A reminder: we look at whether images include an accessible text description (aka ALT “tag”) when choosing posts for the Discover timeline.

After adding a photo, click or tap the thumbnail to add the description. Alt-texts: The Ultimate Guide by Axcess Labs has tips on writing descriptions.

@jean I’m so bad at composing alt text. Maybe that could be a job for the chatGPT subscription I’m paying for and not relying on enough!

@jean Thanks for this reminder! I wasn’t aware I could do this from the Android app as I am uploading a photo in a post.

@aeryn I confess that I never really use markdown except for links and formatting. I didn’t realize you could use the alt attribute in markdown.

I just tested it, and shows up in our admin timeline the same as HTML tags.

So yes, you can use markdown alt text and we will see it.

@jean thank you for this! It’s really helpful to have a guide and “why.”

@jean I’m now using a AI-enabled shortcut to generate alt text so now nearly all my photos have it ☺️ Maybe Micro.blog can offer that by default but that can add up.

@pratik so you upload all the photos?

@rom As in? I mean, yeah. Sorry, I don’t understand the Q

@maique I do the same for my posts on Pixelfed, using ChatGPT image description prompt.

@maique Except for photos that I post on Glass that get cross-posted here. Glass doesn’t have an alt-text feature yet so I may have to edit the post each time to add it in the HTML code.

@pratik you upload the photo to the cloud to get it processed for Alt Text?

@rom Oh! I use @jarrod’s shortcut or @samgrover’s Mimi Uploader app to post photos on platforms that support alt-text

@numericcitizen How do you access the ChatGPT image description prompt? Is it from within the iOS app or from the website?

@jean I don’t think that’s particularly nnecessary though. I’m a blind user who couldn’t care any less about pictures people post. In fact I kind of wish I could filter them all out.
The Fediverse has done a good job of explaining why it’s a good thing, but unless your charging me for something, I really don’t need to know all that extranious information.

@jean ooh, the linked guide here for alt text is a better guide than the stuff I’ve seen before. I’ll do my best to follow this when writing my alt text 😅 My main concern is my descriptions sometimes get really wordy huhu and I know that’s generally not recommended :(

@crossingthethreshold I created a GPT dedicated to this. I’m a paying subscriber of ChatGPT.

@jean Is the reverse also true?

If you don’t include an ALT tag in a post’s image container, does that mean it won’t get considered for the Discover timeline? Since there’s no mechanism to exclude certain posts from the Discover timeline, this might be a way to signal “No, please don’t include this one.”

@ladyhope I hadn’t thought about that before. Great point. Not everyone wants all the information that is available. Is there an option for a screen reader to ignore ALT text? It seems like that would be something people should have the option to do.

@renevanbelzen No, the reverse is not true. It’s a guideline for us, not a hard rule.

@maique are you scripting this automatically or are you doing manual copypasta like me? I would love to see some of your workflows if you’ve got the time to post explainers.

@maique ping me when you do! Especially the shortcuts. I’ll buy drafts even since it seems worth it.

@maique

> alt text gets crossposted to Mastodon/Bluesky.

• In auto-crossposting? Not in manual cross-posting, right?
• In Threads?

@maique BTW for your Sticker Spotter workflow, I think @jarrod now has a one-click solution in a Drafts action. It’s giving me some issues with .jpg but I think, it’s a me issue that I’m trying to solve.

@pratik the alt-text property in a post is respected whenever posting to those services via API (because the API supports alt text for image enclosures). I doubt it would for Threads, since it’s not an API thing.

@jarrod Are you Drafts Actions listed anywhere? (cc @pratik)

@jsonbecker Ah! Wasn’t sure if Threads was even supporting alt text but I do see a field specified. But I guess we have to wait for the API.

@Mtt This is @jarrod’s library.

@pratik Those are shortcuts though right? I am looking for the Drafts Actions.

@Mtt Ah! Always get confused between the two. I kinda learned how to implement the shortcuts into an Action. But yes, @jarrod has said, he’s “dabbling” in Actions so we have to wait for that library. Tbh, I would prefer that.

@jsonbecker @maique I wrote a separate post about cross-posting. Maybe I’m missing something obvious?

@pratik @Mtt I have a couple public ones here. The photo uploader one isn’t as streamlined as I would liked, so I haven’t published it yet, but you can play with it here.

@jarrod That’s really good. Got it working pretty easily. Are you using anything to publish longform (with title) posts from Drafts → Micro.blog?

@Mtt Cool! Glad it’s working for you. But no, I don’t really do anything long form on Micro.blog.

@maique Outstanding 🤩

I’ve got a new project this weekend now!

@maique Thanks!