Experienced fedi users, let's not fuck this up for the new users and make them feel welcome! If you see an image without alt text, instead of scolding, spending that typing energy on writing an image description so the person can edit it in!
Experienced fedi users, let's not fuck this up for the new users and make them feel welcome! If you see an image without alt text, instead of scolding, spending that typing energy on writing an image description so the person can edit it in! 61 comments
@stavvers Yes! And for the love of all that is good and holy, don't starshame people. Maybe you thought that, on other sites, the only/real purpose of liking or favoriting a post was to increase its visibility. But showing appreciation/making a human connection matters EVEN IF there's no algorithmic effect. So encourage people to boost, if you want. But don't tell people not to like/favorite things. (And, stg, if anyone responds to this by starsplaining, I will block you.) @design_law the funny thing about this behaviour is I have never met a single person who ever liked posts for visibility reasons, only to show the poster they liked their posts, it's always been so fucking weird to me seeing the weirdo starshaming posts lol @design_law @stavvers I first started using Mastodon a significant amount around the time of one of the influxes, and it was GREAT when finally the "you must use mastodon exactly like this 1/32" threads died down. @scatterkeir @design_law I'm actually impressed I haven't seen many this time round, and I wonder if it's because I've muted all those bores, or if they've just been too busy discoursing about kolektiva.social to notice the latest wave of new users @stavvers @design_law it's like "you have to use hashtags", if, for instance I personally ever tweeted about Syd Little, it wasn't with the intention of attracting randos searching for Syd Little, so I have no reason to #SydLittle here. @stavvers @scatterkeir @design_law i think it's the former cos i have seen quite a few on the tl and it boils my piss @almostconverge @stavvers @scatterkeir @design_law Then I must’ve muted those too coz I see more of “BEHAVE PEOPLE OR ELSE!!” Type of warning to those who are here already so we won’t screw up this time. It’s a bit funny tho :D (I know but still is) @stavvers @scatterkeir @design_law all pedantic newcomer threads should use the #/feditips hashtag and also a cw so they can be filtered out at the instance level @stavvers @design_law @stavvers @design_law Exactly that. I'd go so far as to say the fact that how Twitter worked was misaligned with how people used Twitter is hardly Fedi's problem. @Catriona @design_law the thing is, it wasn't even how twitter was designed to work - first they were a simple bookmarking tool, then it because a way of showing someone you liked their post, and then it got algorithmic but like I said I doubt many people ever used it like that @stavvers @design_law The thing that’s been so disorientatingly weird for me on Masto is that the mechanical experience so completely mimics the experience I had with Twitter, since I accessed it via Tweetbot. I had a chronological feed of the people I followed, and the algo did fuck all*. It’s weird only because so many people are baffled by it, and I’m, like, _your_ Twitter sounds atrocious! *caveat: with the exception of sometimes surfacing me to non-followers, for good or ill @chrisphin @stavvers @design_law I had not considered this, but it’s 10/10 true for me too. @stavvers @design_law Yeah, I’ve never used the Twitter app (nor understood why anyone would!) so I’ve never experienced the algorithm. @design_law @stavvers I star many more posts than I boost because I may like it for a number of reasons, or just agree with the poster on something, but don’t feel compelled to share it with the entire community. @design_law @stavvers okay… I’ve seen starshaming, but would you please explain starsplaining? @mathaetaes @stavvers I just made it up in my frustration with people who like to tell me "AKSHULLY, likes/favorites affect What's Hot" or similar missing-the-point kind of nonsense @_katiesaurus_ it's a really great feature, I absolutely love the robust editing on here @fade one of my favourite features on here is the profile annotation, so I can annotate the profile as "utter bore" and mute indefinitely, and know *why* @stavvers so what is the pros/use for alt tags on images, is it a search feature just like regular web design? @innergeekdesigns accessibility feature, lots of people use screenreaders so they can enjoy the image too! Note: Also: Due to repeated crashes on #Android* when doing #AltText, this is now my standard procedure: #Fedilab has never been up to date with #Samsung OS updates and even gives this as excuse in its error messages. Crashes frequently, too, but has more features, like #translate. I mostly use #Tusky, therefore. #Fedilab has some features, though, that I need, too, e.g @stavvers i dont actually know how to caption a photo and ive been here a while 🤦♀️ sorry. @Julesbc it’s actually easier than it was on twitter! on the web: when you put a picture in your post, click the edit button in the top right. Describe your picture. It doesn’t have to be fancy, just what the picture is so if someone can’t see it they know what it is. In the mastodon ‘official’ app the description can be added by clicking at the bottom of the picture before posting, and in ivory you just click on the picture and the box comes up. Now you can do alt text, high five! 😀 @bengin1003 totally - the easiest way that people learn is to see how it's done, and it's why the scolding is just off-putting and useless, while you could *show* how to do it @stavvers I typed some alt text in when I posted a pic but didn't seem to have an Ok/submit button to make it "stick" just a back button which took me out of the alt text window What app are you using? I use the basic web interface, and there is an "apply" button. But you should get instructions specific to whatever app you are using... 😎 @5ciFiGirl I've got the Tusky app now so I'll try it again sometime and see if it works. 👍 In some of the other replies to this thread, folks mention using Tusky to *post* the alt-text, but Fedilab if they need to *edit it*, LOL. So if you need any specific pointers, they could probably help. (Since I haven't used the apps. 😉 ) @stavvers I’ve been scolded a few times just for genuinely forgetting to do it on the odd one even though I add alt text to every single post. It would be great if people were a little more polite about it, it’s certainly off putting when you’re new and some random comes at you like you’ve committed a heinous crime |
@stavvers
Good suggestion. Also together with a polite explanation on why some people need them?
@mawhrin