Image ALT texts are sometimes displayed, sometimes hidden behind "ALT" button

[benjaoming]

THANKS FOR AN AMAZING PROJECT :heart:

Describe the bug

I'm wondering why sometimes image alt texts are visible and other times there's an "alt" button that needs to be clicked.

I cannot find a consistent pattern.

To Reproduce

ALT button: https://fosstodon.org/@mariatta/112441181927547930 :disappointed:

ALT text as caption: https://fosstodon.org/@mariatta/112426998242061472 :partying_face:

Expected behavior

I would like for ALT texts to always display. It's nice and encourages more usage. See also this blog post that praises Phanpy stats: https://stefanbohacek.com/blog/impact-of-fediverse-clients-on-the-use-of-alt-text/

[cheeaun]

Currently the alt-text-as-caption only show up when it's short (certain number of characters + other conditions). Reasons:

• The 'ALT' badge/button UI should be good enough as hints to encourage more usage. There's a design research document by an ex-X, https://laurenrace.com/design/twitter-alt-text-features/
• Alt text character limit on Mastodon is 1500 (or shorter/longer if from forked or other non-Mastodon platforms), so it can get pretty long and need to be truncated at some point. It may have multiple line breaks which may show up as paragraphs.
• Multiply that by max limit of 4 media attachments on Mastodon (or less/more from forked or non-Mastodon platforms), so it can get even longer.
• Ultimately, the alt-text-caption feature on Phanpy only serves as "progressive enhancement"; if it's short enough, hide ALT badge and show them inline. The only contradiction is that Phanpy also show them inline for multiple media attachments but truncate them to a single line, so 4 media attachments = 4 lines of truncated alt text.
• This is all still experimental and require observations, so ideas here will be considered one day 😉.

[benjaoming]

Wonderful thinking behind the feature!

I wouldn't mind to have a truncated version with a button to read more?

I agree that 1500 chars is a lot to display inside the post area, especially in column mode... so the standalone modal makes sense.

[benjaoming]

Proposal 1:

The following example could be a good "fits-all" solution that truncates the text if necessary: the ALT buttons become an always-present element, same with the ALT texts.

This is btw. my favorite layout already, I've seen people use it to give a picture-by-picture narrative. Works really well with multiple images :100:

Edit: Don't get tricked by the composure of these images.. it is 2 images next to each other, not 4 :)

[graue]

I'd prefer if Phanpy never showed alt text by default and always put it behind a button click (unless, of course, accessibility software is turned on that uses it).

Reasons:

1. It distracts me. My eyes are drawn to the text before I've processed the image itself.
2. In case of visual humor, the alt text often spoils the joke.
3. It's alternative text; by definition, I'm supposed to use the image or the text, not both at the same time.
4. Showing alt text by default encourages people to use it as a caption or Easter egg, rather than for describing the image. I'm old enough to remember when web browsers stopped displaying alt text as a mouseover tooltip for this exact reason! Fedi clients shouldn't go out of their way to bring that counterproductive behavior back, imo.

[benjaoming]

@graue there are actually stats available, as mentioned in the description: https://stefanbohacek.com/blog/impact-of-fediverse-clients-on-the-use-of-alt-text/

I'm pretty convinced that decisions to expose ALT texts in Phanpy encourage the usage in a positive way. Which is backed up by the stats.

To say that ALT texts are used as an Easter egg (or any other non-accessibility relevant purpose) is far from my impression - and won't be relevant since this issue suggests to have a way of displaying ALT texts without mouseovers (which don't work on touch displays).

The behavior could be made configurable - there are of course individual preferences. But I would encourage to have it switched on by default so that people are aware of its existence and can choose to switch it off again.

[graue]

That blog post specifically praises Phanpy's prominent place for image descriptions in the compose dialog. That's a great design that seems to be making a difference. I'm saying I'd prefer the alt text to be initially tucked away upon viewing a post.

[benjaoming]

@graue Phanpy is taking the lead to promote usage of ALT texts (whether that's an intended goal or not). I think that the author isn't a user of Phanpy and had missed this part, but it's hard to leave it out of the analysis.

Anyways, there's a lot to be said and designed. No one wants to ruin your UX by adding huge unconfigurable walls of text everywhere, I think it's probably in good taste to make any new behaviors configurable :+1:

So I think that whether you want the ALT texts or not, the :cherries: on the :cake: solution will satisfy both preferences :+1: