Short answer: open the list, open its menu, and you can edit the name, description and avatar, or delete the list entirely. Removing a person is done from the list's member view or from their profile. Only the list's owner can do any of this.
The part that's easy to forget is that other people may be using your list. Editing changes what they see. Deleting it removes it for all of them, including people who rely on a moderation list for their mutes or blocks.
The Quick Answer
| You want to... | Where | Others notified? |
|---|---|---|
| Rename the list | List menu → edit | No |
| Change the description or avatar | List menu → edit | No |
| Add someone | The list, or the person's profile menu | No |
| Remove someone | The list's members, or the person's profile menu | No |
| Delete the list | List menu → delete | No, it just disappears |
Menu labels in the official app shift between versions, so treat these as directions rather than exact button names. Everything lives in the list's own menu once you open it from your profile's Lists tab.
How to Rename a List or Change Its Description
- Go to your profile and open the Lists tab.
- Open the list.
- Open the list's menu and choose the edit option.
- Change the name, description or avatar, then save.
On the protocol, this updates the app.bsky.graph.list record in your repo in place. The list keeps the same address, so links people shared still work, members stay on it, and anyone who pinned or subscribed keeps it. They'll just see the new name.
Two things worth doing while you're there:
- Put your criteria in the description. Especially for moderation lists. "Spam and crypto bots, reported first" tells people what the list is for and why they might be on it.
- Rename lists written in a bad mood. Lists are public and attached to your name. A neutral name ages better than an angry one.
One thing you generally can't change is the list's type. Whether it's a curation list or a moderation list is set when you create it. If you need the other kind, make a new list and add the same people.
How to Remove Someone From a List
There are two ways:
- From the list: open the list, go to its members, and remove the person.
- From their profile: open the person's profile, use the menu's add-to-list option, and untick the list.
Each member is a separate app.bsky.graph.listitem record in your repo, and removing someone deletes that one record. They aren't notified, just as they weren't notified when you added them. If they asked to be removed, a quick reply that it's done is a courtesy.
The effect for everyone else is immediate. On a curation list, that person's posts drop out of the feed for everyone who pinned it. On a moderation list, subscribers stop muting or blocking that person through your list (unless they have also muted or blocked them some other way).
If you're on the other side of this, and someone else's list has you on it, you can't remove yourself. See how to get off a Bluesky list for your options.
How to Delete a List
- Open the list from your profile's Lists tab.
- Open the list's menu and choose the delete option.
- Confirm.
There's no undo. If you might want the list again, consider emptying it, renaming it, or just leaving it alone. Recreating a deleted list means re-adding every member by hand, and anyone who had it pinned or subscribed has to find the new one.
Under the hood, deleting removes the app.bsky.graph.list record from your repo. The official app also cleans up the membership records. If a list is deleted some other way and the membership records are left behind, they point at a list that no longer exists and, as far as we can tell, do nothing.
What Happens to Subscribers and People Who Pinned It
| Who | After you delete the list |
|---|---|
| People who pinned your curation list | The list feed disappears from their tabs, or fails to load until they remove it |
| People subscribed to your moderation list (mute) | The list's mutes stop applying; those accounts reappear for them |
| People subscribed to your moderation list (block) | The list's blocks stop applying |
| People on the list | Nothing visible to them; they were never notified in the first place |
| Third-party archives and trackers | Whatever they already captured is out of your control |
The moderation case is the one to think about. Deleting a moderation list stops its mutes and blocks for every subscriber, and they won't be told. If people depend on your blocklist for their safety, deleting it without warning can expose them to accounts they thought were blocked. Post a heads-up first, or point them to a replacement list before you delete.
Exactly how a deleted list shows up in each app varies. Some apps quietly drop it from saved feeds; some show an error until the user unpins it. Either way, it stops working.
Deleted Isn't the Same as Erased
Deleting a list works like deleting a post. The record is removed from your data server, and the deletion goes out over the firehose so well-behaved services remove it too. But list records were public, and some third-party tools index list membership. Anything they already scraped or archived is outside your control.
If the worry is that a list's name or membership was a mistake, deleting it is still the right move. Just don't count on it never having been seen. We covered this in are Bluesky lists public?
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I delete a list on Bluesky?
Open the list from your profile's Lists tab, open the list's menu, and choose the delete option. Only the list's owner can delete it, and deletion can't be undone.
How do I remove someone from my Bluesky list?
Open the list, find the person in its members, and remove them. You can also open their profile and use the add-to-list option to untick the list. They aren't notified either way.
Can I rename a Bluesky list?
Yes. Use the edit option in the list's menu to change its name, description and avatar. The list keeps its members, subscribers and link.
What happens to subscribers when I delete a Bluesky list?
The list disappears for everyone. People who pinned a curation list lose that feed, and subscribers to a moderation list stop having its mutes or blocks applied. Copies already scraped or archived by third parties are outside your control.
Can I change a curation list into a moderation list?
Not reliably. A list's purpose is set when you create it. If you need the other type, create a new list and add the same people.
Managing Lists in Skyscraper
- Create and read lists, add people from their profile with Add to List, and remove members from the list view
- Delete List from a list's menu, and Edit List (name, description and avatar) with Skyscraper Pro
- See whether each list is pinned to your feeds (new in 1.7.1)