ronconsodaDec 21, 2022
Courtney Heard 🇨🇦

Things I've learned about Mastodon this week:

1. Photo captions are read by screenreaders for people who have impaired vision. The more descriptive you make them, the more people can appreciate your post.

2. Hashtags should be "camel style" which means you capitalize each word in the tag - this enables screen readers to identify different words in the tag,

3. Reblogging boosts posts and favourites do not.

4. Hashtags are way more important here than on the birdsite.

#FediTip

Nov 14, 2022 at 11:27pmWeb
Show threadScubaval Nov 14, 2022
@godlessmom The hashtags will take getting used to for me because I always considered them attention seeking rather than attention finding.
Show threadCourtney Heard 🇨🇦Nov 14, 2022
@scubaval Yeah it definitely feels spammy. It'll take some getting used to
Show threadOntario's Health Data ExpertsNov 19, 2022
@godlessmom this was my default on Twitter, made it easier to index my feed. I like it.
Show threadben_tincDec 19, 2022
@scubaval @godlessmom Attention findind instead of attention seeking is a great way to put it!
Show threadScubaval Dec 19, 2022
@godlessmom @ben_tinc
I just looked at that again today & wondered if I said it right. You got it! Thanks for letting me know.
Show threadRyan Noakes 🇨🇦Nov 14, 2022
@godlessmom camel casing ftw! My favourite instance of this confusing people was after Margaret Thatcher died there was a hashtag nowthatchersdead, some people read it as Now That Cher's Dead vs Now Thatcher's Dead and yeah. Poor Cher had to reassure people she was still alive.
Show threadAdam SquiresNov 19, 2022
@ryan_noakes I also remember people misreading hashtag SusanAlbumParty, (to promote singer Susan Boyle's new album)
Show thread𝗧𝗞 Dec 19, 2022
@ryan_noakes @Adsquires Sus indeed 
Show threadMartin RundkvistDec 19, 2022
@ryan_noakes @godlessmom Cher's policies towards the striking miners were a disgrace though.
Show threadRyan Noakes 🇨🇦Dec 19, 2022
@mrundkvist @godlessmom I'll have to take your word for it, I don't really pay much attention to what celebrities are saying and doing...
Show threadJason BNov 15, 2022
@godlessmom Good tips! Exhibit A about hashtags… I follow you on the bird site and just accidentally found you here because I was scrolling through #humanism
Show threadLif Strand 📖🎵 🇺🇦 💙 ♀ 🐕Nov 15, 2022
@godlessmom
I know how to reply, to boost, to favorite, to bookmark, and to share. How do I reblog?
Show threadArachno PhobiaNov 16, 2022
@lifstrand AFAIK reblog is another word for boost.
Show threadLif Strand 📖🎵 🇺🇦 💙 ♀ 🐕Nov 17, 2022
@Arachno_Phobia Thank you!
Show threadSimon YoungNov 15, 2022
@godlessmom #CamelStyle is a fascinating non-intuitive thing. I Should Google This, but where did it get its name?
Show threadzecuseNov 15, 2022

@simonsaidthis @godlessmom
From the looks of it, Swedish chemist Jacob Berzelius was the first to give it a systematic use and it's why you see chemical formulae such as NaCl.

A handful of trademarks used it before the 1970s.

When computing became prevalent, this was adopted as one of the standards for naming conventions (among hyphens, underscores, Hungarian notation, etc.) and the Pascal language in particular derived the term #PascalCase, aka upper camel case (see the first letter).

Show threadJon HarmonNov 15, 2022
@zecuse @simonsaidthis @godlessmom What's Hungarian notation?
Show threadzecuseNov 15, 2022

@vagrant @simonsaidthis @godlessmom
It's the convention of including the type and/or intent of the identifier in its name.

bLocked for a boolean that determines if something is in use or not.
nSize for an integer size of something.
u32Max for an unsigned, 32 bit int that will be used as a limit.

In the languages I use (strongly typed ones), it's overly verbose, redundant, and can be confusing if the beginning isn't obvious.

Show threadSue Loh, local optimistDec 19, 2022
@zecuse @simonsaidthis @godlessmom
In software, camel casing means leaving the first letter lower case but capitalizing the first letter of every new word: sueLoh. It's called "camel" because the hump is in the middle.
Show threadSimon YoungDec 19, 2022
@suedeyloh @zecuse @godlessmom thank you
Show threadGaaliGraphyNov 15, 2022

@godlessmom Please, what is 'Fedi'?

Also, if I use punctuation like single or double quotes, will it be screen-read?

Show threadТэ дрэвэт утвикλэрэнNov 19, 2022
@GaaliGraphy @godlessmom "Fedi" is short for "Fediverse", which stands for all of Mastodon as a so-called "federation" of many different servers.
Show threadAndrew Morgan 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿Nov 16, 2022
@godlessmom thank you for your toot, it was both interesting and informative, I have given it a boost and bookmarked for later reference
Show threadFlivver 🔧Nov 16, 2022

@godlessmom and remember to put all the hashtags at the end. Don't sprinkle them throughout the post, because screen readers will stumble over them and the post will be difficult to comprehend.

#blind #mastodontips

Show threadUniflameNov 17, 2022
@flivverchannel @godlessmom oooh thank you! I usually do this. It’s a remnant of Twitter where I had fewer characters
Show threadPeter West CareyNov 16, 2022

@godlessmom I have been enjoying adding way more context to my photos than is explained in the post itself. Sometimes a lot more; things like sounds and the feel/emotion I want to convey with the photo because just stating “Red bird with a blue background” does not convey the sense of majesty I felt when taking the photo.

Thank you for the reminders for all.

Show threadIdris 💙Nov 16, 2022

@godlessmom

Beautiful post! 💙

Show threadKath MurphyNov 17, 2022
@godlessmom I’m very new to this place and am just using the iPhone app. I can’t for the life of me work out how to add descriptions. My posts are photos and I’m really conscious of their lack of description. Would you please be able to point me in the direction of some instructions?
Show threadJesseNov 18, 2022
@godlessmom speaking of #AltText, if you find yourself struggling with how to write a description, this thread I wrote might be helpful.
https://mindly.social/@JesseF8693/109363278596870959
Jesse (@[email protected])

With all the new folks joining here, I thought I should lay out a couple guiding posts for #AltText. I hope it will give everyone something to consider going forward, and I strongly encourage everyone to use this tool. It engages those like me, who have been shut out of entire conversations in the past because we couldn't follow along due to an absence of described images. #A11y #Advocacy

Mindly.Social
Show threadNancyMDNov 19, 2022
@godlessmom I’ve always felt deep in my heart words should always be capitalized in hashtags!!!
Show threadWhen Suddenly! GamesNov 19, 2022
@godlessmom good tips!
Show threadHRH ginsterbuschNov 19, 2022
@godlessmom #5: Another thing to learn: Photo captions are NOT just for sight impaired people.
Show threadSomersetWhovian 🇺🇦💙Nov 20, 2022
@ginsterbusch @godlessmom
I always add captions when I can. Quick question - how do you see the captions here? On Twitter you could see if they had ALT text, but that doesn't seem to be the case here ...
Show threadHRH ginsterbuschNov 21, 2022

@ClaireCopperman @godlessmom I have no clue about Twitter, because I've been here since 2017.

But as I'm mostly using the Mastodon WebGUI, I get a tooltip with the alternative text when hovering with the mouse cursor over the image, or just the text, when the instances involved drop dead thanks to the current immense loads.

They certainly help me understanding the image content, whenever something is heavily context-related.

Show threadSomersetWhovian 🇺🇦💙Nov 21, 2022
@ginsterbusch @godlessmom Ah, I see. Although I don't need it myself, I often enjoyed reading the ALT text on Twitter, as some people gave very interesting descriptions. But here I don't see an indication of whether an image has a description. Hey ho - I'm not the intended audience!
Show threadHRH ginsterbuschNov 21, 2022

@ClaireCopperman @godlessmom On the phone there probably is no such indicator, but I guess that's a restriction of the general interface.

In the Web-GUI, the "hover with mouse" thingy applies. There probably are different ways to achieve an improved display of the alt text, if I'd be using a regular browser and not something basically running in a sandbox, eg. by adding an extension or even a simple CustomCSS hack (the content-pseudo selector comes to mind).

Show threadSomersetWhovian 🇺🇦💙Nov 21, 2022
@ginsterbusch @godlessmom Ah, interesting. Will have to have a look on my laptop. Thanks for your detailed replies.
Show threadBambi the Border CollieDec 19, 2022
@ClaireCopperman @ginsterbusch @godlessmom I use the Tusky app, and you have to click on the photo to open it, then the text appears below the image. But there's no indication before that of whether there is alt text on the picture or not.
Show threadHRH ginsterbuschDec 19, 2022
@TheJoyOfBambi @ClaireCopperman @godlessmom I'm using the Fedilab app, and it indeed does at least display an indicator on the image (bottom right corner), when there is an alternative text available.
Show threadHRH ginsterbuschDec 19, 2022
@TheJoyOfBambi
It looks like this
@ClaireCopperman @godlessmom
Show threadSomersetWhovian 🇺🇦💙Dec 19, 2022
@ginsterbusch @TheJoyOfBambi @godlessmom
Thank you 😊
Show threadAndi 🌻 LastNov 19, 2022
@godlessmom thank you for this friendly helpful thread! I hope mastodon stays this pleasant even after we're all expert at it!
Show threadDa_Gut (He/Him)Nov 19, 2022
@godlessmom @goldenlassogirl According to the wired magazine article, search only searches hashtags. It doesn’t search toots. (Except under certain limited circumstances). This is by design.
Show threadTechieGrammaNov 19, 2022
@godlessmom #ImportantToKnow
Show threadWalter Spicer 🇨🇦(ウォルタースパイサー)Nov 19, 2022

@godlessmom

Good tips, thanks. I'll go over my hashtag styling for camel case

Show threadKimbafuzzNov 20, 2022
@godlessmom I am weird in that I’ve almost always capitalized words in a hashtag. Glad to know I’ve been doing it “right”! Ha! #SoProud
Show threadJackie SNov 22, 2022
@godlessmom I must be showing my age! 😂
I’ve always “cameled” #MyHashtags (even rewriting them when auto text would insert them in all lower case) & always used them as search tools. Thats why I was always one of those #TwitterUsers who #Hashtagged everything in their #Comments & refused to use the names of real names of people who wanted to trend so badly (you know, like Matty, Marj, Bozo, Gym or the 2x impeached loser of the last election) 😂
Show threadP CarewDec 19, 2022
@godlessmom good to know! Thanks for sharing!
Show threadLoraDec 19, 2022
@godlessmom hashtags confuse the heck out of me because I am not a Twitter refugee. I know how it works but how do I know what’s a legit hashtag? Just keep trying them out until one pops up? Or is any old hashtag perfectly acceptable even if no one is using it? It only makes sense if they are being used by other people but how do I know without experimenting 27 times? Or is that all I can do? And I have no idea what hashtag to use for this for example. I need a tutorial lol
Show threadDisco SexualDec 19, 2022
@LoraP @godlessmom I'm not the person you were asking, but think of hashtags as optional labels. #HashtagsCanBeAnything, even made made up words. There's no such thing as a "wrong" hashtags, just ones that happen to be more commonly used or followed.
Show threadcourtney (dr. version)Dec 19, 2022
@godlessmom is there a way to Quote Toot?
Show threadGethin ColesDec 19, 2022

@godlessmom in the mastodon app when you hashtag it offers you a list of available ones, often not capitalised if they're 2 words.

I wonder how hard it would be to write code to fix this. *With the caveat that some compound phrases would confuse it. The website who represents and Volkswagen Italia spring to mind
Whorepresents
Volkswagenitalia

Show threadTechronic9876Dec 19, 2022
@godlessmom @ccradle Twitter also used Photo captions too, called alt text. This has also been a part of the internet for decades with varying levels of support
Show threadPaul Yager Dec 19, 2022
@godlessmom Thanks for the helpful tips!
Show threadMockshit RaccoonDec 19, 2022

@godlessmom

TIL about Mastodon this week:

1 "camel style" is not what i thought it was..
2. fantastic community..

Show threadintovintageDec 19, 2022
@godlessmom Ah, I forgot to capitalize the hash tags. Good reminder!
Show threadmrzaius🚸Dec 19, 2022

@godlessmom all that would be useful if you didn't have to remember it every..... Oh yeah. Edit button.

Phew.

Show threadKBSez ✅Dec 19, 2022

@godlessmom

Great info, Court! Thanks.

Show threadBodhi O'SheaDec 19, 2022
@godlessmom and now I learned also!