I've been thinking a lot about the #Fediverse ALT issue.
Some people are annoyed by posts without #Alttext, & others get reminded¹ to add it.
The core question is: How can we improve #accessibility?
Proposal:
☑️ Add a user filter to hide media posts without #AltTag
☑️ Reduced engagement on hidden posts would encourage adding #Alt text
☑️ People who need accessibility wouldn't have to encounter unlabeled media
If this gets traction, I'll open a #Mastodon GitHub issue.
@madeindex I'm skeptical that "reduced" engagement would be a compelling argument or difference.
Is "engagement" the thing that most people think of when posting? It's a very capitalistic way of thinking of communicating with fellow humans.
I'm also reminded of Goodhart's Law: a measure that becomes a target ceases to be a good measure.
A different social network tried to encourage folks to write engaging replies and said they instead saw an increase in filler text (spaces, dots, "this").
@zimzat You have a point, however I do think people want engagement, as you post to get a reply or reaction of any kind right?
I did not get that part about the spaces dots and this though! Can you please explain? :)
https://www.engadget.com/twitter-ends-quote-tweet-experiment-retweets-003202686.html
> The use of Quote Tweets increased, but 45 percent of them included single-word affirmations and 70 percent had less than 25 characters,
I, personally, don't want massive engagement. I dislike the idea of parasocial relationships. But that's just me and I grew up avoiding attention and preferring quieter, personable, connections. Others may want more than I do, but past a certain point too popular inherently becomes antithetical to the Fediverse ethos.
MadeInDex 📰🌎
Russell