doesn’t exist.
The other great thing is that the platform operates in such a way that it has limited interoperability with other platforms due to its decentralized nature. (Don’t know what any of that means? I encourage you to read Cory Doctorow’s “Enshittification” which explains this concept and why it’s important.) This means your information can be picked up and moved to some other platforms, which is not even remotely the case for most social media.
There are also two really great features that make Bluesky really stand out: Custom Feeds and Starter Packs. Custom Feeds are curated feeds that users can create for themselves and others. This is another way that Bluesky lets you have the type of experience you want. You can have as many feeds as you like, and they are located at the top menu bar of the app. Starter Packs are user generated lists that aggregate other user’s profiles into a list that you can “subscribe” to. Subscribing allows you to follow all users on the list as well as automatically follow any users added after you subscribe. Or you can opt to manually follow whichever accounts you wish to, and revisit to update as desired. People also use this function to create mass block lists for things like “MAGA” or “covid deniers” or “fascists.” Keep reading to find out more about Custom Feeds and Starter Packs that are helpful for our corner of the internet!
Creating an account:
So, you’re ready to make the shift to Bluesky so you can follow your favorite providers! Great! We can’t wait to welcome you with open arms!
The first step is to create your account. I’m linking a how-to article for folks who are low on technical savvy–I would rather not reinvent the wheel so click the link if you need to. You can start an account either via the app, or via web browser. I’d recommend doing it via web browser because you’ll need that for the next step anyway.
Disabling Adult Content Filters:
The next important step is to set your adult content filters. When you create an account, Bluesky automatically sets your account to NOT show you adult content. To remove this filter you must visit your account via web browser (like Safari, Chrome, Brave, DuckDuckGo, etc), not the app. So go to bluesky.app and log into your account. Click the gear icon to open your Settings. Next, click “Moderation.” Under the “Content Filters” section you’ll see a toggle to “Enable Adult Content.” Once you switch the toggle to ON, you’ll see options to either show, warn, or hide different types of adult content. I recommend to show “Sexually Suggestive” and “Non-Sexual Nudity.” I’d also recommend to show “Adult Content” too, but your mileage may vary depending on whether or not you want to take the chance of seeing porn on your feed. This filter does weed out non pornographic sexual images though so I personally keep that setting to “Show.”
Another thing to note regarding how you can enhance your experience, is that Bluesky has a robust Block feature. If you block someone, you cannot see anything they post. Likewise if someone blocks you. So it’s not like Twitter where you could still opt to see someone’s posts even if you blocked them. If someone blocks you, its as though you’ve disappeared, and vice versa. Someone created a feature called “Listifications” which allows you to get a DM every time someone either blocks you or adds you to a list, Starter Pack, or Custom Feed. All you have to do is go to bsky.app/profile/listifications.app to find the profile, and follow it.
Finding Your Friends:
When I first joined Bluesky in 2023 it felt lonely. Part of that was because it was still in beta and you had to secure an invite code to get on it. But even as the site fully launched and signups became publicly available, it still felt like shouting into the void. Part of the difficulty was not having easy ways to find my friends and other people I wanted to follow. But Bluesky soon rolled out two key features unique to the platform to help with that: Custom Feeds and Starter Packs. Let’s talk about Starter Packs first.
Starter Packs are an extremely cool tool that allows you to find folks. These are user generated lists that anyone can create. When you open one, you’ll see a brief description (if the creator has written one), followed by a list of users in the pack. You can subscribe to the Pack which will auto-follow all users, as well as auto-update your follower list any time someone is added. Or you can manually follow those you wish to. Many of us have created variously themed Starter Packs. Here’s a link to a mega thread of Packs created by Kate Cannes. It’s a great idea to go through it and click each one you’d like to follow. There’s lots of overlap but each one is a slightly different theme.
Next tool is Custom Feeds. A Feed is basically a public list, much like a Starter Pack, to make it easier to find and follow users and related posts. Any user can create a Custom Feed based around whatever theme they like. You can follow as many feeds as you like. Once you follow a feed it will show up at the top menu bar of the app so all you have to do is click it and you’ll see all the posts from anyone on that Feed. Mel Mariposa created a FSSW specific feed called OurSky. It’s a great one to follow for whenever you want your Bluesky experience to be only providers. She also created an entire guide to feeds, which I highly recommend! She has made region specific feeds as well, which I really love. If you’ve been around long enough to remember the #dateCity hashtags of yore on Twitter, it’s basically a version of that.
Conclusions:
How clients can help providers
Providers have been using social media platforms as mini advertising venues for as long as social media has been around. But we don’t want to sink time and energy into things that don’t have a good ROI. There’s so many reasons to ditch Twitter, but providers who haven’t yet been suspended or who just aren’t too sure of this whole Bluesky thing need a little encouragement to switch to a better platform. That’s where you can help! Take the time to create an account and build it up the way you like it. Ask your favorite providers if they have a Bluesky. Tell them you’ve joined the platform and you’d love to support them there by engaging with their content. Once you find them, do indeed engage with their content!! We tend to go where we are actually being engaged with. The things that seem to boost us the most are commenting on our posts, reposting (quote posting is even better), and liking our posts. Comments seem to be very helpful. Tell any clients you’re networked with about how much better Bluesky is and why you’ve switched. I personally have found the quality of content and engagement to be a breath of fresh air and it’s been surprisingly nice to see client accounts show up. So come be a part of this cool new thing with us! After all, we are so often the ones who make platforms popular.
How providers can make the most of it
This one goes out to my fellow providers. Y’all, I know the move away from Twitter is hard. I’ve been around for many years and I know the value it’s brought to our businesses. Maybe you’ve even gotten on Bluesky and just aren’t feeling it because you don’t get as much engagement. But I have an earnest question for you…how good has your Twitter engagement actually been in the last year or two? Be honest with yourself. We’ve ALL felt the decrease. If you still get bookings from Twitter, then by all means keep it around! I just encourage you to really evaluate how helpful it is. Are you sticking around because you’re actually getting what you need out of it, or are you too afraid of the switching costs? Also, consider whether or not you want to keep posting images of yourself to a platform whose ai can take those photos and recreate them into nonconsensual pornographic images. Regarding the usefulness of Bluesky for getting clients, for what it’s worth, I have actually gotten a few clients who have specifically found me there. It is working, it’s just going to take time. And I know that Bluesky doesn’t yet have all the features we used to have with Twitter. But if you’re missing the ability to schedule posts, fear not! That’s where deck.blue comes in! For $1.10 per month you subscribe to the creator’s Patreon to gain access to the website which looks exactly like the old Tweet Deck. You can draft and schedule posts to your heart’s content. I’ve been using it for a year and it’s a total time/energy saver and well worth the money. The set up takes a little bit of time but once it’s done, it’s very easy to use.
It’s all in what you make of it
If you haven’t been on platforms at their early stages you might not really understand the time it takes for them to take off. It usually takes a few years of consistent engagement from an initial user base for a platform to gain a critical mass of wider popularity. Engagement on Bluesky will be slow at first. But it really is all in what you make of it and to what end you’re using the platform. I started an account back when it was still in beta and invite only. It was total crickets and truthfully I only joined so I could squat my username there for brand consistency. But slowly over time it got better and I felt freer to post random stuff like I used to on Twitter. Then when the first wave of providers moved over I suddenly found myself managing hundreds of notifications a day for a solid 2 weeks. That sort of spike is happening again with this new wave of Twitter refugees. Exciting? Yes! Who doesn’t like to feel popular. But more importantly I’m enjoying it (despite the fact that I rather hate social media) because people are excited to be there and posting good stuff! I’m finally seeing posts from my colleagues that I want to see, rather than whatever bullshit Elon has decided to push in front of my face. If you come in expecting to have the same reach as Twitter you will be disappointed…for now. But if you miss the old heaux pre-SESTA/FOSTA days of Twitter then you’ll find Bluesky to be very similar to that era. I really do believe that if we all take some time and energy to cultivate presence there, it’ll absolutely take the place of Twitter. Besides, why go where you’re not wanted?
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