You Can Now Limit Replies to Subscribers on Bluesky Only
It feels like every social network now has a “responder” problem. You’ll post about something that you know your followers will enjoy, but if the post goes even remotely viral, there will be a few random strangers in the replies questioning all your decisions and putting you down for a harmless joke or minor mistake. Now Bluesky helps you solve this problem.
Site moderation tools are some of the best I’ve ever seen on social media platforms , and with their latest update (1.98), Bluesky is doubling down on its efforts to help you avoid harassment. You can now limit replies to only your followers, which is another great tool for reducing the negative effects of going viral.
How to limit replies to subscribers only on Bluesky
There are two easy ways to limit replies on Bluesky. One way is to open any of your posts and click the “Anyone can reply” button next to the post date. A small pop-up window will open where you can select “Your Followers” and click “Save” . In my experience, the Bluesky community has been pretty polite, but you may want to use this option if your post becomes too popular in the Discover feed and attracts unwanted attention.
Additionally, you can go to the new settings page, also introduced in Bluesky 1.98, to automate the setting of subscriber-only replies. To do this, click “Settings” in the left panel of the Bluesky desktop site (or in the app, tap the three-line menu in the top left corner and select “Settings”) . Now go to Moderation > Interaction Settings and select your preferred default settings for all new posts. Even if you choose restrictive reply settings here, you can always change them for individual posts in case you’re ready to get strangers’ opinions on specific topics.
Other Bluesky updates
The latest update also included several search improvements. You can now go to any user’s profile on Bluesky and search their posts. This is an easy way to find useful posts from a specific person. For example, you can visit my profile on Bluesky , click the three dots button in the top right corner and select Search Messages . Use the search bar at the top to search for “iPhone” or any other search term you like. You can do this for any profile on Bluesky.
In addition, Bluesky’s search page has received minor improvements, and the site’s translation feature now supports Interlingua .