A little over a year ago, I was introduced to Bluesky by our news editor, Colin Williams. They received an invite code to join the platform, which we used to get Pittsburgh City Paper’s account up and running. It was a slow climb at first (to say the least) to accrue a measly 184 followers. And finding accounts worth following was also very difficult — though I did find one or two micro accounts that posted regularly and a handful of big-name accounts that didn’t. That said, it wasn’t very useful for getting our news out to yinz in greater Pittsburgh.

Bluesky has boomed over the past few weeks. We now have around 5,000 followers. There are now plenty of fun Pittsburghers on Bluesky, not to mention some national and international gems.

As a person who is Very Online™ for a living, dysfunctional social platforms become more than a headache. Most of the time, my social media teflon is impenetrable. Other times, especially post-election, online can feel like a hopeless place. Because I create social posts for public accounts, it’s important to be able to schedule things out and take breaks away from the inundation of ads, trolls, misinformation, and overall toxic behavior. The worst perpetrator of nauseating social media is, of course, X (formerly Twitter), with its rightwing, tech bro, incel-loving, deranged, sexist, racist, pro-genocide, link-throttling algorithm.

For a brief moment, it looked like Threads was going to win the race against Post, Bluesky, Mastodon, and Spoutible to become the best newsfeed option after the initial Elon Musking of Twitter. Starting a Threads account is easy because it links directly to your Instagram page, but its feed is not chronological. It’s also an algorithm-based feed instead of a following-based feed, much like Facebook, to the chagrin of former Twitter lovers.

Bluesky, thankfully, has taken the win.

It’s the exception to toxic social media. Users can choose what we imbibe, and its feed is an homage to old-school Twitter with no ads, few “influencers,” and no pay-for-play boosted content (yet). It also offers easy verification of public accounts using domains and a DNS code without paid blue checks.

However, no social media platform is perfect. Bluesky certainly has its flaws and glitches, particularly considering their servers have been stretched to the max as they’ve grown to 20 million users in the last few weeks.

The big question is, how can a new user find their favorite Pittsburgh-area accounts among the 20 million? Bluesky makes that pretty easy. Unlike Instagram and Threads, Bluesky embraces using the good-old hashtag, so a person can scour topics, find new accounts to follow, and enjoy interesting threads.

Another method for finding Pittsburgh accounts is by utilizing Bluesky’s “Feeds” tab. Pittsburgh n’at was one of the first feeds City Paper followed, and our Pittsburgh reach grew from there. An additional method is to follow the starter packs created by other users. For instance, Colin created a Pittsburgh Journalists starter pack so you can follow your favorite local scribes with a click.

To get you started, here are five of our favorite local Bluesky accounts. They’re the people we loved following on X, and we’re just thrilled that they’re also plugged into a platform where trolls, bots, and misinformed dingdongs can be mass-blocked.

Dave DiCello

Who doesn’t love looking at beautiful photos of our city? We’re tickled that our 2024 Legacy Award winner for Best Photographer has ventured over to the happier pastures of Bluesky. Because frankly, we want to see all the glowing city lights, breathtaking sunrises, and sparkling rivers without a side order of ads for Trump T-shirts, AI software, and thirst traps.

Tanisha Long

Winner of last year’s People of the Year for Activism, Tanisha Long is a Very Online™ advocate for justice who also skeets out plenty of anti-troll zingers. As an Abolitionist Law Center community organizer, she continues to fight for better conditions for local residents navigating the carceral system. And we love how she calls out John Fetterman for his bizarre hot takes (specifically about genocide). Not to mention her dedication to the Steelers …

Jorts (and Jean)

If you’re not familiar with the internet’s favorite labor cats, you can read the legend of Jorts and Jean on this delightful Reddit thread. Allegedly, Jorts the Cat and its cat coworker Jean are locals (this has obviously been discussed in CP’s bullpen). Jorts stood up for a labor rally at the Pittsburgh Starbucks in 2022, not to mention going after Mayor Ed Gainey earlier this year. It doesn’t hurt that jorts (as in jean shorts) are staple Yinzer apparel. In any case, we’re claiming these famous felines because who doesn’t love the cats of the internet? Jorts and Jean have around 205,000 followers on X and are currently purring over 74,000 followers on their sunnier Bluesky account.

Obnoxiously Pitt Girl

Dubbed “the hottest, sassiest mental storm that ever busted loose,” this “depraved college football fan,” a massive Pitt enthusiast, is also a Sickos Committee Podcast regular. Who doesn’t love that? Plus, we feel that it’s bonkers cool to have a self-proclaimed feminist representing us in the sports space, calling plays, reposting basketball scores, and calling BS on inferior refs when needed.

Pittsburgh Scanner

If the local fuzz has been called in, Pittsburgh Scanner is on it. The account listens to police, fire, and EMS broadcasts in the City of Pittsburgh with their handheld radio scanner, curates a daily selection of calls, and posts them on social media. Whenever there’s a river horse swimming in the Ohio River, or if nebby neighbors start a slap-fight, or if a creepo is using a drone to peep into windows, Pittsburgh Scanner will inform us.

Not that our local skeeters aren’t wonderful, but there are a few national Bluesky accounts that make me smile, and these are among the best …

Jay ð¦ (CEO of BlueSky)

Unlike following Elon on X with his loathsome political hot takes and AI-generated portraits of himself as futuristic superhero Captain Cringe, Jay ð¦ (Graber) fills her feed with useful information.

One such nugget is the Bluesky Directory. Here, new users can easily click through popular search terms, or search specific keywords to help them find their tribe. Another useful thread is 20 fun facts about Bluesky which includes the history of the site, a link to apply for a job with Bluesky, and a link to API docs for developers. She even posted a feed generator starter kit (using Alf as an example). Not to mention all her pretty pictures of flowers and trees.

On this day in history

Before Bluesky blew up, this was one account City Paper followed that consistently posted back when the platform was crickets. Each day, this account posts several historical happenings that went down on the same date in history. I understand that is not everyone’s cup of tea, but I love it. A fun fact I learned was that on CP‘s birthday, November 6, the Walls of Constantinople fell in the year 447 due to a powerful earthquake.

Flavor Flav

The unofficial spokesperson for Bluesky is undoubtedly Flavor Flav. As if King Swiftie hasn’t already had a historic year simply being a wonderful human being: sponsoring Team USA’s women’s water polo team, helping with discus thrower Veronica Fraley’s rent when she couldn’t, performing in this year’s Thundergong — a benefit concert to help uninsured amputees get prosthetic limbs, and being a hype man for feminism. Flav has created Bluesky starter packs for general celebrity accounts, Black Excellence, sports, music, media, and more. Not to mention promoting Bluesky CEO Jay Graber and her Bluesky “billionaire-proof” vision. Oh, and guess who is going to be a torch bearer in the 2028 Olympic Games?

Breaking up with your X account may seem like a tough decision. We are still battling with that over here … whether to stay and watch it burn or break it off completely. On a personal note, I nuked my own account, but it will still appear for thirty days after deactivation.

When we first met X, it was this lovely little bird that offered so much: a chronological news feed; a galleria of journalists, educators, political leaders, and celebrities; a humorous respite from everyday life; a gathering of like-minded individuals. But since it was brainwashed by MAGA, it became something ugly. It was no longer safe, but we were stuck in an abusive relationship with it.

There’s no better time than now to end it. Sure, it’s scary wandering into the unknown, untethered from the security of that feed. But it’s not healthy. It’s always hard to see that you’re in a bad relationship with your social media feed until you leave it for good. And here is a step-by-step process for leaving your X behind.

First, it sucks when you go through a breakup and lose a ton of friends in the process. Luckily, when breaking up with X, you can easily keep all your friends by using a little app called Sky Follower Bridge. Simply open the application on your Chrome browser, follow the easy instructions, and port over your followers and following lists one at a time. The whole process took me five minutes to complete.

Then, deactivate your account. Sure, it takes 30 days for it to be permanently deleted, but after that, you’re done with your X forever. Isn’t that a freeing feeling?

Finally, tell your X straight up: I’m out. Or, you can simply ghost the X and bow out quietly. But what fun is it when you can leave an epic goodbye on X’s feed … take that, seething cesspool!