Big Brother Gossip's "Comprehensive" Guide to Bluesky: Understanding & Usage

*(beta)

This guide provides essential information, tips, and tools for effectively understanding and navigating the Bluesky social network.

This article is BETA - it will be updated and revised.  It has a LOT of links to my own posts on Bluesky. I just wanted to get a starting point for Big Brother fans (and anyone else) that is considering moving to Bluesky or already has and is struggling. There are so many resources out there and things are constantly changing.  Please let me know if I have missed anything or if something is out of date!  Message me on Bluesky or you can email me at  ilovereality@gmail.com.

Also one other note, I compiled all the links, but I did have AI (Google Gemini to be specific) help me organize them in a more concise way than what I originally had.  AI is not all bad and this is a great use case imho.

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I. Getting Started & Core Features

• Welcome to Bluesky & Understanding Feeds:
  • Introduction to Bluesky Lists, Feeds and Starter Packs: Learn about the various types of "feeds" and how to begin exploring Big Brother content.
    https://bsky.app/profile/bbgossip.bsky.social/post/3lsdcgh3xls27
  • How to Create Your Own Custom Feed (One Method): A step-by-step guide to building personalized content streams.
    https://bsky.app/profile/bbgossip.bsky.social/post/3lbgcf3afmk26
  • Fine-Tune Your Following Feed: Tips on optimizing the feed that shows posts from accounts you follow.
    https://bsky.app/profile/bbgossip.bsky.social/post/3lb42pcqi6s2c
• Interacting & Posting:
  • Tips for Effective Searching: Learn how to find specific content and users on Bluesky from a Bluesky Blog post.
    https://bsky.social/about/blog/05-31-2024-search
  • Cross-Posting Options: Various ways to share your Bluesky posts on other platforms (Twitter, etc). 
    https://bsky.app/profile/bbgossip.bsky.social/post/3lsolfeqw722d
  • Notifications: Currently not built into Bluesky, there options, this thread addresses that.
    https://bsky.app/profile/bbgossip.bsky.social/post/3lpbdntx6yc26
  • Using ALT Text to images for Accessibility: Best practices for adding descriptive text to images.
    https://bsky.app/profile/bbgossip.bsky.social/post/3lggqeukrbk2o
  • Effective Use of Hashtags (Examples): See how different communities use hashtags to organize content.
    • Example One (Big Brother): https://bsky.app/profile/bbgossip.bsky.social/post/3lrvssch4os2e
    • Example Two (Survivor): https://bsky.app/profile/bbgossip.bsky.social/post/3laulrlhotc2m
    • Example Three (Personal & Politics): https://bsky.app/profile/bbgossip.bsky.social/post/3lq7izcebxc2u

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II. Privacy, Safety & Community Management

• Account Privacy & Visibility:
  • Why You Can't Make Your Account Private on Bluesky: Explanations from the AT Protocol team and community.
    • GitHub Discussion: https://github.com/bluesky-social/atproto/discussions/1409
    • GitHub Issue Comment: https://github.com/bluesky-social/social-app/issues/1155#issuecomment-2163556647
    • How-To Geek Article: https://www.howtogeek.com/bluesky-doesnt-have-private-accounts-how-do-you-protect-from-harassment
    • Virtual Curiosities Article: https://www.virtualcuriosities.com/articles/2166/how-to-make-your-profile-private-on-bluesky
• Moderation Tools:
  • Muting Words and Tags: How to filter out unwanted content from your feeds.
    https://bsky.app/profile/bbgossip.bsky.social/post/3lbwwneaub22y
  • Moderation - Adult Content Settings: Managing the display of adult or sensitive content.
    https://bsky.app/profile/bbgossip.bsky.social/post/3lbvrbnubtc2z
  • Bluesky Community Guidelines: The official rules for respectful interaction and content on the platform.
    https://bsky.social/about/support/community-guidelines
  • Blocking is "Nuclear": Understanding that blocking someone completely removes them from your view.  The link below is fairly technical but it also explains it well.
    
  • https://docs.bsky.app/blog/block-implementation

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III. Bluesky Features & Limitations

• Direct Messaging:
  • Current State of DMs: Limitations (1-to-1 only, no images, not encrypted) and future plans.
    https://bsky.social/about/blog/05-22-2024-direct-messages
• Bluesky Has No Polls (Currently): I have yet to find a decent option for Polls - if and when I do I will share it here.

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IV. Advanced Resources & General Information (aka 'everything else')

• List of Bluesky Tools (GitHub): A comprehensive list of third-party tools and utilities for Bluesky. THIS IS A GREAT LIST!
  https://github.com/fishttp/awesome-bluesky
• "All About Bluesky" Article (October 2024): A broader overview of the platform.
  https://www.virtualcuriosities.com/articles/3011/all-about-bluesky
• Gift Articles (Example Feed): An example of a specific type of curated feed.
  https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:o4s55v3tsfph6whswxccpsia/feed/aaaixbb5liqbu

So you wanna watch Big Brother UK......

I said I wasn't going to do this but here we are. 

Big Brother UK is back on after a 5 year absence and its the currently the only English speaking version of Big Brother I am aware of that still follows the original format with the public voting the Housemates out which makes for a completely different, some would say 'boring' game.  I do not find it boring myself, I find it really entertaining and 'smart' as production doesn't dumb things down for us and also lets things go at a slower pace. And with six hours worth of show a week (vs three in the USA), there is a lot to see. 

So the new season, called Season 1 - NOT Season 20, kicked off on Sunday with a 90 minute episode and its on nightly except Saturday and the first eviction is this Friday.  Here is some more basic info (always subject to change and I can't promise I'll return to update this):

The regular show is on at 9pm (GMT) which is 4pm ET and is 60 minutes.  They also have a 65 minute talk show "Late & Live" on from 10-11:05pm and some nights they will show some live feeds online after "Late & Live."  You technically can watch all of these using one of the methods I'll present below but I personally am mainly sticking to the regular show.

At this point I am going to carefully walk around the elephant in the room which is those that have issues with people from outside the UK watching content that is, in theory, meant to be exclusive to the UK viewing audience. My personal take is that I am a huge fan of the show and I am also a fan of the same show in the USA, and Canada, and Australia, I don't think I hurt the shows popularity in any country, as a matter of fact I feel like I actually increase interest in the show in every country! 

So on with the ways you can watch Big Brother UK.  Understand it is not my intention to be your tech support, I am going to give you some tools and if you can't sort them out, reach out to your closest computer geek for help.

The easiest way to watch will likely be over at the website videobrother.net - on that site they have the Season listed as "Season 20" and they have been posting both the regular show (eg EP03a) and the "Late & Live" shows (eg EP03b-BBLL).  Honestly as long as they keep posting them that might be the way to go. (Update - not sure I can continue to suggest this as there is a lot of pop up ads you have to navigate)

The next way would be a private playlist on Daily Motion I have created and, hopefully, will keep up-to-date.  For the short term I will link to individual episodes but eventually I may just ask that you get an account on Daily Montion (free) and then you can see the playlist.  Here are the current episodes, I will add to this list when I can - hopefully within a day of each airing: 

• BBUK 2023 s01e01 pt 1
• BBUK 2023 s01e01 pt 2
• **** 10/14/23 I've move the rest to an old blog post - you can go there and bookmark it to catch the rest of the show including Late and Live episodes....  click here...... 

Finally, the most challenging but also perhaps the most rewarding way to watch is by using a VPN (virtual private network) to watch the shows live or on delay directly off the ITVX website.  Thats also the only way to catch the Live Feeds that I have found.  I gave very basic directions in this Twitter thread:  https://twitter.com/BBGossip/status/1710498022302326931

I've watched the episodes via the final method and its worked fine on  my PC.  But I had a few issues getting it to work on my older iPad.  Thats why I can't be anyone's tech support and will point you to one of the other options!

**Also....  BBAU kicked off November 6th and its much easier to watch - just navigate over here to catch all the episodes as they come out https://southhemitv.com/category/big-brother-au/

Ok, that's it.  Thanks for checking this out.  Be sure to check out my previous post about "The Traitors" as that is another great show to check out with good seasons from many countries!

Bonus / cryptic option for those that kept scrolling.  Over on Twitter you might want to follow my friend STONY_110 as his tweets are often helpful for those looking for yet another way to watch the show.

  

The Traitors is worth checking out. Here's how.

*** 2/23/2025 - The main DailyMotion account I would point to was deleted.....  working to remedy the situation but for now a some links no longer work and I have deleted them. I've now fixed everything except UK season 1 and UK season 2 uncloaked. ***

Happy Holidays one and all!  I mentioned on my podcast yesterday that I'd try to post links to watch the Australian and UK seasons of The Traitors, this is that post!   Scroll to the end if you are in a hurry, otherwise I'm including a re-edited version of my post from Post.news where I discuss the show and compare it to The Mole (which many have done).  So with that here you go and again I hope you all are well as 2022 wraps up!

First off, if you aren't familiar with "The Mole" - it was originally hosted by Anderson Cooper (before his CNN days), was really good and was recently re-booted on Netflix (sans Cooper). Personally I wasn't too thrilled with the new version having now watched it.  One Mole tries to sabotage the player's games but had no real stake in the outcome, they can't be eliminated, nor do they win any of the money.  As a viewer we also have no idea who the Mole is.  On "The Traitors" unlike "The Mole" we the viewer know who the Traitors are and there is, as the name implies, more than one usually. It makes for a much more interesting show as we are in on the secret. Like the Mole the cast works together to earn money towards a pot but the Traitors also have a shot at the money unlike the Mole. Also unlike the Mole the individual Traitors can be eliminated.

My biggest qualm with The Traitors is there often isn't a need to watch the competitions as in the end everyone wants to earn the most money possible. This is a minor annoyance though.

The AU and UK versions cast about 20 "fresh faces" and I really have enjoyed both series. I am hopeful for the US version but learned that half the cast is made up of Reality TV 'celebrities' which is not a great selling point to me. That being said I think the show will still be worth the watch when it shows up on The Peacock in late January. (Post US Version Watching Note: I agree with this assessment - I did enjoy the US version but I still feel the UK & AU versions were better - unless you wanted to see your favorite US Reality 'star')

Since I originally wrote about the show I have finished watching the UK season and I loved both the AU and UK shows.  As its not easy to watch here in the US I've decided to link you directly to every episode (with the hopes they links keep working).  So with that here you go - enjoy!

*10/2023 update.  All versions seem to have now gone with the Celeb / Newbie mix.  I guess I'll live with it. 

*1/3/2024 update. Correction! UK has stayed with all newbies!!  Bravo!!

Is the Twitterverse collapsing?

Well hi everyone, a quick post from me in case Twitter does indeed go away in the near future.  My main Big Brother handle has always been @bbgossip.

I have no idea what form of communicating I may use as my main one for Big Brother 25 if Twitter does indeed cease to exist but this website will remain active.

Other ways to reach me.....

Mastodon: https://masto.ai/@BBGossip

Email: ilovereality@gmail.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bbgossip/

Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/bbgossip/

But mainly bookmark this site, its been around since Big Brother 8 so it isn't going anywhere, even if I haven't used it much lately!!

Best, 

Mike aka BBGossip

Big Brother 24 Has Begun!

Well hello there!

Long time no post.

I'll keep this one brief as I just wanted to get something down since its literally been a year!

I'm still deciding how I want to use this site for Big Brother 24.  Its day 3 in the house and I have thoughts for sure!

Just know that I will be posting from time to time and of course you can keep up via my Twitter Account and my almost daily Big Brother Gossip Podcast.  

The "Big Brother Gossip Show" as we knew it is not coming back any time soon, however I continue to record my daily podcast as noted and I will again be trying to do video streams as well, I tested out Twitch yesterday and it actually worked.  Click here to see the result. Scott and Colette are also continuing to discuss Big Brother on their weekly Day Drinking Podcast.  

All my best!

Mike aka @BBGossip 

Big Brother Gossip Show Status

Hey all, its me, Mike aka @BBGossip and I wanted to let you know that I decided that I needed to take a break from the Big Brother Gossip Show and told Scott and Colette that about about a month ago.  I told them to announce my departure on their own schedule and last Friday on their "Day Drinking" podcast in addition to passing on the news of my leaving they said they had decided they wouldn't do this season as a duo but would instead there would not be a Big Brother Gossip Show  for Big Brother 23.

Now that the announcement has been made I wanted to explain some of my reasons for stepping back.  We've been doing the Big Brother Gossip show since Big Brother 14 and have covered all versions including both Celebrity Big Brothers and Big Brother Over The Top for something like 12 "seasons."  During the regular seasons we generally would do our shows every Saturday night for 4-5 hours plus the prep work throughout the week for 14 weeks straight.  Over the years I've done the show from hotel rooms, my parents house and even from inside my mini-van a couple of times. So plain and simple I needed a break, the stress of doing the show the last couple of years sucked all the fun out of it for me as was evident from time to time in recent years.  We also were not able to do out shows 'live' this past season which I really enjoyed, the immediate feedback was always one of the highlights for me as we did the show.  So after thinking long and hard the last six months since Big Brother 22 ended I decided I needed to step away and I hope everyone can respect that.

I will still be watching Big Brother.  I'm excited for this season with a the new casting coordinator and the promise from CBS to cast a more diverse group of people, lets see how that works out!  I will still be tweeting about Big Brother - A LOT!  I will still record my daily 'Carcasts' and once I figure out which way I want to do it I'll still do some kind of video when driving home some nights.  The only thing I won't be doing is the Podcast, which I know for some is / was the 'best' part of  Big Brother Gossip. 

Thanks to all the fans that have listened to and supported the show all these years. Will it be back? Honestly that is Scott's call as he was the creator of the podcast, he just invited me along for the ride, either way he'll always have my full support.  

And with that, speaking of support, if you wish to support me going forward you can become a patron at www.patreon.com/bbgossip - that's a page I set up a couple of years ago and a few die-hard folks have decided to help me cover my costs of the web pages and podcast hosting AND take my wife out to dinner occasionally and its very much appreciated.

Scott and Colette will also both still be tweeting about Big Brother and they continue to have a their weekly Day Drinking podcast - their patreon site for that show can be found here: www.patreon.com/daydrinking

All my best and see you here and elsewhere!  Mike aka @BBGossip 

Big Brother Gossip Show #1114: Season Finale

What a shocking turn of events! Who knew that the finale would be as intriguing as it was? For our finale, we go over not only what happened on the final episode of the season but the few days of live feeds that preceded Cody's surprise cutting of Nicole to go with Enzo. How long had he planned on making that move? We debate this turn of events, along with other intriguing things that happened during the finale.

We thank you guys oh so much for following us throughout this long season, and we sincerely hope that we have provided insight as to what happened over the last three months.

We thank you guys so much for listening to this show, and it also helps us out a lot if you do some simple little things like retweet this post, or any post about the Big Brother Gossip Show. Or if you're a member of our Facebook group, hit that little share button. You can find this show at all of the various podcast sites, or click here for a direct download!And if you really love what we do, please consider contributing to our Patreon. We offer all kinds of rewards, including access to Scott and Colette's Day Drinking show. You can even be an executive producer of this lovely little program.Oh, and I almost forgot that we now have Big Brother Gossip merchandise! Click here for shirts, mugs, and other merchandise related to both this show and the Day Drinking bonus show!!

For a direct download, click here!!!