@literalgrill I have also seen people make the argument that the pressing for alt tags is what makes Mastodon full of elitist assholes that wanna be right all the time. (and hence why Bluesky is more attractive)

They argue that asking for alt tags is "tone policing"

@Catwoman69y2k @literalgrill IMO it's how the people do it.

Best folks are the ones who reply with alt text added.

Next are the ones who politely encourage use of alt text and point out how it's done.

The ones I suspect get the "mastodon elitist" label are the ones that are either aggressively demanding, condescending or making harsh accusations of deliberate malicious ableism over missing alt text.

@beeoproblem @Catwoman69y2k Let's legit ask a question, why doesn't Mastodon simply require all posts have alt-text? It'd solve the whole problem!

The reality is folks are angry a the implicit implication that people needing "convenience" to grow the platform is more important than having disabled voices on the platform. Which is where the anger and aggression part comes from.

People wouldn't "forget" if they couldn't forget. Older websites required alt-text while uploading pictures, I remember the days of those forums when the net loaded slowly and it was a curb cut effect that helped everyone.

We should go back to that! If everyone has to use alt-text, we've solved this whole problem.

Edit: I've gotten some responses explaining that programming this might actually not be possible and of course, there are folks who can't create alt-text that need to be thought of too. But even letting other users submit alt-text for photos for users to approve would be a cool start!