# #FolkloreThursday: weekly tag, monthly hosted day (Bluesky, 2026)

Written 30 Oct 2026 for Cedwyn. Before this, #FolkloreThursday was only a line inside calan-gaeaf-seasonal-hook-welsh-halloween-folklore.md. This file is the standing playbook.

## What it is now (measured 30 Oct 2026)
- **Founders:** Dee Dee Chainey and Willow Winsham, started 2015. Their FAQ (read) gives "a community of over 60,000 members worldwide" (that's the X-era figure). The project **left X for Bluesky** and "no longer posts or hosts on Twitter". The old website carries a "deprecated, no longer supported" banner, but the FAQ and themes pages still load.
- **Bluesky account** `folklorethursday.bsky.social` (public API, read 30 Oct): **3,030 followers**, 1,121 posts, created May 2024. Facebook page: 8,772 followers (snippet, not checked).
- **The tag is open every Thursday, but hosting is monthly.** FAQ (read): "hosts no longer retweet every single week ... the themes are only there for inspiration ... do post each week!" Hosted days in 2026, taken from the account's own posts: **19 Feb, 19 Mar, 16 Apr, 28 May, 18 Jun, 24 Sep, 29 Oct**. There was no hosted day in July or August (summer break). Each one was announced **2-7 days ahead** (17 Mar, 14 Apr, 22 May, 11 Jun, 18 Sep, 26 Oct). Usually it's the third or last Thursday, and often themed (Sept = autumn/fall, Oct = "Halloween, Samhain, and Ghost lore").
- **How a hosted day works:** guest hosts take hour-long slots (BST, e.g. 9am-2pm, 3.30-4.30pm, 6.30-7.30pm in March 2025). Each host reposts posts made to the hashtag in their hour. The day closes with a thank-you post tagging the hosts.
- **Reach, 29 Oct 2026 (our own read of public data):** the account reposted **75 posts** that day, with a median of **14 likes** each (range 1-132). The unauthenticated search shows only the latest 100 posts. **94** of those were created on 29 Oct, with a median of 11 likes, and the cursor was refused (403), so the day's full volume was **not measured**. Only **1 of the 94** was Welsh: Gwyn ap Nudd, from bevanthomas, 14 likes and 6 reposts. Welsh folklore is thin on the tag, which leaves room for us.
- **What gets reposted:** real folklore with a source or a period image. Examples: the National Museum of Ireland's 1930s pigskin mask (27 likes), "The Illustrated London News 4.11.1871", the Chirbury roll-call legend, John Collier's painting. The FAQ states not to worry about full academic references for public-domain images, but **name where it's from**.
- **How to post** (FAQ, read): a title or short note, then the link, then `#FolkloreThursday` at the end. Promote articles only where they carry real folklore.

## How to do it (any account)
1. **Weekly:** one post every Thursday with one sourced folklore item, a public-domain image if there is one, the source line, and at most one link. Check the themes page for the week and ignore it if it doesn't fit.
2. **Hosted days:** watch the account from the third week of each month. When it announces, prepare **3 items** and post them **inside 3 different host slots**. Hosts repost in their own hour, so posts outside the hour are mostly missed.
3. **Format:** the hook in the first line ("In 1903 a Canton man ..."), one picture, the source line (book, year, page), and the link last. Keep the text to about 280 characters.
4. **Reply to the host's thread** when they ask a question. Don't tag hosts to beg for a repost.
5. **Measure:** tag the link `/r/ft-<yyyymm>`. Count reposts by @folklorethursday, likes, and clicks.

## How we apply it to Cedwyn
- **Account:** Cedwyn has no Bluesky account yet. See bluesky-custom-feeds-history.md: the account comes from the LEVERAGE RUN, so a Bluesky presence is a **proposal** until it exists. Meanwhile, use the tag on the **existing Facebook page and Instagram** every Thursday. It is a live tag there too: the founders' Facebook page and Instagram both use it.
- **What we post:** real Glamorgan folklore from public-domain sources, not stories invented for the farm. calan-gaeaf's rule stands: if no local story exists, say so. The best local item found so far is the **Canton-to-Leckwith boatman's ghost**, set at a bend of the River Ely "just above the present Taff Vale Railway bridge". It is in Trevelyan 1909, pp. 336-337, taken from T. H. Thomas, *Old Folks' Tales*, Trans. Cardiff Naturalists' Society vol. 36 (1903). See trevelyan-1909-glamorgan-folklore-public-domain-local-stories.md.
- **Next hosted day:** the November date isn't announced yet (expect it in late Nov, announced 2-7 days ahead). Watch from Mon 16 Nov. It might land in the Explore Your Archive focus week (21-29 Nov), so one item can carry both #FolkloreThursday and #ExploreYourArchive.
- **Weekly queue, 4 items** (Thursdays 5, 12, 19, 26 Nov): Leckwith boatman (p. 336); Penarth Head "black blood" fish (p. 154); St Quintin and the Devil's Kneecap at Llanblethian (p. 154). For the fourth, one Calan Gaeaf/Nadolig item from Museum Wales (St Fagans), already sourced in calan-gaeaf. Bilingual, Welsh first.
- **Stop rule:** after 4 Thursdays with **no repost by a host or a big account and fewer than 3 clicks in total**, drop to hosted days only.
- **Editorial:** neutral, record-based, no case argument. Folklore is not evidence for the farm's title. Banned public words apply ("states" etc.): write "a 1903 collection records ...". The source's own quoted dialogue can stay verbatim, inside quotation marks.

## Sources
- folklorethursday.com (read 30 Oct 2026: weekly tag, hosting not weekly, moved to Bluesky, 60,000 members, how to post, image sourcing)
- public.api.bsky.app and app.bsky.feed.getAuthorFeed (read 30 Oct: 3,030 followers; 2026 hosted dates; 29 Oct reposts and like counts)
- api.bsky.app (read 30 Oct: latest 100, 94 from 29 Oct, median 11 likes; cursor 403)
- x.com and instagram.com (snippets: 2025 hosted days, slot times)
- folklorethursday.com (snippet: weekly themes list)