Do vient cette immense douceur (Supervielle)
Do vient cette immense douceur (Supervielle)
Illustration: David Caspar Friedrich D'o vient cette immense douceurQui m'enveloppe au crpuscule,Quand le chant des oiseaux reculeDevant le calme et la langueurDu crpuscule l'heure o le ciel plein d'amourVient bercer notre me trouble,A l'heure o s'arrte l'ide,L'heure mauve ou le ciel est lourdD'immense amour Quand l'eucalyptus long et sombrelve aux cieux son front sereinEt le calme dont il est plein,Quand merge du fond de 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.
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.
I don't want to alarm you, but:
Friendica ( ) has introduced full-text search to what would become the Fediverse as early as May, 2010.
Hubzilla ( ) inherited this feature from Friendica. Hubzilla first came out in March, 2015.
For reference: Mastodon first came out in January, 2016. It immediately federated with Friendica and Hubzilla. In case you don't believe this: Take a look at my profile on its home server. Does that look like Mastodon
The Fediverse has full-text search right now, and it has had full-text search for five years and eight months longer than Mastodon has even existed. This is the status quo.
If you want your content to be private, don't make it public in the first place.
PAUVRE PETIT TROTTIN (Supervielle)
PAUVRE PETIT TROTTINIl fait froid. L'ouvrire en la salle alourdie,Coud ternellement de sa tremblante main,Fatigue de souffrir, et, la journe finie,Elle a bien peu d'argent pour acheter son pain.Pauvre petit trottin !..Il fait nuit. L'ouvrire en la rue triste tousseRegagne son logis aprs un long chemin.Dans sa petite chambre elle s'endort enfinMais il y fait trop froid pour la rverie douce.Pauvre petit trottin !Enfin voil la grve. Hlas! c'estLOUBLI (Supervielle)
L'OUBLIChaque jour de mon cur emporte quelque chose,Une fleur d'autrefois ou un rve d'antanEt je voudrais chasser cet oubli qui s'impose,Mais je m'en aperois alors qu'il n'est plus temps.L'oubli, l'affreux oubli, m'engloutit dans le vide,Il tue mes passions, mes rves, mes amours,Quand je veux retrouver le pass des beaux jours,Je revois sa place un squelette rigide.Chaque jour de mon coeur emporte quelque chose.Je croyais y avoir deux tristes yeuxSOUVENIR (Supervielle)
Illustration: Edward John Poynter SOUVENIR Mademoiselle A. O.Les doux soirs de printemps que je passais prs d'elleOnt laiss dans mon me un radieux azur,S'largissant toujours et s'ouvrant comme l'aileD'un grand aigle planant calme dans le ciel pur.Les brises, doucement, passaient chaudes et lentes,Des tideurs parfumes erraient vagues dans l'air,Les fleurs exhalaient des longues senteurs aimantes,Qui montaient et mouraient comme l'eau de la mer.LesJust uploaded this cut. Raining to Second Song by Neil Young The Chrome Hearts. A very expressive tune. Time to rock. Check it out:
Fr mich wre es Overkill, jeden, der sich mit mir verbinden will, wo mir aber irgendwas nicht pat, sofort in Superblock einzutragen.Da stehen eigentlich nur solche, die entweder versucht haben, mir gegenber ihre Mastodon-Zentrizitt und ihre Mastodon-Kulturnormen gewaltsam durchzusetzen, oder mich geblockt haben, weil sie genau daran gescheitert sind.
Ansonsten verbinde ich mich kurz mit ihnen, um ihre Folgeanfrage zu besttigen, aber schon mit limiterten Berechtigungen und aktivem Filter, und lsche die Verbindung gleich wieder. Folgen tun sie mir dann ja weiterhin.
Oder wenn ich mit ihnen verbunden bleiben mu, gibt's eben gewisse Berechtigungen nicht, oder ich filtere gnadenlos alles raus, was mich nicht interessiert.
Das kann jede Menge Grnde haben.
- Dein Profiltext ist fr Mastodon-Verhltnisse unnatrlich lang.
- Dito, aber das Mastodon-Webinterface (da solche Leute sich dein Profil auf Friendica angucken, ist sehr unwahrscheinlich) hat deinen Profiltext kurzgehackt. Doof. Block.
- Dein Profiltext zeigt nicht die mastodontypische Freundlichkeit und auch keine mastodontypische Unfreundlichkeit.
- Du hast tatschlich in deinem Profil keine Felder ausgefllt, die Mastodon bernimmt. Fr denjenigen hattest du also bis auf das Bild ein Blankoprofil.
- Derjenige hat sich tatschlich die Mhe gemacht, dein Profil im Original anzugucken. Das war aber kein Mastodon. Das konnte nicht mit rechten Dingen zugehen. Block.
Ernsthaft: Wenn du dich im Fediverse nicht absolut wie ein typischer Mastodon-User verhltst und auch dein Profil nicht so auslegst, da es auf Mastodon wie ein Mastodon-Profil aussieht, dann wirst du gleich massenhaft geblockt.
Moment, mal langsam.
Es drfen nie Informationen ausschlielich im Alt-Text verfgbar sein! Keine Erklrungen und auch sonst nichts.
Alles an schriftlichen Informationen, was fr sehende Menschen nicht aus dem Bild direkt ersichtlich ist, gehrt in den Beitragstext.
Der Grund ist: Es gibt Menschen, die an Alt-Texte nicht herankommen.
Man braucht ja, um an einen Alt-Text heranzukommen, einen Touchscreen oder so etwas wie eine Maus. Manche Menschen knnen aber aufgrund krperlicher Behinderungen beides nur schlecht oder gar nicht bedienen, z. B., weil sie einen sehr starken Tremor haben (Parkinson o. .) oder gleich berhaupt keine Hnde. Trotzdem knnen sie einen Computer bedienen. Aber sie knnen eben keine kleine "Alt"-Schaltflche klicken oder tippen und auch keinen Mauscursor auf ein Bild schieben und ihn da liegenlassen.
Andere haben selbstauferlegte technische Einschrnkungen. Manche Hardcore-Linux-Nutzer haben sich entschieden fr einen super-leichtgewichtigen, spartanischen Fenstermanager wie i3wm oder ratpoison, der aber keine Untersttzung fr eine Maus hat. Es drfte aber wohl kein Web-Frontend im Fediverse geben, wo man den Alt-Text eines Bildes mit einem Tastatur-Shortcut ffnen kann.
Was im Alt-Text steht, knnen diese Menschen nicht lesen, weil sie den Alt-Text gar nicht erst ffnen knnen. Das heit: Informationen, die nur im Alt-Text stehen, sind ihnen verwehrt.
Ich arbeite schon seit lngerem an einem Wiki zum Thema Bildbeschreibungen und Alt-Texte im Fediverse/fr das Fediverse. Es wird sehr umfangreich werden mit gut 30 Kriterien fr gute Alt-Texte und Bildbeschreibungen.
Allerdings ist das Wiki auf Englisch und noch ziemlich unfertig. Auf Deutsch kann ich es schon deshalb nicht schreiben, weil die ber 50 Referenzen, die ich dafr verwende, auch alle auf Englisch sind und es keine deutschsprachigen Pendants dazu mit denselben Informationen gibt.
Bei einigen Punkten wei ich selbst noch gar nicht, was ich da schreiben soll. Da widersprechen sich die Anforderungen auch schon mal (z. B. Texte mssen immer Zeichen fr Zeichen exakt originalgetreu transkribiert werden vs. barrierefreie Handhabung von komplett oder in Teilen fremdsprachigen Texten).
Vielleicht knnte auch etwas verwirrend sein, da ich zwischen "Alt-Text" und "Bildbeschreibung" unterscheide. Aber das ist tatschlich nicht dasselbe, was auch im Wiki erklrt ist. Also behandle ich es getrennt.
Auerdem ist das Wiki nicht nur auf Mastodon zugeschnitten. Vor allem wird es keine Schritt-fr-Schritt-Anleitungen fr die Mastodon-Weboberflche (oder irgendwelche anderen Weboberflchen) und fr Mastodon-Apps geben. Der eine oder andere Tip wird sogar auf Mastodon schwierig bis gar nicht umsetzbar sein.
Falls dich das Wiki trotzdem interessiert: Es ist Teil des Hubzilla-Kanals, von dem ich gerade antworte.
LES SAISONS ET LES LVRES (Supervielle)
LES SAISONS ET LES LVRESLe Printemps est un doux sourireQu'illumine un rayon dor,L'ouragan se change en zphyre,Lorsqu'il est las d'avoir pleur.L't de baisers plus brlantsUnit les lvres demi-closes,Et tous les curs sont palpitantsAux senteurs des lys et des roses.Les lvres unies se dtachentEn l'Automne, et les souvenirsDes ivresses passes se cachentEn longs et langoureux soupirs.Mais les yeux se couvrent de pleurs,L'Hiver, lesYou mention better alternatives to Facebook, what do you suggest
Friendica if you're looking for something that isn't that overwhelming, if you're looking for something with native Android apps available (don't ask for iOS apps for anything here), and if you can live without features like polls or nomadic identity.
Hubzilla if you think you can tackle a steep learning curve with some help from a very good user documentation and a helpful community, if you want Facebook with a side of optional CMS and/or groupware features, if you need nomadic identity to make your channel(s) resilient against server issues and shutdowns, and if you don't mind using the Web interface on a phone.
(streams) and Forte if you need something that's a bit more fit for today's Fediverse, if you need something nomadic without Hubzilla's extra features, if you don't mind using the Web interface on a phone, and if you're willing to wait for more public servers or willing to run one yourself.
I have a number of comparison tables that include Mastodon as well.
What I don't like about this draft is that it communicates the existence of exactly four alternatives, two to WhatsApp and Telegram, one to Instagram and, I guess, one to literally everything else.
Oh, and by the way, no, Mastodon is not a good alternative to Facebook. There are dedicated Facebook alternatives in the Fediverse that are much closer to Facebook in functionality than Mastodon right now.
Add your location to a Google Map This does not entirely apply to the whole Fediverse. To most of the Fediverse, including Mastodon, but not to all of it.
Some server applications offer something called nomadic identity (). Your identity is defined by one server, but it is not permanently stuck to that server. And all your stuff can not only be moved around from server to server, but even exist on multiple servers simultaneously, constantly kept in sync with each other.
This isn't even new. It was first introduced on a fork of a Friendica fork named Red in 2012. Four Fediverse server applications offer it now:
- Hubzilla, which is what became of Red in 2015 it's based on the Zot6 protocol, but it can also speak ActivityPub
- (streams), a Hubzilla descendant it's based on the Nomad protocol, but it also speaks ActivityPub
- Forte, a direct (streams) fork it's based on ActivityPub it was the first server application to implement nomadic identity with ActivityPub
- Tootik, the only one that isn't related to Friendica/Hubzilla it's based on ActivityPub, but it's in the GeminiSpace and not in the World-Wide Web
There's also Mitra that uses a special client, Mini Mitra, to establish nomadic identity on the client side.
Nomadic identity goes way beyond what the ATmosphere promises. The ATmosphere does not give you the option to clone your identity between independent relay/AppView stacks. If you're on bsky.app, and bsky.app is down, you have nothing, and you can't do anything to mitigate this. This Hubzilla channel is cloned between two servers. If one goes down, I still have the other one.
This can't work, and for one particular reason. And you should actually know this reason after eight years in the Fediverse:
The Fediverse is not only Mastodon. It's far from being only Mastodon.
It isn't 10,000 servers running one application. It's 40,000+ servers running over 150 different applications. And I'm not talking about Mastodon and otherwise Mastodon forks either.
From your words, I can clearly see that you want the whole Fediverse to be moderated by Mastodon standards.
But then you have Mastodon mods who are "based and Mastodon-pilled", and for whom the Fediverse either is or shall be only Mastodon. These mods moderate Friendica or Hubzilla or (streams) or Forte servers by Mastodon's standards. Which, by the way, not only clash with the culture on these servers, but even with the technology on these servers. Friendica works a whole lot differently from Mastodon Hubzilla, (streams) and Forte even more so.
Oh, and especially Hubzilla, (streams) and Forte don't even have the concept of moderators. I'm absolutely serious here. They don't have Mastodon's concept of reports. Why not Because they're geared towards self-moderation. Everyone is given the power to moderate their own channels. Unimaginable on Mastodon, also because this involves technologies and features that are unimaginable on Mastodon such as the most advanced permissions systems in the whole Fediverse. Mastodon's culture is about being pampered and coddled. The culture on these three is about self-defence.
Also: You can't force Mastodon-style Mastodon moderation upon a (streams) server. You can try. But you won't succeed. The server admin won't let you. Again, I'm dead-serious here.
Unlike on Mastodon, a (streams) admin has various counter-measures available to get rid of your Mastodon mod.
- They could activate the User Agent Filter and add "mastodon" to the filter list. Bam, all of Mastodon blocked, all present and future servers, in-bound and out-bound.
- They could activate FedUp which blocks everything that doesn't support enclosed threaded conversations, and Mastodon doesn't, so Mastodon is blocked, too.
- If everything else fails, they could turn ActivityPub support off for the whole server, thus cutting everything off that isn't (streams) or Hubzilla. (This, by the way, is even available to individual users.)
Stuff like this, by the way, Mastodon forcing its culture upon the non-Mastodon Fediverse, is the very reason why (streams) and Forte have built-in ways to defend themselves against Mastodon. And this is one reason why Hubzilla sticks to ActivityPub being optional on each channel.
Back to the Mastodon mods. They'll probably only know Mastodon. More importantly, they probably won't know anything about groups. They'll probably think the Fediverse doesn't even have groups. They'll only know users following other users.
And then they'll have to moderate on Lemmy. They'll have to moderate a group. Something they didn't even expect to exist. In a place where users can't follow other users, only subscribe to groups, because it's essentially a Reddit clone.
Worse yet, they'll have to moderate a Lemmy community with 10,000 members. All of whom are former Redditors. All of whom live by a culture that's directly derived from Reddit with no influence from Twitter or Mastodon at all. None of whom have ever been on Twitter or Mastodon. Almost none of whom even know that Mastodon exists. And many of whom have their experiences with power-tripping Lemmy moderators, so if you think they're easy to rein in with a culture that isn't theirs, you're very wrong.
(Greetings from Hubzilla.)
I guess that, more often than not, the only new developments that are widely welcome are those that happen on Mastodon, that still don't make Mastodon feel different, and that don't introduce features to Mastodon that are (considered) bad on .
This alone is the reason why many Mastodon admins hold on to older Mastodon versions for their dear lives: They want to boycott new Mastodon features which they don't like, but they don't have what it takes to soft-fork or even only hard-fork Mastodon and remove the new features.
Now, when it comes to developments in the Fediverse outside of Mastodon, they tend to be even more nerve-grating for Mastodon users because they often aren't in line with Mastodon and its culture at all. That is, many Mastodon users don't even notice that these features exist unless these features directly hit their timeline. But once they do, they're considered bad new developments even though they've actually been around for much longer than Mastodon itself.
For example, quote-posts and full-text search. Mastodon users tend to be staunchly against both because they're used to harass and dogpile minorities on . If at all, they're only okay with these if they come with an opt-in, and/or if server admins can turn them off entirely.
If only they knew that Friendica has had both since May, 2010, five years and eight months longer than Mastodon has even existed. That Friendica has been search-indexing and able to quote-post any public Mastodon toot since Mastodon's very launch. I guess they'd demand the immediate destruction of Friendica or at least its complete and permanent defederation.
Great evening here in atlanta hitting a few long irons
DSC8760 by samjstone
New post: The Standing Order
-Term-Care -Home
Amour Profond et Vritable (Liu Guo)
Amour Profond et VritableAmour profond, sentiments vritables,Sourcils longs, tempes dun noir profond.Dans le petit pavillon, sous la lune claire, elle joue du luth,voquant quelques notes de vent printanier.Je pense toi, je me souviens de toi,Mon me tenlace, mes rves tenserrent.Lcran de jade, o se dissipent les parfums,Ne peut supporter mon rveil aprs livresse.***NYX (Catherine Pozzi)
Illustration: Gustave Moreau NYX Louise aussi de Lyon et dItalie vous mes nuits, noires attendues pays fier, secrets obstins longs regards, foudroyantes nues vol permis outre les cieux ferms. grand dsir, surprise pandue beau parcours de lesprit enchant pire mal, grce descendue porte ouverte o nul navait passJe ne sais pas pourquoi je meurs et noieAvant dentrer lternel sjour.Je ne sais pasVisi danced and pranced around, doing an old routine she did back in high school. It turned out, even after several years ago now, she could still remember and DO all the moves! All those stretches really kept her limber!
Sam Barlow is back at live-action horror
Long before Netflix jumped into interactive movies, this indie dev was already crafting unique experiences with real actors, breaking the fourth wall, and giving players actual agency.
And now he looks ready to drop another masterpiece. Stay tuned
Maybe I haven't told you this yet, but:Explanations do not belong into the alt-text!
Alt-text must never contain exclusive information that's neither in the post text nor visible to sighted users in the image.
That's because, just like there are people who cannot see the image, there are people who cannot access alt-text. Be it because of physical disabilities (they don't have at least one sufficiently working hand which is a hard requirement for accessing alt-text), be it because of technical limitations (*nix window managers like i3 or ratpoison don't support pointing devices of any kind, so there's no mouse cursor that could hover over an image).
Any explanations or other information that's only in the alt-text is inaccessible to these people.
Therefore, explanations, creator credits, license information and other extra information always go into the message text!
Reference link if you don't believe me: by
Reference posts from someone who actually can't access alt-texts:
RE:
RE:
RE:
RE:
RE:
Lydia Ko really drives the head low and long through the impact zone.
Longnose Butterflyfish, aka Lauwiliwili nukunuku oi oi, at an . Your
Prints available - DM me.
I've noticed that Hubzilla 11.4 handles mentions and hashtags (closer to) the Twitter way instead of the Identi.ca way now. The# became part of the link (, , for example).I wouldn't cry out "pandering to Mastodon" now. I don't think this happened in the same vein as Forte giving the choice between starting an enclosed conversation and starting a microblogging-style loose thread. After all, it's vanilla Mastodon out of all microblogging applications that handles the old Identi.ca way quite gracefully. And even what didn't work as intended didn't cause a big mess instead either.
Other Fediverse applications are way less prepared for this. From the Mastodon fork Glitch to all the *keys and, I think, the *omas, not only can't they handle the Identi.ca way, but they tend to fail rather ungracefully because they don't even expect anything else than the Twitter way. Especially on Misskey, this has been recognised as a bug in 2024 already, and nothing much has happened in terms of fixing it. Of course, all the Forkeys have inherited the bug, and I think none of them has fixed it instead of waiting for upstream Misskey to fix it. I'm not even sure if Iceshrimp.NET, a complete rewrite in C#, hasn't re-implemented it.
I mean, if lots of Fediverse server applications render Hubzilla's old "#" (with the number sign outside the link, the Identi.ca way) as its Markdown representation, "#Hashtag()", and people keep complaining, then someone has to step in and put an end to this mess. And lots of fingers were pointing at Hubzilla. While tens of thousands of Mastodon accounts blocked Hubzilla channels for their long posts, hundreds of *key accounts blocked Hubzilla channels for how completely messed up their hashtags came out.
Also, unless I'm completely wrong, the first Fediverse server application that handled mentions and hashtags the Twitter way rather than the Identi.ca way wasn't Mastodon either it was GNU social, itself a fork of StatusNet, the software that used to power Identi.ca before its switch to pump.io.
So this wasn't a case of Hubzilla acting up on Mastodon. It was a case of Hubzilla acting up across at least half the Fediverse, Mastodon actually largely excluded.
That is, it may still worry you that Hubzilla whose foundation was laid in May, 2012, based on Friendica which is another two years older, adapted to software which came later instead of playing the "we were here first" card. A whole lot of software which came later and which was largely created independently from Mastodon (although both Mastodon and Pleroma started their lives as something akin to alternative frontends for GNU social), but still.
By the way, don't Friendica, (streams) and Forte still cause the same issue Especially Forte that has actually started pandering to Mastodon as of late
I've noticed that Hubzilla 11.4 handles mentions and hashtags (closer to) the Twitter way instead of the Identi.ca way now. The
# became part of the link (, , for example).I wouldn't cry out "pandering to Mastodon" now. I don't think this happened in the same vein as Forte giving the choice between starting an enclosed conversation and starting a microblogging-style loose thread. After all, it's vanilla Mastodon out of all microblogging applications that handles the old Identi.ca way quite gracefully. And even what didn't work as intended didn't cause a big mess instead either.
Other Fediverse applications are way less prepared for this. From the Mastodon fork Glitch to all the *keys and, I think, the *omas, not only can't they handle the Identi.ca way, but they tend to fail rather ungracefully because they don't even expect anything else than the Twitter way. Especially on Misskey, this has been recognised as a bug in 2024 already, and nothing much has happened in terms of fixing it. Of course, all the Forkeys have inherited the bug, and I think none of them has fixed it instead of waiting for upstream Misskey to fix it. I'm not even sure if Iceshrimp.NET, a complete rewrite in C#, hasn't re-implemented it.
I mean, if lots of Fediverse server applications render Hubzilla's old "#" (with the number sign outside the link, the Identi.ca way) as its Markdown representation, "#Hashtag()", and people keep complaining, then someone has to step in and put an end to this mess. And lots of fingers were pointing at Hubzilla. While tens of thousands of Mastodon accounts blocked Hubzilla channels for their long posts, hundreds of *key accounts blocked Hubzilla channels for how completely messed up their hashtags came out.
Also, unless I'm completely wrong, the first Fediverse server application that handled mentions and hashtags the Twitter way rather than the Identi.ca way wasn't Mastodon either it was GNU social, itself a fork of StatusNet, the software that used to power Identi.ca before its switch to pump.io.
So this wasn't a case of Hubzilla acting up on Mastodon. It was a case of Hubzilla acting up across at least half the Fediverse, Mastodon actually largely excluded.
That is, it may still worry you that Hubzilla whose foundation was laid in May, 2012, based on Friendica which is another two years older, adapted to software which came later instead of playing the "we were here first" card. A whole lot of software which came later and which was largely created independently from Mastodon (although both Mastodon and Pleroma started their lives as something akin to alternative frontends for GNU social), but still.
By the way, don't Friendica, (streams) and Forte still cause the same issue Especially Forte that has actually started pandering to Mastodon as of late
Quebec clamping down on refunds for empties from Ontario
The organization that manages Quebec's bottle deposit program says long lineups at its depots are forcing it to make changes, including one that could make it more difficult for Ontarians to cash in some of their empties.
ODE TACTILE (Paul Valry)
ODE TACTILEUn doigt plus doux que plume sur la harpeSe joue fuir sur la fleur de ta chairEt cette main souple comme une charpeFlatte et polit ce qu'elle a de plus cher.Je vous caresse, raisons d'existence,Parages purs, bords suaves qui sontMa terre tide et d'exquise substanceTerre promise aux fleuves du frissonTerre sensible o frmit ce grand ArbreDe l'me offerte au tendre enchanementDu long baiser sur tes plages de marbreQui suit le fil deDjango LTS
Beau Hosslers Pre-Shot Routine: Is He Taking Too Long
Since you're on Mastodon, you most likely haven't read this comment of mine. So here it is again:RE:
Having the informative part both in the alt-text and in the message text is redundant. Besides, having the informative part in the alt-text just inflates the alt-text.
I think there are three reasons why Mastodon users stuff all kinds of information into the alt-text. One is that they sincerely believe that any and all information about the image must go into the alt-text because it's image-related. Some are actually being told exactly this.
Another one is that most of them have only got 500 characters for the toot, minus hashtags, minus mentions, minus even the CW. But they've got 1,500 characters per image that they don't have to share with anything else.
Lastly, all they know about accessibility, they know from fully sighted laypeople who actually don't know anything about accessibility themselves. They don't even have the foggiest idea just how exactly alt-texts help blind or visually-impaired users. They know nothing about screen readers, they know nothing about Braille displays, they don't even know that either exist, because neither do those who have told them about alt-text.
Sorry to say, but the accessibility that's so firmly engrained into Mastodon's culture which is being forced upon the rest of the Fediverse often isn't even really accessible.
But you have to look at it from the perspective of screen reader users: They actually have a big problem with long alt-texts. Screen readers can navigate the message text, e.g. jump back a few words or sentences to some point in the middle of the text. But they can't do that with alt-texts.
If you give them a 1,200-character alt-text because you felt like you had to squeeze tons of information in, and they get distracted around the 1,100-character mark, they can't just jump back a sentence. They can only jump back to the beginning of the alt-text and have the whole alt-text read out to them once again.
Unlike what's being falsely taught on Mastodon, alt-text is meant to be a drop-in replacement for the image. It is only for a visual description of the image. It is not meant to be informative.
In general, explanations and other additional information that aren't immediately available in the image to sighted people do not belong into the alt-text.
That's because the assumption that everyone can access alt-text is just as false as the assumption that everyone can see the image.
Just like not everyone has two working eyes, not everyone has two working hands which are a hard requirement for opening an alt-text unless they use a screen reader.
Any additional information must always go into the message text.
CC:
I have a problem with this. But I probably only have this problem because whenever I post an image, it's about an extremely obscure niche topic. (Don't go looking for my recent images on this channel I post my images elsewhere and even there only recently.)
When you're describing an image to a friend, first of all, you're describing the image to only one person. You probably already know that person. You can at least estimate what they know about the image you're going to describe. If not, you can ask them what they know, what they don't know, what they need to know, what they want to know.
And then you can tailor your description to the individual wants and needs of that one specific person. And you can add the explanations which this person needs and omit the explanations which this person doesn't need.
In case they don't understand something, or if they want to know more details, they can interrupt you mid-describing and ask you.
But when you're describing an image for the Fediverse, you're describing it for potentionally everyone in the Fediverse (and everyone on the Web, unless you restrict the permission to view your post). You don't know all these people, there's no way you can.
You simply can't go around and ask millions of Fediverse users and billions of Web users, one by one, what they know about the topic of your image, what they don't know etc. Neither can you predict who exactly will receive your post and then only go and ask these people in advance.
Even if you could, you can't tailor your image description and accompanying explanations to the individual needs of many people. Especially not if you're going to post that image only once for everyone all the same.
Worse yet, they can't interrupt you mid-describing and ask you for explanations either. They'll get the entire description plus your explanations all at once.
Thus, you have to describe and explain your image for everyone all the same with no regards for individual needs. You have to cover everyone's potential needs right away.
Let's take (link CW: eye contact, meme, non-Mastodon Fediverse meta) , for example. I've actually used it in a Fediverse meme post.
If I were to describe it to one friend, I'd ask the friend if they're familiar with the "One Does Not Simply Walk Into Mordor" meme template, and if they're familiar with FEP-ef61 "Portable Objects". Honestly, I expect hardly anyone to know both.
If they aren't familiar with FEP-ef61, and they most likely aren't, I'd ask them if they know nomadic identity, and if they know the streams repository, because knowing both is required for my explanation of FEP-ef61. They probably don't know either, so I'd explain the streams repository to them, including rattling down the whole 16-year history of the software family from Mistpark/Friendica to Forte. When I reach the rewriting of Red in 2012, I'd explain the concept of nomadic identity because it was then when it was first implemented. And even that I could only do if they knew the Fediverse. If not, I'd go start with the Fediverse.
If they aren't familiar with "One Does Not Simply Walk Into Mordor", I'd ask them if I could send them a link to the KnowYourMeme page, or if they need it described by me. If the latter, I'd ask them if they're familiar with the concepts of snowclones and image macros. And so forth. Whatever they aren't familiar with, I'd explain it to them.
As for the visuals, I'd ask them if they need a visual description of what Boromir looks like, regardless of whether or not this matters in the context. I'd also ask them how familiar they are with The Lord of the Rings and specifically the Peter Jackson films. For this may require even more explanations.
How am I supposed to do any of this with an audience of many Right, I can't.
And so I have to deliver all necessary explanations in the message text, right beneath the image itself, just in case someone needs them. And let's face it, most people will need them. The explanation of the image macro itself plus another eight explanations in order for people to understand the main explanation. Over 25,000 characters if they consider links to external explanations bad.
# # # # # # # # # # # # # # # I've been working on an entire wiki about image descriptions and alt-texts for the Fediverse for quite a while now. It's far from finished, not even half of the over 50 pages planned right now are written.
As of now, it'll have 32 rules and guidelines on what to do, how to do it and what not to do. The huge majority of these are completely unknown in the Fediverse otherwise.
# # # # # # # # # # # # # # #
Last updated: 2026-08-20
All text and images © eLoc8.is-fabulous.com