home.social

#imagedescriptionmeta — Public Fediverse posts

Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #imagedescriptionmeta, aggregated by home.social.

  1. Jupiter Rowland @[email protected] ·
    @Mark Wyner Won’t Comply :vm: First of all, you completely forgot the social media posters. The TOC link leads nowhere.

    Also, maybe it's fair to mention that I'm working on an entire wiki about alt-texts and image descriptions, especially for the Fediverse. 46 pages are planned as of now, 24 of them are already written. These will include over 30 pages on how to do things, how not to do things and what never to do at all.

    I won't add step-by-step guides for certain frontends. But I've already started adding rules and guidelines for how to describe images appropriately and write alt-texts in a way that won't break stuff anywhere.

    Even if it's a very incomplete WIP, it's unique in several ways:
    • It's the only wiki about alt-texts and image descriptions. Few writers have even only written multiple pages or articles on this subject.
    • It's the only guide that takes the existence of the Fediverse outside of Mastodon into consideration. This means that it's also the only guide that doesn't assume that Fediverse equals always having only 500 characters for the message text. It actually recommends an additional, longer image description in the message text in certain situations, regardless of whether or not vanilla Mastodon users can do that.
    • It's the only guide that, instead of regurgitating the alt-text rules for webpages and blogs and assuming that they apply to the Fediverse just the same, talks about the peculiarities of posting images into the Fediverse, how Mastodon's alt-text quality criteria are different from the W3C WAI and WCAG alt-text quality criteria, and why it's critically important to know and fulfill Mastodon's requirements for good alt-texts.
    • It's probably the only guide that doesn't assume that you can always precisely target a certain audience for your content and make sure that only those receive it who understand it right off the bat.
    • It is the only guide that lists over 60 references, including your blog post, but also including university webpages as well as over two dozen guides from Veronica Lewis a.k.a. Veronica with Four Eyes.

    #Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #FediMeta #FediverseMeta #CWFediMeta #CWFediverseMeta #AltText #AltTextMeta #CWAltTextMeta #ImageDescription #ImageDescriptions #ImageDescriptionMeta #CWImageDescriptionMeta
    #cwimagedescriptionmeta #imagedescriptionmeta #imagedescriptions #imagedescription #cwfediversemeta #fediversemeta
  2. Jupiter Rowland @[email protected] ·
    CW: How must foreign-language text be transcribed in an image description? CW: long (over 2,200 characters), alt-text meta, image description meta
    I'm pretty sure that posting this will turn out completely futile. But I'll try anyway.

    I'm especially asking the Mastodon alt-text enforcers: How must foreign-language text be transcribed, both by Web accessibility standards and by Mastodon's alt-text standards?

    Let's assume I have some text in an image that's in a different language than the post and therefore in a different language than the image description. But I still have to transcribe it.

    Now, according to image-describing rules, text must always be transcribed 100% verbatim. Word by word, character by character, exactly identical to the original in the image.

    Here's the catch: Screen reader software may not be able to reliably switch the language in which they read out text in the middle of a description. They definitely cannot switch the language in the middle of an alt-text, I know that, just like they cannot navigate within alt-text.

    This means that if I describe an image in English, but there's French text somewhere, a screen reader may read it out as gobbledygook instead of proper French. It may read the French text like it's English.

    But even if the screen reader did read out the French text in proper French, someone who doesn't understand French won't understand the text.

    This leaves me with two options:
    • Transcribe the foreign-language text verbatim, add a translation afterwards.
      This would make the foreign-language text understandable, but it would also produce gobbledygook.
    • Give a translated transcript of the foreign-language text that's as close to the original as possible.
      No gobbledygook, but I'd break the rule of always transcribing text verbatim.

    The latter option would produce weird results if applied to a sign with essentially the same text in French, English and German where the French and German texts translate into something that slightly differs from both each other and the English text. I've happened upon this before.

    #Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #FediMeta #FediverseMeta #CWFediMeta #CWFediverseMeta #ImageDescription #ImageDescriptions #ImageDescriptionMeta #CWImageDescriptionMeta #Transcript #Transcripts #ScreenReader #ScreenReaders #ForeignLanguage #Inclusion #A11y #Accessibility
    #cwimagedescriptionmeta #imagedescriptionmeta #imagedescriptions #imagedescription #cwfediversemeta #foreignlanguage
  3. Jupiter Rowland @[email protected] ·
    CW: Account getting away with way subpar alt-texts only because it's too niche with too few followers; CW: long (over 1,700 characters), Fediverse meta, alt-text meta, image description meta, character limit meta
    I've just discovered a certain Mastodon account that seems to automatically post images of Second Life avatars. It can be lucky to only have eight followers, one of them being a search engine, the others being Second Life users.

    If it had more follower, it would certainly already have met the wrath of the wider Mastodon community, especially the Mastodon HOA, for breaking Mastodon's unwritten rules.

    And I'm not even talking about nigh-nudity in some of the images with no warning, no image flagging, no hashtag. I'm talking about the alt-texts that are vastly below Mastodon's requirements and quality standards for alt-texts.

    Granted, all things considered, the requirements for good image descriptions by Mastodon's standards have to be extremely hard and tedious to meet, at least by my personal estimations. In fact, they have to be impossible to meet on Mastodon itself due to its tiny character limit, and if this account was somewhere where it could meet these requirements, it'd probably be blocked by loads of Mastodon accounts for its excessively long posts due to the long image descriptions.

    But if more Mastodon users knew it right now, it'd probably be blocked by many more Mastodon accounts than follow it.

    If you post from virtual worlds into the Fediverse, you simply cannot win in the long run. You'll lose either way.

    #SecondLife #Metaverse #VirtualWorld #VirtualWorlds #Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #FediMeta #FediverseMeta #CWFediMeta #CWFediverseMeta #AltText #AltTextMeta #CWAltTextMeta #ImageDescription #ImageDescriptions #ImageDescriptionMeta #CWImageDescriptionMeta #CharacterLimit #CharacterLimits #CharacterLimitMeta #CWCharacterLimitMeta #Mastodon #MastodonHOA #MastodonCulture
    #cwimagedescriptionmeta #imagedescriptionmeta #cwcharacterlimitmeta #characterlimitmeta #imagedescriptions #imagedescription
  4. Jupiter Rowland @[email protected] ·
    @iolaire This is my personal analysis of the AI-generated image description, quote-posted from my original comment in the thread linked in my first comment:

    RE: https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/display/451d2f06-7746-4227-a043-76a959420c29

    (6/6)

    #Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #QuotePost #QuoteTweet #QuoteToot #QuoteBoost #ImageDescription #ImageDescriptions #ImageDescriptionMeta #CWImageDescriptionMeta #AI #LLaVA #AIVsHuman #HumanVsAI
    #cwimagedescriptionmeta #imagedescriptionmeta #imagedescriptions #imagedescription #cwlongpost #quotetweet
  5. Jupiter Rowland @[email protected] ·
    @mausmalone
    The people who complain about it - honestly how many pictures are they posting every day? How many seconds of their life are they complaining about? Is it less than the amount of time they spend complaining?

    I've once spent over 100,000 seconds, that's some 30 hours, describing one image.

    Look up the hashtag #UniversalCampus on mastodon.social and scroll all the way down. There is that post in question.

    I've only sent one more post with original images since, and that was over a year ago. That post hasn't made it to mastodon.social, so here it is at the source.

    I've spent more time describing one image than anyone has spent complaining about having to describe images. And if I don't feel like spending hours describing an image, I don't even take images, much less post them. Easy as that.

    CC: @Anubi

    #Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #FediMeta #FediverseMeta #CWFediMeta #CWFediverseMeta #AltText #AltTextMeta #CWAltTextMeta #ImageDescription #ImageDescriptions #ImageDescriptionMeta #CWImageDescriptionMeta
    #cwimagedescriptionmeta #imagedescriptionmeta #imagedescriptions #imagedescription #universalcampus #cwfediversemeta
  6. Jupiter Rowland @[email protected] ·
    Are you referring to my mentions being @Erik :heart_agender: and @Roknrol rather than what you're used to, namely @⁠bright_helpings and @⁠roknrol? Using the long name rather than the short name and keeping the @ outside the link rather than making it part of the link? Likewise, the # being outside the hashtag link rather than being part of it?

    This is because I'm not on Mastodon. The Fediverse is not only Mastodon. It has never been. So this is not a toot.

    No, really. This is what I post from: https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/channel/jupiter_rowland, https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/profile/jupiter_rowland. I ask you: Does this look like Mastodon? Have you ever seen Mastodon look like this?

    Where I am, this style of mentions and hashtags is hard-coded. And it has been since long before Mastodon was even an idea.

    I'm on something named Hubzilla. Hubzilla is not a Mastodon instance. Hubzilla is not a Mastodon fork either. Hubzilla has got absolutely nothing to do with Mastodon at all.

    It is its very own project, fully independent from Mastodon (https://hubzilla.org, https://framagit.org/hubzilla, https://joinfediverse.wiki/Hubzilla).

    Hubzilla has not intruded into "the Mastodon Fediverse" either. The Fediverse is older than Mastodon. And Hubzilla was there before Mastodon.

    Hubzilla was launched by @Mike Macgirvin ?️ in March, 2015, eight months before Mastodon, by renaming and redesigning his own Red Matrix from 2012, almost four years before Mastodon. And the Red Matrix was a fork of a fork of his own Friendica, which was launched on July 2nd, 2010, 15 years ago, five and a half years before Mastodon. (https://en.wikipedia.org/Friendica, https://friendi.ca, https://github.com/friendica, https://joinfediverse.wiki/Friendica)

    Friendica was there before Mastodon, too.

    Here's the official Friendica/Hubzilla timeline on Hubzilla's official website to show you that I'm not making anything up: https://hubzilla.org/page/info/timeline. Scroll all the way down and notice all the features that you may right now know for a fact that the Fediverse doesn't have, but that Friendica has introduced to the Fediverse 15 years ago, five and a half years before Mastodon was launched.

    Again, Mastodon has never been its own network. The Fediverse has never been only Mastodon. When Mastodon was launched in January, 2016, it immediately federated with

    Friendica has been formatting mentions and hashtags the way I just did for 15 years now. When Mastodon was launched, Friendica has been formatting them that way for five and a half years already, and Hubzilla has done so for ten months. It is hard-coded there. It is not a user option.

    That's because not everything in the Fediverse is a Twitter clone or Twitter alternative. [b]Friendica was designed as a Facebook alternative with full-blown long-form blogging capability. And Hubzilla adds even more stuff to this. This is why Friendica and Hubzilla don't mimic Twitter.

    Another shocking fact: As you can clearly see here, Friendica and Hubzilla don't have Mastodon's 500-character limit. Friendica's character limit is 200,000. Hubzilla's character limit is 16,777,215, the maximum length of the database field. And it's deeply engrained in their culture, which is many years older than Mastodon's culture, to not worry about the length of a post exceeding 500 characters.

    One more shocking fact: Friendica has had quote-posts since its very beginning. So has Hubzilla. Both have always been able to quote-post any public Mastodon toot, and they will forever remain able to quote-post any public Mastodon toot. And Mastodon will never be able to do anything against it. (By the way: In 15 years of Friendica, nobody has ever used quote-posts for dogpiling or harassment purposes. Neither Friendica nor Hubzilla is Twitter.)

    You find this disturbing? You think none of this should exist in the Fediverse, even though all this has been in the Fediverse for longer than Mastodon?

    Then go ahead and block all instances of Friendica and Hubzilla as well as all instances of Mike's later creations, (streams) (https://codeberg.org/streams/streams) from 2021 and Forte (https://codeberg.org/fortified/forte) from 2024.

    Or you could go ask @Seirdy / DM me the word "bread" and @Garden Fence Blocklist as well as @Mad Villain of @The Bad Space to add every last instance on any of these lists to their blocklists for being "rampantly and unabashedly ableist and xenophobic by design" due to not being and acting and working like Mastodon and just as rampantly and unabashedly refusing to fully adopt and adapt to the Mastodon-centric "Fediverse culture" as defined by fresh Twitter refugees on Mastodon in mid-2022 as well as refusing to abandon their own culture which is disturbingly incompatible with Mastodon's. Essentially try and have four entire Fediverse server applications Fediblocked once and for all because they're so disturbing from a "Fediverse equals Mastodon" point of view.

    Or you could go to Mastodon's GitHub repository (https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon), submit a feature request for defederating Mastodon from everything that isn't Mastodon by design and then go lobbying for support for your feature request.

    As for why I have so many hashtags below my comments, here is what they mean. Many of them are meant to trigger filters, including such that automatically hide posts behind content warning buttons, a feature that Mastodon has had since October, 2022, that Friendica has had since July, 2010, and that Hubzilla has had since March, 2015.

    • #Long, #LongPost = This post is over 500 characters long. Create a filter for either or both of these hashtags if you don't want to see my or anyone else's long posts.
    • #CWLong, #CWLongPost = CW: long post (over 500 characters long). Create a filter for either or both of these hashtags if you don't want to see my or anyone else's long posts.
    • #FediMeta, #FediverseMeta = This post talks about the Fediverse. Create a filter for either or both of these hashtags if you don't want to see me or anyone talk about the Fediverse.
    • #CWFediMeta, #CWFediverseMeta = CW: Fediverse meta. Or: CW: Fediverse meta, Fediverse-beyond-Mastodon meta. Or: CW: Fediverse meta, non-Mastodon Fediverse meta. Create a filter for either or both of these hashtags if you don't want to see me or anyone talk about the Fediverse.
    • #NotOnlyMastodon, #FediverseIsNotMastodon, #MastodonIsNotTheFediverse: This post talks about the Fediverse not only being Mastodon. Create a filter for either or multiple or all of these hashtags if you don't want to see me or anyone else talk about the Fediverse being more than Mastodon. Otherwise, click or tap any of these hashtags to read more about it in your Fediverse app.
    • #Friendica: This post talks about the Facebook alternative in the Fediverse named Friendica. Create a filter for it if you don't want to see me or anyone else talk about Friendica. Otherwise, click or tap it to read more about it in your Fediverse app. It is also meant for post discovery.
    • #Hubzilla: This post talks about the Swiss army knif of the Fediverse named Hubzilla. Create a filter for it if you don't want to see me or anyone else talk about Hubzilla. Otherwise, click or tap it to read more about it in your Fediverse app. It is also meant for post discovery.
    • #Streams, #(streams): This post talks about the Facebook alternative in the Fediverse commonly referred to as (streams). Create a filter for either or both of them if you don't want to see me or anyone else talk about Friendica. Otherwise, click or tap either of them to read more about it in your Fediverse app. It is also meant for post discovery.
    • #Forte: This post talks about the Facebook alternative in the Fediverse named Forte. Create a filter for it if you don't want to see me or anyone else talk about Forte. Otherwise, click or tap it to read more about it in your Fediverse app. It is also meant for post discovery.
    • #AltText = This post talks about alt-text and/or contains an image with alt-text. It is primarily meant for post discovery.
    • #AltTextMeta = This post talks about alt-text. Create a filter for this hashtag if you don't want to see me or anyone else talk about alt-text.
    • #CWAltTextMeta = CW: alt-text meta. Create a filter for this hashtag if you don't want to see me or anyone else talk about alt-text.
    • #ImageDescription = This post talks about image descriptions and/or contains an image with an image description. It is primarily meant for post discovery.
    • #ImageDescriptions, #ImageDescriptionMeta = This post talks about image descriptions. Create a filter for either of these hashtags if you don't want to see me or anyone else talk about image descriptions.
    • #CWImageDescriptionMeta = CW: image description meta. Create a filter for this hashtag if you don't want to see me or anyone else talk about image descriptions.
    • #Hashtag, #Hashtags, #HashtagMeta = This post talks about hashtags. Create a filter for either of these hashtags if you don't want to see me or anyone else talk about hashtags.
    • #CWHashtagMeta = CW: hashtag meta. Create a filter for this hashtag if you don't want to see me or anyone else talk about hashtags.
    • #CharacterLimit, #CharacterLimits = This post is talking about character limits. It is primarily meant for post discovery. But if you don't want to see me or anyone else talk about character limits, create a filter for any of these hashtags.
    • #QuotePost, #QuoteTweet, #QuoteToot, #QuoteBoost = This post talks about quote-posts and/or contains a quote-post. If this disturbs you, create a filter for any of these hashtags.
    • #QuotePosts, #QuoteTweets, #QuoteToots, #QuoteBoosts, #QuotedShares = This post talks about quote-posts. Create a filter for either of these hashtags if you don't want to see me or anyone else talk about quote-posts.
    • #QuotePostDebate, #QuoteTootDebate = This post talks about quote-posts. Create a filter for either of these hashtags if you don't want to see me or anyone else talk about quote-posts.
    • #FediblockMeta = This post is talking about fediblocks. It is primarily meant for post discovery.

    Lastly: Having all hashtags in one line at the very end of a post that only contains hashtags is the preferred way in the Fediverse. For one, hashtags in their own line at the end of the post irritate screen reader users much less than hashtags in the middle of the text. It's actually hashtags in the middle of the text that are ableist. Besides, Mastodon is explicitly designed to have a separate hashtag line at the end of the post.
    #mastodonisnotthefediverse #fediverseisnotmastodon #cwimagedescriptionmeta #imagedescriptionmeta #imagedescriptions #imagedescription
  7. Mx Verda @[email protected] ·

    Jfc I got a lot of mileage out of one goddamn screenshot but hey!
    My b/Blind and vision-impaired or sight-loss fellows shall feast tonight!

    … If any of you care about niche multi-layered terminology for humorous agenerational interconnective co-created commentary on base genuine media, surprises, commentary, and intersections of such!

    You goddamn linguistic nerds!!

    Ooh, I feel like youtube.com/watch?v=YrHGbCyAqO is structurally related.
    OMG. THAT’S HOW ADHD BRAINS CONNECT IDEAS.

    youtube.com/watch?v=cQKGUgOfD8

    AuHD or AudHD (urgh, I hate that initialism) people connect ideas by their structural relevance (and personal ascription of importance).
    And, apparently, Neurotypical, neuro default, or neuro expected people connect ideas by narrative relevance! And, frankly, also how much importance they ascribe to the narrative, topic, or relevance.

    Omg I’m an edu blogger?! This is like finding out that non-binary gender was an option! Holy shit.

    #EaseOfAccess #Alt #ALT4you #ALT4me #alt4u #altText #imgDesc #ImageDescriptionMeta #ImageDescriptionPostMeta #omg #AGAIN #thisCallsFor #CrusherP #Crusher #Vocaloid #metaCommentary #IdidNotKnow #itWasVocaloid #forYears #blind #BlindFedi #BlindMasto #vision #VisionLoss #eyes #eyesight #visible #visibility #sensory #sensoryImpairment #sensoryLimit #sensoryLoad #sensoryOverload #information #InformationTechnology #InformationOverload #info #InfoTech #EduBlogger

    #blind #blindfedi #blindmasto #vision #visionloss #eyes
  8. Mx Verda @[email protected] ·

    Jfc I got a lot of mileage out of one goddamn screenshot but hey!
    My b/Blind and vision-impaired or sight-loss fellows shall feast tonight!

    … If any of you care about niche multi-layered terminology for humorous agenerational interconnective co-created commentary on base genuine media, surprises, commentary, and intersections of such!

    You goddamn linguistic nerds!!

    Ooh, I feel like youtube.com/watch?v=YrHGbCyAqO is structurally related.
    OMG. THAT’S HOW ADHD BRAINS CONNECT IDEAS.

    youtube.com/watch?v=cQKGUgOfD8

    AuHD or AudHD (urgh, I hate that initialism) people connect ideas by their structural relevance (and personal ascription of importance).
    And, apparently, Neurotypical, neuro default, or neuro expected people connect ideas by narrative relevance! And, frankly, also how much importance they ascribe to the narrative, topic, or relevance.

    Omg I’m an edu blogger?! This is like finding out that non-binary gender was an option! Holy shit.

    #EaseOfAccess #Alt #ALT4you #ALT4me #alt4u #altText #imgDesc #ImageDescriptionMeta #ImageDescriptionPostMeta #omg #AGAIN #thisCallsFor #CrusherP #Crusher #Vocaloid #metaCommentary #IdidNotKnow #itWasVocaloid #forYears #blind #BlindFedi #BlindMasto #vision #VisionLoss #eyes #eyesight #visible #visibility #sensory #sensoryImpairment #sensoryLimit #sensoryLoad #sensoryOverload #information #InformationTechnology #InformationOverload #info #InfoTech #EduBlogger

    #easeofaccess #alt #alt4you #alt4me #alt4u #alttext
  9. Mx Verda @[email protected] ·

    Jfc I got a lot of mileage out of one goddamn screenshot but hey!
    My b/Blind and vision-impaired or sight-loss fellows shall feast tonight!

    … If any of you care about niche multi-layered terminology for humorous agenerational interconnective co-created commentary on base genuine media, surprises, commentary, and intersections of such!

    You goddamn linguistic nerds!!

    Ooh, I feel like youtube.com/watch?v=YrHGbCyAqO is structurally related.
    OMG. THAT’S HOW ADHD BRAINS CONNECT IDEAS.

    youtube.com/watch?v=cQKGUgOfD8

    AuHD or AudHD (urgh, I hate that initialism) people connect ideas by their structural relevance (and personal ascription of importance).
    And, apparently, Neurotypical, neuro default, or neuro expected people connect ideas by narrative relevance! And, frankly, also how much importance they ascribe to the narrative, topic, or relevance.

    Omg I’m an edu blogger?! This is like finding out that non-binary gender was an option! Holy shit.

    #EaseOfAccess #Alt #ALT4you #ALT4me #alt4u #altText #imgDesc #ImageDescriptionMeta #ImageDescriptionPostMeta #omg #AGAIN #thisCallsFor #CrusherP #Crusher #Vocaloid #metaCommentary #IdidNotKnow #itWasVocaloid #forYears #blind #BlindFedi #BlindMasto #vision #VisionLoss #eyes #eyesight #visible #visibility #sensory #sensoryImpairment #sensoryLimit #sensoryLoad #sensoryOverload #information #InformationTechnology #InformationOverload #info #InfoTech #EduBlogger

    #blind #blindfedi #blindmasto #vision #visionloss #eyes
  10. Mx Verda @[email protected] ·

    Jfc I got a lot of mileage out of one goddamn screenshot but hey!
    My b/Blind and vision-impaired or sight-loss fellows shall feast tonight!

    … If any of you care about niche multi-layered terminology for humorous agenerational interconnective co-created commentary on base genuine media, surprises, commentary, and intersections of such!

    You goddamn linguistic nerds!!

    Ooh, I feel like youtube.com/watch?v=YrHGbCyAqO is structurally related.
    OMG. THAT’S HOW ADHD BRAINS CONNECT IDEAS.

    youtube.com/watch?v=cQKGUgOfD8

    AuHD or AudHD (urgh, I hate that initialism) people connect ideas by their structural relevance (and personal ascription of importance).
    And, apparently, Neurotypical, neuro default, or neuro expected people connect ideas by narrative relevance! And, frankly, also how much importance they ascribe to the narrative, topic, or relevance.

    Omg I’m an edu blogger?! This is like finding out that non-binary gender was an option! Holy shit.

    #EaseOfAccess #Alt #ALT4you #ALT4me #alt4u #altText #imgDesc #ImageDescriptionMeta #ImageDescriptionPostMeta #omg #AGAIN #thisCallsFor #CrusherP #Crusher #Vocaloid #metaCommentary #IdidNotKnow #itWasVocaloid #forYears #blind #BlindFedi #BlindMasto #vision #VisionLoss #eyes #eyesight #visible #visibility #sensory #sensoryImpairment #sensoryLimit #sensoryLoad #sensoryOverload #information #InformationTechnology #InformationOverload #info #InfoTech #EduBlogger

    #edublogger #infotech #info #informationoverload #informationtechnology #information
  11. Jupiter Rowland @[email protected] ·
    @Danie van der Merwe
    Given that, I'm not sure how long a screen reader takes to read 40,000 character alt-text per image?

    Don't make the old mistake of taking "alt-text" and "image description" for being mutually 100% synonymous. Alt-text can be more than image description, and an image description does not always go into the alt-text.

    The 40,000 characters don't go into the alt-text. If they did, Mastodon would chop 38,500 characters off and throw them away, as would Misskey and all forks of both.

    The 40,000 characters go into the post text body. The toot, if you want. Where you have a limit of 500 characters, I have none at all. On Hubzilla, which supports in-line embedding of images, they go directly below the images.

    Into the alt-text goes a second, different, separate, independent, much shorter image description.

    Each one of my images usually has two descriptions. One full, long, detailed description with all explanations and transcripts in the post text body. One significantly shorter description in the alt-text.

    The long description in the post text body is there to deliver all necessary information without Mastodon, Glitch, Ecko, Hometown, Misskey, Firefish, Iceshrimp, Sharkey, Catodon etc. etc. putting the axe to it at the 1,500-character mark.

    The short description in the alt-text is there to satisfy those Mastodon users who absolutely demand there be an actually sufficient image description in the alt-text, no matter how. Even if there already is a much longer image description in the post.

    After all, they can't see the image description in the post. The post is hidden behind a content warning because it is longer than 500 characters. I always put all posts that exceed 500 characters behind a Mastodon-style content warning that starts with a StatusNet/Friendica/Hubzilla-style summary of the post, followed at least by "CW: long post (<number of characters in the post, raw count> characters)".

    Sometimes I take the extra effort upon me to specify how many of these characters are actual post, and how many are image description, which makes it clear right away that there is an image description behind that CW.

    What I always do is to the alt-text the extra information that a longer, more detailed image description with explanations and text transcripts can be found in the post.

    Depending on how much room the short image description leaves me in the alt-text, I also add where exactly the long image description can be found. And that's two different locations, depending on whether you're on something that supports in-line images (e.g. Pleroma, Akkoma, Friendica, Hubzilla, (streams)) or not (e.g. Mastodon, Misskey and their forks).

    The rest of us can just look at the image so we won't use alt-text as we read the post that accompanies the image for context.

    On Mastodon, you'll only see the image and a content warning at first. The content warning starts with a summary, unusual for Mastodon, but standard on Hubzilla. Then it warns you about the post being long, including how long the post is. That'll most likely be a five-digit number.

    When you open the content warning, you'll see a few hundred or a very few thousands characters of actual post text. Then, after two blank lines, comes the long image description, still in the post. And that's usually several tens of thousands of characters. If the post is recent enough, the image description is announced by a HTML headline so even those who don't have images in the post know where the actual post text ends and the long image description begins.

    If you want to know from personal experience what an image post of mine looks like on Mastodon, search for the hashtag #UniversalCampus. The second or third post from the top is a good example. It has a long image description in the post text body of not 40,000, but over 60,000 characters, my longest to date. The alt-text is precisely 1,500 characters long, 1,402 of which are image description.

    By the way, this is what the self-same post looks like on Hubzilla.

    An example with multiple images can be found under the hashtag #OSFest2023. You have to scroll down until you find a post whose content warning starts with the summary, "Classic creations by Arcadia Asylum a.k.a. Lora Lemon/Aley at OpenSimFest 2023". This one is hopelessly outdated now, by the way.

    This is the Hubzilla original.

    #Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #AltText #AltTextMeta #CWAltTextMeta #ImageDescription #ImageDescriptions #ImageDescriptionMeta #CWImageDescriptionMeta
    #cwimagedescriptionmeta #imagedescriptionmeta #imagedescriptions #imagedescription #universalcampus #cwalttextmeta