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.

@jean does it matter if the alt-text is written in markdown, or HTML? Or are both versions surfaced for potential inclusion in Discover?

@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

@UndamnedOne The alt text on my images is all AI based by now. Using @samgrover’s Mimi’s feature (in beta), and @jarrod’s Shortcut. Both are brilliant, and the alt text (very) often surprises me, it’s really good.

@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 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.

@starrwulfe There are some Shortcuts, and also a bit of copy/paste. Drafts is a huge part, I’ll get back to you on this one.

@numericcitizen Thank you.

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

@starrwulfe Here you go. Let me know if you need something different, wrote this while having dinner, might have missed something.

I have two different types of posts that need Alt Text when posting: regular posts (with one or multiple photos), and sticker spotter posts.

• Photos for sticker spotter are uploaded using a simple Shortcut, that asks for Alt Text when uploading. Before that I'll select the photo on Camera.app, and call another Shortcut: Generate Alt Text with OpenAI Vision, by @jarrod. This gets me the OpenAI created Alt Text on the clipboard. I'll paste it into Drafts, check if it's good, or edit if it needs editing. When it's ready, tap the icon for the upload Shortcut, pick the image, paste the alt text, and wait. That's it. Image gets posted, with the correct category, and Alt Text.

• Photo posts are handled a bit differently. Mimi takes care of everything: I'll select the images, upload the all in one go, use the Generate Alt Text available on the beta, and export the whole thing to Drafts. I'll edit if needed, add the text, title, whatever, and just tap the button to send the post over here to M.b.

That's it. It does sound a bit more complicated than it actually is. Cool thing: alt text gets crossposted to Mastodon/Bluesky (thanks, @manton).

@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 Auto works, never tried manual.

@pratik Will check!

@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!

@Mtt This one works. Lets you pick categories as well.

@maique Thanks!