In my previous post, I explained why I left Meta. One of the major drawbacks of platforms like Facebook, Threads, and X is that they are closed platforms. I can’t easily take my posts, followers or other content with me when leaving X or Facebook. I’m sure most of these platforms have tools to export your data for history, but you can’t simply move your account from X to Threads and keep your followers.
Social: Blacksky & Mastodon
I love to try new tech things, so I started with Bluesky and Mastodon. Both are built on open protocols, so my information isn’t trapped and I can use my account with multiple tools.
Over time, I decided to move away from Bluesky. I wanted to be a part of a community that focused on the needs of Black users and was Black-owned. I decided to migrate my account from Bluesky to Blacksky on Juneteenth 2025. It was a simple process that allowed me to keep my username, followers and posts. And contrary to popular belief, Blacksky is totally independent from Bluesky. If Bluesky is taken over by facsist or crypto bros, Blacksky will still run with no changes. If Bluesky has any outage, Blacksky will still run.
Photo & Short Video
I use Flashes, Grain and Pixelfed for photos and video. Flashes and Grain are built on the AT Protocol, so you can use your Bluesky, Blacksky, or Eurosky account. Pixelfed is built on ActivityPub, so it interacts with Mastodon and other Fediverse apps well. I’m not a heavy photo or video user, but I use Flashes the most. It takes your Bluesky/Blacksky account and turns it into Instagram. It hides the text stuff and shows you photos and videos in an interface similar to Instagram.
News
I’m amazed at how many people trust random Facebook pages and Instagram influencers for their news. I curate my news sources and very suspicious of sources that I’ve never heard of. I make heavy use of Bluesky and Mastodon lists to follow my favorite news sources.
Most major news outlets use Bluesky or Mastodon, but there are many that don’t. I use RSS feeds to follow those news organizations. My favorite tools for combining RSS feeds and news accounts are Tapestry from Iconfactory and Surf.social. Tapestry is only available on iOS and MacOS. Surf is available on the web, iOS and Android in beta. Surf is especially great for creating communities around your favorite topics. I’ve created feeds for Open Social Web and SirusXM Urban View Fans.
I’d love to hear your feedback or questions. How are you moving away from Meta and X? What are your favorite tools?