Lori Emersonfinally, Wendell Berry's standards for technological innovation--truly as relevant now as they were in 1987 #othernetworks
Aaro Koskinen@loriemerson 10. Never post an image/screenshot if you can type the same in plain text.
Richard Rathe"Never post an image/screenshot if you can type the same in plain text."
For a simple list like the above. I agree.
I suspect that there is a "plain text penalty" for words/ideas without imagery in social media, but I'm not up on the trends, rules, or research in that domain.
lxskllr@nickrauchen @aakoskin @loriemerson
Might run out of characters. Default mastodon limit is 500. I've done text images to get around the limit.
@lxskllr @nickrauchen @aakoskin I am having trouble wrapping my head why the format of my post is worth anyone commenting on - the text is in the image. it's not elegant but I wanted to give a screenshot of the exact text I was reading from Harper's. surely there are more important things to discuss here, and in general, than policing precisely how people post
@loriemerson @lxskllr @aakoskin
Speaking as a reader of your post, I'd rather have the text than a picture of the text. In this case I think all/most of the content was in the alt text, which is good but may be hidden for some (depends on the UI).
WesDym@loriemerson Don't worry; you're not the only one here who's excessively full of themself.
Go touch grass.
Court Cantrell does not comply@loriemerson @lxskllr @nickrauchen @aakoskin For what it's worth, I think it's great that the plain text is in an image with alt-text. This allowed me to download the list directly when I realized that I wanted to keep it -- instead of having to mess with screenshotting and cropping. So thank you for sharing the image the way you did; it was helpful.
☺️✌️🤘🖖
☺️✌️🤘🖖
@lxskllr @aakoskin @loriemerson
I think the char limit varies on #Mastodon depending on server, client, etc.
Something textual that is "long form" can be threaded, yes?
@nickrauchen @aakoskin @loriemerson
It can, but threaded posts are kind of annoying imo. Sometimes it's better to have everything in one view.
I say that someone who does a minimum of one threaded post every day :^D
@lxskllr @aakoskin @loriemerson
Threading in #Mastodon is pretty clunky I agree. I can't remember much about it, but in old-school #twitter there was an obvious "Continue" or "Next" button for threading. The server I'm currently on has a much larger char limit so it has not been an issue. The main reason I thread anything is for topics like travel logs that unfold over time.
Then there's just being kind to your readers... keep things simple, short, and concise. An ideal I am sometimes not able to achieve even with good intentions. 🙂
@nickrauchen @aakoskin @loriemerson
"Then there's just being kind to your readers... keep things simple, short, and concise"
That's what I like about my low character limit. It enforces brevity. It's also what I don't like about it. Double edged sword. Trying to work with limited resources is a good exercise, even if they can't always be adhered to 100%.
@nickrauchen Yeah, but that's extra work that too many people don't want to do. Cory Doctorow does it very well, but he's willing to do the work.
I agree completely about Cory. He outlined his social publishing strategy/experiments in a post I've lost track of. It had the "write-once, publish-everywhere" vibe. Very impressive. Also web-standards, no trackers, etc. 🙂 👍
I mostly resist the temptation to screen shot and re-post from other sources. And when a news item is about actual research, I try to find/include a link to the original paper when possible.
If I read something about "researchers discover XYZ..." and they don't at least give the lead author and journal, I pass it by--no likes, no links. 🚯
@nickrauchen It annoys me more than a little that I can't share most orginal sources without that original source automatically providing a (usually pointless) image.
I fear greatly that our addiction to images is fundamentally childish, and that this trend of infantilization is bad for ALL of us in the long run. I find it harder and harder to have serious and thoughtful adult conversations, and impossible to spend any amount of time online without encountering needless immaturity.
Morgan ⚧️@nickrauchen @wesdym Cory Doctorow uses AI. I'd rather people post screenshots than use the torment nexus to generate plain text, but turns out it's not our business how anyone else posts their posts. Scrolling is always an option, it comes in handy for me when an image doesn't have alt text or a triggering post doesn't have a CW