Bluesky Tips for ARMY

      With all of the Meta drama Zuckerburg has stirred up this past week or so by licking the boots of Trump and Musk, I thought it would be of help to some to hear my thoughts on Bluesky. I am going to stay on Threads and keep my Instagram for now, but if things get bad like they are on Twitter, I will leave. For those who don't know, Zuck basically came out with a statement saying that certain hate speech will be allowed in the name of free speech. He wants the Meta platforms to have more "masculine energy" whatever that means, they have changed DEI initiatives (they will be hiring less women, veterans, disabled, and non-white people) and they have changed their stance at Meta on political content and will be pushing more of it. Things are going to look a lot worse on Threads, particularly for US users because other countries have stricter protections and regulations for social media apps to protect users. I'm also concerned about what is going to happen when Threads gets ads because that was set to begin this month. I haven't heard anything else about it and with the current climate of the US politically and all of the celebrities and public figures caving to the dark side it could be bad. I know Twitter had right-wing organizations pushing fascist ads from right-wing churches and organizations and they made it so you couldn't block or report ads anymore unless you paid for Twitter Blue and I refused. I think that was the last thing that actually pushed me to delete my account.

     Before I deleted Twitter, I had already been on Threads for almost a year. I'm glad I had already set up an account and had made connections with ARMY on Threads because I had somewhere to go that made it a lot easier to dump Twitter. If you are unsure where to go from Threads if things go bad there I recommend setting up a Bluesky account as a backup. Here's some things to know about Bluesky. I'm not an expert but this is what I have learned since I have been using the app for the past few months.

     Bluesky looks a lot like Twitter because the founder is Jack Dorsey who started Twitter and was CEO before Elon Musk took over and ran it into the ground. The current CEO is Jay Graber. She has already said that she doesn't want to crowd the app with ads and that customization is what they want emphasize on Bluesky. I noticed how familiar the app looked when I joined and I like the butterfly icon more than the ugly X icon. 

     The homepage of Bluesky is where you will find your bio and tabs. Fill out your bio with as much information as you want other ARMY to know about you. I recommend putting no solos and no shippers because you will be blocked from groups where they frequent meaning you won't see as much of their drama if they block you first. It's a good thing. Pedos on the app also have groups where they block kpop fans who don't like shippers because a lot of the shipper fanfics cater to their specific type of kinks. Disgusting I know and I found this out early due to a so-called ARMY who followed me on Bluesky and blocked me right after using that blocklist so it's a good preventative thing to add this to your profile- no solos no shippers and if you don't like fanfic also put that. You may still see it but some will weed you out and you don't have to block them first. It helps keep your feeds cleaner.

    Clicking on your name or swiping right on your name opens up a side menu that has tabs for search, home, chat, notifications, feeds, lists, profile, and settings. Terms of service, feedback, and help are also on the bottom of this tab. Follower and following count are here as well. 

• Search-- the search tab is where you will find trending topics. You can make trending go away and only have the search tab show up here or keep the trending topics. As of right now it is still in Beta so it disappears from time to time (the trending topics). 
• Home--on the homepage you find your feeds.What I like most about Bluesky feeds is that you can customize them. Discover has everything like a "for you" page. If you don't want to see that then you just unpin it under the feeds tab in the drop down menu. To add feeds you just search them under the search topic and pin them under feeds. I searched BTS and added a few. Not all of them will necessarily be for you but you figure out as you go which ones you like most. I recommend BTS ARMY 101 because that tends to have informative posts under it and BTS Bangtan OT7 Feed as that is a little bit of everything. You automatically a feed that is "following" which is posts from everyone you are following and "popular with friends" or posts your followers or moots liked or responded to. You can pin and unpin and move these around.
• Chat--is the 3rd category on the side menu. Chat is built into Bluesky. You can turn it off so no one can message you. I keep mine open for those I follow only like I have on my IG. You can turn chat on or off using the settings that you can access using settings button on the top right of the chat page where it says "messages." You can start a new chat using the plus sign on the bottom right. Chat is beneficial to ARMY because if there is someone we need to block or a topic that we don't want to amplify we can chat privately about it and not discuss it out in the open where everyone will see it. If there are rumors that someone wants to know what others are talking about or if you see a suspect account and want to know if they should be added to a block list you can DM each other and ask about it instead of asking in the open. Too many rumors get spread on Threads because people post something then others go into the comments asking what's going on and end up spreading negativity by discussing rumors in the open in the feed though they don't mean to. With Threads DM being connected to IG you can't always message to ask or if someone messages you to ask it may not go through depending on their settings. At least on Bluesky it may be easier to connect inside of the one app.
• Notifications- you can access your notifications using this tab. It shows you all notifications and those where you are mentioned or tagged or replies directly to you. 
• Feeds--This is your chance to customize what you want and don't want to see here on Bluesky. With feeds you add what you want to see by searching topics and going to the tab that says feeds to see if there is a feed for it. On the feeds tab is where you find the feeds you subscribe to. You pin these and unpin the ones you don't want to see in your top tabs. Under "discover new feeds" there are suggested feeds. You add a feed to your tabs or skyline (what your feed is called on Bluesky) by clicking the plus sign next to it and you delete it from the skyline by clicking the push pin next to it on your feeds tab under "My Feeds" to unpin it. 
•  Profile-- takes you to your profile. Here you will be able to see your profile and edit it. Clicking the 3 dots next to edit profile brings up a pop up to share your profile or add it to lists. Under edit profile you can update your photos and bio. The tabs across the page show your posts and reshares, replies, media or photos and video you've shared, feeds, starter packs (lists of recommended you should add), and lists (usually blocklists). 
• Settings is where you customize everything else. Under account, you will find your email address, password, handle (screenname), and delete/deactivate options. Privacy and security is where you set up 2 factor authentication or 2FA so you are alerted anytime your account gets signed into and your passwords are there. You can also turn off visibility so accounts that aren't logged into Bluesky can't see your account. Moderation is where you can mute words and phrases. I highly recommend using this to block out any mention of other groups, fandoms, political things you don't want to see or anything else. Unlike Threads the muted words also apply to trending topics. Blocked and muted accounts also are listed under moderation. Moderation lists shows blocklists you use. There are also filters to get rid of adult sexually explicit content or allow it whichever you prefer. Content and media lets you control how you want to mange feeds and browser links.You can turn trending topics on or off here. Appearance lets you change modes to light and dark and change font size and font. Accessibility controls include haptic feedback and alt text you can turn off and on. Using alt text descriptions of photos is encouraged on Bluesky to help vision impaired or blind users. Languages, help, and about are self-explanatory and you log out on the tab at the bottom of the menu. 

         Some of you may remember blockchains on Twitter. This is how blocklists work on Threads. If you want to use a blocklist you just click on the list and go to the top right where you will see a button to subscribe and you will see block or unblock. Blocking will block everyone on that list at once. If you want to check them out before you block you can do so and block manually as you go down the list. I have done both depending on the list. I have seen the same conversations on Bluesky as on Threads when we started the Threads btsarmyblocklist hashtag, that people are concerned about being added to the list by accident and all I can say about that is that it is a chance you take. If people find that they added you by accident they can always unblock you. It's not that big of a deal really. I know that some people making blocklists for ARMY will ask that you email them accounts to add and they check out the accounts before they add them to make sure no one is being added just because someone has a grudge or to bully them. That being said, do your own research into each account you block if you want or make sure you trust who you get your blocklists from. 

     Starter packs let you add entire recommendations lists at the click of a button. I don't use these as much as blocklists but they can help fill your feed when you first join Bluesky. I recommend following someone from Threads who's on Bluesky (if that's where you are first) and then checking who they follow to see if you know anyone or if they seem like someone you want to follow. I did this and most of my Bluesky following/followers are people I know from Threads and their moots. You will also find accounts to follow from feeds you follow. 

     No site is perfect. We don't expect them to be but what I have noticed about Bluesky is the moderation is better. More options to mass block or mute mean you don't see as much offensive stuff. When you report bad behavior it seems to be deleted within 48 hours (from my personal experience at least). MAGA fascist public figures usually get banned on their first day on the app. There's still porn bots but I block them and there's still scammers. I report and block them too. The annoying thing is if someone follows you you can't remove them as a follower but you can block them. They can't see your posts and you can't see them but your followers count will still count them. Hopefully this is fixed soon.

      Bluesky doesn't have ads and according to Jay they won't get ads. She plans to add premium subscriptions eventually so they can make money but IG and Twitter both have this already as well as ads and it's possible to use both without a subscription. I suspect Bluesky will be the same only the free tiers wouldn't have ads on Bluesky. These apps are business after all and they're going to make their money either way. Right now there's no ads and no monetization so less attention seeking bait posts as well. 

      Overall I like Bluesky. It's nice to have a Twitter like site without the drama. It's a good backup alternative to Threads. If things get bad on Threads I'll leave but so far it seems ok to stay. I'll wait to see what happens when ads start on Threads. Bluesky is a good place to go to when Threads is a mess too.

6.29. 2026 update - I'm no longer using Bluesky. Jay Gruber left in March and there's a man acting as temporary CEO. Since then it seems the attitude has changed with their social media management. The current one went on Threads today and called Threads users "guinea pigs" of Meta and Zuckerberg in a snotty way and issued a wack apology that was a not really an apology. The whole thing was unprofessional and rude so I deleted my account. Instead of going to Threads to troll users they should have been marketing the app and running ads elsewhere. 

Intentional Misinformation is Not Promo

      There have been several rumors this past week that have gone around social media surrounding Jin's new album and single release. I've seen these things shared on Threads as if they were fact and the things shared on Threads were probably a lot tamer than what was on Twitter. I don't even want to know what went on over there. The clout chasing attention seeking annoys me. By this I mean people who post things to get attention. Some people seem to have this need to be first to share information and to seem like they are the ones with all the tea or info and they make things up or share fake pictures or leaks to get this attention. This is negative behavior to me and is to be avoided.

     The first rumor I saw was a post copied from Twitter saying that Anne Hathaway is going to be in Jin's video for the single, "I'll Be There." Well we know now that that wasn't true. I believed it at first but I don't think I shared it. It was presented as truth and not a joke. A lie isn't a joke to me. I did see well meaning people share it who just didn't know that it wasn't true. Don't spread lies. 

     The next rumor that went around was that Jin will be hosting the MAMA Awards in Nov. This one they actually made a fake clip from a fake article to support. Many people shared this one and I had to stop myself from commenting on every single one that came across my feed as fake news. I reverse searched the text in the fake article being shared and there was not a single hit that came back in search that went back to an actual article. Red flag #1. There should have been a news article that it went back to and there wasn't even a tabloid or K-media link to this. 

     Red flag #2 - not a single post included a link. As ARMY when sharing information we should never be posting news or clips without a link. We all do it from time to time but when there is major announcement information you should be sharing the original link so we can all see the source and read the full article or watch the full video. With video there is a lot that is taken out of context and even edited by some and shared to be made to look the way they want it to look. Context is important. If you post news please add a link from a valid source. Tabloids do not count as a valid source and neither do X/Twitter posts unless there's a link there in that post but it's better to post the actual link than the Twitter post link because those without X/Twitter have very limited access to see what is in Twitter post links. 

     Red flag #3 - The MAMA Awards posts daily on Instagram and they are promoting the tickets for the awards. They have posted the lists and clips of performers at both locations it is being held at this year, Japan and Los Angeles. They started posting presenters last night in 3 separate posts on IG. I don't know if hosts were included in the presenters lists but Jin is not mentioned at all. 

     This rumor is particularly annoying because they went as far as to fake a news report (not the first time someone has done this to lie about something BTS related and ARMY related and called it promo). News blogs in Asia picked it up and are writing articles about it but saying that it isn't confirmed. The fact that they are doing this spreads it. Like fake pictures, it gets put into the search system and pulls up when you search it. Google's AI was pulling it up as a fact on 10/23/24 when I searched it and saying that Jin has been selected as a host of the awards show. I submitted an AI feedback report and I no longer get the same message when I search. I guess they corrected Gemini after the correction in my report. I don't need to explain how bad this is that AI is taking rumors created by ARMY on Twitter and posting them as fact. I know some people shared it because they thought it was real but people may see it and think it's real and plan travel around it and buy tickets expecting him to be there and that's unfortunate. They should definitely fact check before spending money but they wouldn't even have to consider it if ARMY wasn't making up lies in the name of promo. Once again, I don't find lies for promo funny or cute.

**updated: MAMA announced the hosts on 10/29 and Kim Tae Ri will be hosting for the Japan site of the awards and Park Bo-Gum will be hosting on the US site. Jin is not a host of the MAMA awards for this year. **

     The third rumor I saw was just plain stupid. It may sound harsh but I tell it like it is. It was just a stupid post. The account posting it is trying to be a BTS update account on Threads and should have shown more maturity and should have used their platform with more responsibility. This post basically started saying that Jin had been hospitalized. All I needed to see was that and my anxiety kicked in. I was scared for him. Then the post goes on to say it was because he overheated or something cheesy and dumb related to him being hot in a physical attraction kind of way not a fever, temperature, medical emergency kind of way. It's not funny to scare people and even less so to put out there that someone we care about has been put in the hospital. This is putting negativity out there that could come back and actually hurt the person in my opinion. The less that's said that's negative about the guys, the better. This earned an immediate block for the account posting it. It's not ever going to be funny to joke about someone's health in a negative way.

     Apparently this is more crap that started on Twitter because someone got it into their heads that there wasn't enough promo for Jin's album. This is just solo and manti behavior. Why are people acting like this and having the audacity to call themselves ARMY? ARMY protects and supports BTS both as individual members and as seven together. They have told us time and time again that they control their promotions and set things up the way they want to. Not only do they tell us, they show us their process via Bangtan Bomb videos after things come out. How can anyone call themselves a fan and see the hard work they put into every aspect of creation and promotion of their albums, singles, eps, performances and then complain that it isn't enough or wasn't how they would have done it? Well you know what you're at home watching and no one asked you and most people complaining don't work in the industry or have business or marketing degrees so they have no idea how any of this works. There is absolutely no need for all this idiotic nonsense. Jin's promos have been great and just the way he wants them. We are getting clips, photos, schedules for things, in game promos on In The Seom etc every day almost. Why is ARMY acting like selfish solos? 

     This could backfire when it comes to general population or "locals" as we call them. The average person is not going to get that any of this is to get them to listen to a song or an album and if they watch a video expecting to see a beloved celebrity with Jin from BTS and that person is not there they are likely to see ARMY as liars not that it was a "prank." Locals won't stream an album or buy it all of a sudden because they heard Jin was hosting an awards show and they tuned in and he wasn't there. MAMA awards is also not for the weak (hi it's me, I'm the weak). This is one of the longer shows and the timezone differences can be brutal for international viewers. Buzz will be generated and people will be let down and once again see the fandom as a joke. 

     There are going to be people who say, "it's not that serious" or "it's just a joke" and as I said , I don't see it that way and many others don't either. When you have an account with over 20k followers and would rather post rumors than voting and streaming encouragement then you have a problem. Period. Unfortunately, the internet has changed journalism and fact checking has become a thing of the past. I linked an article written about Jin hosting the MAMA awards but there were several, all from Asian based publications. The media scrapes through Twitter and uses ARMY tweets as quotes (and solo too-maybe I'll cover that another time) and writes whole articles based on what is said. They angle their articles positive or negative depending on how much drama they can stir up. Instead of the kinds of articles where they talk to people personally via phone, email, or in person, they now use Twitter posts. Twitter of all places...used as pull quotes too. This is unprofessional to me and they don't even ask or get permission because the posts are public. Threads is now able to be indexed on Google meaning your Threads show up in search now just like Tweets do so I don't doubt they will be using Threads and Blue Sky posts as well soon so be careful what you share or engage with because you are amplifying it. 

     With all of the lies we fight from K-media and tabloids why would we condone ARMY putting out fake news and allowing our own community to be contaminated with it? People who fight misinformation are already tired of explaining to people that things put out there for attention and clicks are lies. It's exhausting. I will be blocking and muting people who continue to share these things. Jin's promotions are his choice and are great. If you can't trust that then you aren't ARMY to me. Don't like his promo or want to add to it? Make your own graphics- not lies but date/time/ name of album or song etc and put it out there. Share the ones already out that graphic designer / editor ARMY are putting out. Or how about just sharing your streaming or voting screenshots. That's better promo than lies. 

     Knowing how much Jin loves ARMY I couldn't imagine how upset he would be that people took it upon themselves to spread rumors as promo and that they call themselves ARMY but don't trust the marketing decisions made by the members for their individual projects. They are seven different men with distinctive tastes. Everyone's promo is not going to look the same nor should it. This is basic common sense. People need to learn to stay in their lane as fans and stop trying to control things the artists do. This looks like sabotage rather than promo and it makes the fandom look bad. Stop participating in this mess. 

Beware of Blue Checks

      Blue checks used to mean something good on social media. I used to be a sign that you were on an official page for a celebrity or public figure and that what was posted was coming from that person or their team. For less famous people with blue checks it meant that they had achieved some kind of status symbol, clout, that meant that they had arrived somehow at being popular enough for a verified seal on their account confirming that that account was their official one. That was all cool until Elon Musk came to Twitter with his fascist views and unhinged unstable behavior causing advertisers and users to leave in droves. In order to try to keep users and advertisers on board and make back some of the money he was losing, he decided to charge for blue check verification as a subscription and open it up to anyone and everyone. To get a blue check all you had to do was subscribe to a monthly paid plan. This is when things started going way down hill and they haven't stopped tumbling yet.

     Because people bought the hype and started paying for Twitter and getting blue checks, there is no longer any real credibility on any social media sites for celebrity accounts. Impersonators use celebrity names in their display name and get blue check subscriptions on not only Twitter but Instagram,Threads, and Facebook now. Because Twitter started it and it worked, all of the other major social media sites followed suit and offered the same thing, paid verification. Public figures have to constantly put out notices advising users not to fall for scams using their names because now that anyone can use the name and put a blue check beside it, you don't really know if an account really is the celebrity you think it is. You can't even always go by how many followers they have now because if 1M people fall for the same fake account then that account has 1M followers despite being fake. Platforms don't really do much anymore when you report impersonators. I have reported more BTS impersonation accounts  on Threads/ Instagram than I can count and I don't think a single one was ever taken down. Hybe/Big Hit put out a statement recently on X/Twitter advising ARMY to beware of impersonation accounts. There are official lists made by ARMY on X/Twitter and Threads that point out the real BTS accounts. BTS doesn't have any individual accounts for members on X/Twitter (just a joint account and Big Hit official account) and none of the members nor Hybe nor Big Hit is on Threads at all as of the writing of this post. 

     Beyond just getting to seem like a celebrity, having a blue check provides you with incentives like supposed better customer service if your account gets hacked. Twitter offers longer posts to blue check holders by allowing them more characters, the ability to edit posts, supposedly a better reach meaning posts guaranteed to be shown to more people on the app and the most diabolical of all incentives- pay for play with regard to engagement. Now I'm not saying that creators, editors, shouldn't be paid for their content. People who use it for good are fine. The blue checked ARMY accounts who got checks to protect their accounts from hacking (if that even really works) or to get more characters so you can make longer posts without having to break them into several threads, that 's all understandable. They subscribe for valid reasons. I'm not knocking those choices because that'a a legit reason to get a blue check. The issue I have is the misuse due to monetization incentives.

     On Threads you can qualify for the Threads Bonus Program. I believe the criteria is you have to have 1000 followers or more on Instagram and decent engagement according to IG. Not sure how many you have to have on Threads to qualify. Once you get into the program you are paid based on posts on Threads as long as they stay within the guidelines of Threads, IG, Meta. This has led to the same thing with blue checked troll accounts on Threads seeking engagement through manipulative means like the ones on Twitter. On Twitter, BTS related posts get bombarded with troll spam comments from blue check trolls. You can tell they aren't ARMY because they often are footballer bro squad types with Ronaldo or some footballer as their profile picture or memes as their profile pic. They go under posts about BTS that are popular and say rude things in order to rile up ARMY into commenting back to them. The comment equals engagement and if they get enough of that - the comments , good or bad, they get paid. They will play the evil role of making hateful comments to make ARMY mad enough to comment back or some will pretend to be interested in BTS and will ask questions or make praising comments that are fake just so they can get ARMY to comment something positive back because all comments count towards their paycheck. In my opinion fake baiting positive comments are manipulative too so I steer clear if something looks fishy because I've seen people pander to ARMY to get attention then just when they have a ton of ARMY attention they turn on BTS and ARMY.  They get pulled into fan wars or get attention from other fandoms who want them to listen to and promote their guys. We've seen this happen with "reactors" on YouTube. 

     The other side of this is the blue check rage bait paid accounts. They make whole threads that are engagement bait hoping to get people angry so they will argue and the poster will get paid based on views and comments likes and shares. These are the people posting rude things like, "which fandom is the most toxic" and "which member of BTS is the hottest?" (seemingly innocent question but put out to make people argue about their looks and draw solos and visual stans into confrontation with OT7. ARMY is the largest most active fandom and these trolls know it. They use ARMY for engagement. The person posting the last question wasn't even ARMY and the first question was a set up to get fan wars started in their comment section. Trolls think that hiding their IG link will stop people from going to their IG to check them out. Well I will still go and sometimes that is the most telling of all. Asking questions to ARMY to get engagement when you stan another group and never mention BTS or don't follow them on IG is a giant red flag to me. Threads says they are looking at ways to combat engagement bait posts but I will believe it when I see it. 

   When you see posts like this it should be an instant block. I know I have caught myself responding before but I am reminding myself to stay focused and just block. Don't pay their bills by commenting. Don't quote to make a comment, don't re-share, don't screenshot to discuss because all of these things count as engagement. It's best to ignore. If you see a page that's claiming to be Big Hit, Hybe, or any member of BTS on Threads and it is blue checked, as of now it is fake. In the future always ask other ARMY or look for the official list (which I will post on the information page on this blog). If something seems suspect like you are suddenly seeing bait posts, swipe "not interested" and block. There are several accounts that don't have blue checks that still do the bait post for engagement thing hoping to get likes and follows. Just avoid it at all costs and resist the urge to comment. Trust me I know the urge to clap back is strong and I have fallen for it myself but taking a breath and not giving these accounts what they want is better than telling them to f -off. 

      

Threads Is Not Twitter, Let's Keep It That Way

 TW: talking about things that have happened on Twitter so I feel like I may need a TW for self-harm, suicide, cyberbullying

 This week’s post is somewhat of an extension of last week’s post in that I want to discuss my thoughts on Twitter and Threads. They are two different apps and I feel like the influx of new users (and some older ones) on Threads don’t get that. I made a post on September 2nd in the morning reflecting my thoughts because I scrolled and saw three posts nearly in a row that would never have been there on ARMY Threads six months ago. Two were fan war starters and I was like, “nope, I'm definitely saying something,” so I did. The first comments were in agreement then came the noobs (new ARMY accounts that haven't been on the app longer than six months). Some of them seem to be the ones causing drama or excusing the drama. I was told I should go try Blue Sky if I wanted a “clean” app. I don't expect any social media to be “clean” whatever that means. I do expect ARMY to do better though, and if you call yourself ARMY you should want to do better. We don't do fan wars. Certainly not ones we start by saying “I hate (insert fandoms)” and proceed to post screenshots of hate tweets from X/Twitter or “proof” the fandom is trash based on one person acting maliciously. We keep it in the group chats and not out in the open instigating arguments. 

     Threads came to be a year ago in July 2023 in response to Twitter being taken over by Elon Musk who ran the platform downhill fast. The shit show that Twitter became under Musk is all his doing. I was on the app and I followed people who worked for Twitter/X that lost their jobs. They explained that things were going to get a lot worse before they ever got better. I watched as security that handled protecting people from abuse became pretty much non-existent. Then there were the glitches or so called glitches where users couldn’t post or could only like a set number of posts per day or over a 24 to 48 hour period and were restricted from then on. Rumor was that if you paid/subscribed to Twitter Blue (I think that was the name of it) then you could like more posts and comment more without restriction. So Musk decided to start trying to push users into payment plans/subscription tiers in order to have a better user experience on the app. I wasn’t paying for that. Not when an app that I used to enjoy decided that “free speech” (read: hate speech) was allowed unless it was directed towards Musk or anyone he defends.  So for a while I bounced back and forth between Twitter (which also went through a name change to X but no one calls it that) and Threads. 

     I learned the best things from Twitter ARMY and I also have seen the worst bullying that I have ever seen in my life happen on Twitter. The thing is all the crap is not worth wading through to get to the good part for me. I will never forget how kpoppies all came together in a mostly fake show of solidarity the day Moonbin passed away. I stayed out of the conversations surrounding mental health because to be honest, they were largely performative and it made me sick to my stomach to see some of these fandoms pretend to give a shit when they put people in the hospital or grave by bullying. Suddenly fandoms who photoshopped BTS members with self-harm marks, celebrated the death of cancer victims who were family members of ARMY or artists who worked with BTS, and mass shooting victims who were ARMY or friends of BTS, and doxxed others to put their info on porn sites gave a shit about mental health? Yeah spare me the fakeness. I would find out just how fake the "mental health matters" posts were less than 24 hours later.

     Another vile part of Twitter is all the solos, antis, shippers and all manner of weirdos who can’t bother to be normal fans of all the members of BTS. Solos are antis who hate all members except the one or two they stan. They are akgaes. They leave traps sometimes in order to start fights or they will go fishing for like minded solos to join their side of fandom, the dark pathetic side. Nothing wrong with having a bias because that’s not the same thing. You can be OT7 and have a bias like I do or just not have a bias at all. Solos openly express hate for all other members except their favorite. They stan the one member and not the group and will go as far as to exclude other members from their streaming and consuming of content.

     That being said, the day after Moonbin passed, I was on Twitter and some J-Hope anti made a post excluding J-Hope. I didn’t realize it was an anti account and don’t remember who they were a solo of. I didn’t realize it was a set up post either. It was set up to bait people like me who are OT7 into arguments. The screen name suggested they were a BTS fan because they used a member’s name and something else -maybe they had a little seven in the name too (a lot of us do including some fake ARMY). Seeing this post, I quote tweeted them and said something harmless like “Don’t forget Hobi.” Apparently that triggered an alarm for them to bring out the psycho bitches and out they came. I was getting comments like, “Go die,” “kill yourself.” and I was called stupid when I responded trying to figure out what all of this was about and I spelled a word wrong. I was so done with these losers. All this vitriol because they were downplaying a member of the group I thought we both were stans of. I realized after looking through their account that I had been played by antis. I took the bait and they came to chew me up and spit me out. I blocked the ones commenting but reported them first (of course nothing happened to their accounts because it’s Twitter, they don’t protect you from bullies anymore). Then, I ran a nuke block on everyone engaging with that post (nuke block was a site where you put in the URL of the tweet or link to it and it blocked everyone who liked it). I was so upset I took 48 hours or so off of Twitter. I logged out and stayed off. So much for everyone coming together the day before to advocate for mental health awareness and being kind to one another. Such bullshit. 

     I did some research when I got back online and the person running that account turned out to be a guy from India posing as a girl who pretends to like BTS. He has multiple accounts for rival fandoms who are always in ARMY business bullying ARMY. Makes sense. His IG account gave him away. I blocked him on all of my IG accounts and from that point further, I engaged less and less with anyone’s Twitter accounts. Not that I got that much engagement there anyway. It says something when you comment on a post or make a post and you get the notification that someone responded and you cringe a little because you automatically anticipate that it's some troll or some anti coming to your comments to be a jerk. You kind of develop a bit of anxiety about commenting or getting comments back. I don't know if anyone else gets that but I had that when I was on Facebook and on Twitter. This incident made it worse. I don't get that anxious feeling about my notifications on Threads though. 

     I had been on the app (Twitter) for 6-8 years I think and my personal account just became my stan account when I decided to join ARMY online. At first it was fun but it quickly became clique-ish. I noticed big accounts all talked to each other and people who talked a lot about voting and streaming got a lot of crap from solos. Playlist accounts even got bullied for posting playlists. Why? Because they were OT7 and solos didn't like that they spread focused playlists that included all 7 members as well as the focused releases. Meanwhile these solos were spreading looped playlists that sabotaged the streams and caused plays to be stripped on Spotify resulting in sabotaging the member's numbers they were trying to boost. Brainless behavior on full display there. 

     Over a year into learning Korean self-study I could tell that some of the translators were playing with words for engagement. I never said anything but waited till one got called out for lying. When I knew she lied about what was said I blocked her and others backing her up. A mistake is one thing but a full on mistranslation that a beginner/intermediate speaker picked up on–yeah get out of here with that. 

     As Musk’s antics got worse and worse, stupid things continued to happen to push my buttons and push me right out of that dumpster fire app. I got suspended for 24 hours for saying I hoped a guy’s Tesla would catch fire. There was a video going around of a guy chasing other cars on the road, cutting them off, and blocking them so they couldn’t go anywhere, and bashing their windows out. I wished for the downfall of a car and got suspended but people wishing death on others daily got no punishment. I started getting offensive ads that pushed fascist ideology (I’m in the US) and pushing Christian Nationalism. I tried to block ads which I could do, at first, and then I kept getting pop ups saying this was no longer allowed and I needed to subscribe to get rid of ads. Nope! Not paying to keep from seeing things that shouldn’t be there. So I deleted my account this past spring and never looked back.

     Let me reiterate that, I never looked back. I wish I had saved my bookmarks with receipts and links to some info but other than that I don’t miss the ever burning dumpster fire. At first I thought I would miss out on information about BTS, but I realize the best information will come from the official Big Hit Instagram and Weverse accounts. Yes the guys are still on Twitter and the account still posts but anything there will eventually be on their Instagram or Weverse. Even if it isn't, I have accounts I follow like @/dalbitbangtan and @/samaya_bangtan_girl on Threads who keep me updated on official news from BTS_TWT the official Twitter for the members. For me it wasn’t worth going through the hellscape to get information. I’d rather be a little later getting info than getting it ASAP and risking seeing something upsetting or being bullied on the way to getting info. Some people pop back and forth and that’s fine for them but it’s not going to work for me so I only have Threads and IG and I’m fine with only those as my socials. 

     Having Threads and having it be new at the time, I sought out other ARMYs and we came to the collective conclusion that we have a unique opportunity on Threads to redo what went wrong and continues to go wrong on Twitter. We want to create a space where ARMY of all walks of life feel safe and able to be themselves. No bullying and no spreading Twitter drama and fan wars in our spaces. No clout chasing with gossip from tabloids or unauthorized photos (real or faked with AI), no spreading rumors, and no age shaming. ARMY like BTS is also LGBTQIA+ inclusive so there’s obviously no discrimination allowed nor ableism. I also don’t believe in being a larger account than someone else and not responding to people. That’s so middle school. I experienced that a lot on Twitter where larger accounts wouldn’t even acknowledge that you said happy birthday to them with a like or comment back. You could ask a genuine question and no one would answer you. Sometimes other small accounts would answer, hours or days later. I try to help everyone and engage with everyone who engages kindly with me regardless of how many followers we have. 

     There are a lot of ARMY just coming over to Threads and we welcome you. Those that are relatively new may not be following anyone who was there when we first decided to make Threads an ARMY safe space and may not know but I’m saying it and have been saying it. We need to get it together because there are people trying every single day to tear ARMY apart and not to get into that, but we need to decide how we plan to move forward as a fandom. Some things need to be put aside and others just need to be handled better.

     One thing I really want to address here is anger and spreading hate and negativity that comes from Twitter. I left Twitter because of all of the hate being spread by antis. Why are there people bringing it from Twitter over to Threads? I don’t need to see screenshots of what some anti account says about BTS while I am scrolling Threads. There is no point in posting a Twitter screenshot and clapping back at the hater in the post on Threads. They can’t see it unless they are on Threads and in that case you should find them and tag them because we do not care. Anyone that wants to see that kind of rubbish can go to Twitter to see it. Why not clap back to them right under their post on Twitter? Oh because you don’t want drama? Well don’t bring it onto Threads because we don’t want it either. Don’t start fan wars on Threads because we don’t do that there. You aren’t adding anything valuable to the community by sharing drama. I am blocking the accounts that do this because I left Twitter for a reason. I’m not trying to see people make Threads into Twitter 2.0. We can choose the kind of content we want to see and participate in and boost that. 

     So if you see anything on Twitter and it upsets you because haters are in ARMY’s business, instead of spreading that, you can send it to the Big Hit legal team (via their website ) and block and report the account/post. You don’t need to run to Threads with it. You could leave something positive on either or both platforms to combat the negative. If you need to talk about it keep it to your DMs or group chats because sharing it spreads it. You are spreading negativity. Haters will always hate and there really is nothing we can do about it but try to get as many of them sued as possible. When it hits them where it hurts they will probably tone it down but sharing it and complaining won’t do anything but upset people who didn't know before you brought it to their timeline now more people are upset and ranting. 

     I don’t say any of this to try to be bossy or control what people post because ultimately they are going to be posting whatever they want to their pages but in case people wonder why they get less engagement or aren’t getting more followers I will be blocking negative posts from Twitter that aim to start drama rather than to inform. I hope other ARMYs will do the same. I know there are some that like gossip and rumors and even some that like fan wars. I don’t and I don’t want to see it. The difference in energy on the timeline when it's release day or during a release week vs when a bunch of drama is being spread and everyone is chiming in their opinion on something some loser on Twitter said about the guys is so different. Basically if it isn't an update from the official Big Hit Twitter or the guys Twitter, a fact checked update from a chart account about a milestone, something fact checked from a fan base that's not a stalker post or something otherwise informative that's not shade throwing or negative then keep it on Twitter and not on Threads. 

      Leaving Threads for another platform isn’t it for me right now. Eventually all of the trouble makers will make additional accounts on the other apps too and none of them will be any better than the others. At this point all we can do is acknowledge the spread of negativity and misinformation and try to do better at keeping it out of our spaces.

Update: 12.10.24 I joined Bluesky but I also keep Threads. What led to me joining Bluesky was the influx of negative accounts joining Threads and Meta/Threads lack of moderation to protect people from bullying and misinformation. The downfall of Twitter and mass exodus to Bluesky has led to many good informative ARMY accounts going to Bluesky and I found accounts I used to follow there that aren't on Threads. Bluesky does have better moderation in the form of filters and blocklists. Staying on both apps for now.