Mastodon community standards for posts, how I comply with them and why I sometimes can't; very long post
Like it or not, here's how I handle certain things often demanded by Mastodon users when writing my own posts.
First of all, a necessary explanation: I am not on Mastodon. I'm on
Hubzilla. Even though it connects to Mastodon, it is neither a Mastodon instance nor a Mastodon fork. It's four years older than Mastodon, it's vastly more powerful than Mastodon, and it isn't based on ActivityPub, but on something more versatile and powerful again. ActivityPub is only an add-on that has to be activated by users on their own channels.
So when #
Hubzilla got capable of federating with Mastodon after six years of existence, its developers did not bend over backwards and redesign Hubzilla to make it as compatible with Mastodon as possible while axing features left and right to achieve that.
Compatibility with Mastodon and
everything that speaks ActivityPub but isn't Mastodon (← this isn't even everything) is limited. Deal with it, Mastodonians.
Anyways, here's my policy.
#Hashtags: Yes, I use them. I use them for two reasons.
One, they make my own posts discoverable across the #
Fediverse. There is no "secret sauce" algorithm handing people your posts on a silver platter. You have to take care of that yourself.
Two, people can click on my hashtags to discover other posts with the same #
hashtag and find out what they are about.
For example, when I write about OpenSim, people who happen upon that post usually don't know what it is. I could explain it to them right there right then, but that'd just inflate the post. Or I could add the
same links to each post which would not only clutter my posts and mean more work, but it'd irritate mobile users because they'd have to use their Web browsers.
Alternatively, I could use a few hashtags like #
OpenSimulator and #
OpenSim that people can click and see more posts about it, thus at least getting a rough first idea of what I'm talking about. And this is what I do.
This comes with another advantage: If you don't want to read about any of the topics I write about, you can block the corresponding hashtag.
By the way, yes, I put my hashtags in the text whenever possible. Reason: see "two" above. It's like links in a wiki article. Before someone complains in the name of screen reader users: I do use the Shift key, and I write my hashtags in CamelCase. After all, I'm one of the few Fediverse users who type with ten fingers on a hardware keyboard connected to a desktop computer rather than with two thumbs on a 6" touch screen.
#AltText: As of now, I add alt-text to all images I post. This requires manual BBcode manipulation, but I'm showing good will to support #
accessibility.
On the one hand, I sometimes wonder if it's worth doing that in the first place, seeing as #
VirtualWorlds are a very visual topic that might not be of interest for visually-impaired people. On the other hand, I've heard about blind people who use OpenSim through a special viewer with text-to-speech output that even allows them to walk and teleport around. And my memes may actually be of interest for them as well.
My main problem with this is that
I can't be sure just how far alt-text for pictures from inside virtual worlds would have to go into detail for full #
a11y compliance. In comparison with real-life photographs, there tends to be a whole lot more in virtual photographs that people unfamiliar with virtual worlds in general and this particular virtual world need a description and explanation for. Especially the "legacy" virtual worlds that weren't designed to run natively on VR goggles can be
very detailed, and there can be a lot of stuff that simply doesn't exist in the real world.
For example, the Capitol and the Eiffel Tower are architectural and cultural icons; pictures of them don't require detailed descriptions. A picture of the
Sendalonde Community Library does because nobody outside OpenSim has ever even heard of it. If I post a picture of the Eiffel Tower, mentioning it in the alt-text is sufficient. If I post a picture of the Sendalonde Community Library, I have to describe the building by rattling down every last one of its architectural features visible in the picture and include a description of the visible parts of its surrounding.
So if I describe only what's important in the context in which the picture is used, visually-impaired people may be disappointed that there's so much in the picture that they can't identify because the alt-text doesn't tell them what it is. But if I go out of my way and describe (and explain) every little bit that may be of interest for someone, a typical alt-text could grow ten times as long as a whole Mastodon toot.
By the way, I no longer include more than four pictures in one post. Pretty much all my followers interested in virtual worlds are on Mastodon, and if I post more than four pictures, they can only see the last four. If I need to include more than four pictures, more so if they absolutely require to be in a certain spot within the text, I'll probably write an article. This won't displayed in your Mastodon timeline as-is, though. You'll have to click/tap it, and if you're on a mobile phone, it will open your Web browser. Again, deal with it.
#ContentWarnings: They're called "summaries" on Hubzilla, but they work roughly the same.
I rarely write sensitive text that requires a #
ContentWarning. This is not a personal general-purpose channel. Topics here are limited to virtual worlds, OpenSim in particular, and occasional posts about the Fediverse. I've yet to read from someone that either of these topics can trigger people.
As for pictures, yes, I could put them under a "summary" to hide them. But it wouldn't have any effect on Mastodon. All my pictures would always end up below, i.e. outside the #
CW. You'd see them either way, with or without a CW, because the CW would only hide the text and not the pictures-turned-file attachments.
See, Hubzilla supports embedding pictures in posts. Mastodon doesn't. Mastodon doesn't even understand that. So what Mastodon does is convert pictures from everywhere that isn't Mastodon into file attachments and then attach them to posts. Below them. Outside CWs, because why would you CW a file attachment?
Here on Hubzilla, I could theoretically hide sensitive pictures behind
three safety measures and have everyone else click at least twice, sometimes even three times before they see them clearly. First, label the picture itself not-safe-for-work, so it's blurred. Second, put the post under a summary. Third, add a keyword to the post, for there's a per-user app on Hubzilla that automatically puts everything containing at least one from a customisable list of keywords under a content warning (which, again, is NOT Mastodon's content warning, that's the summary; this is something separate).
None of these measures work on Mastodon, though. Even if I do all of this, everyone on Mastodon will get these pictures in plain sight right away.
#Threads: Why? I'm not limited by a 500-character cap. I can write tens of thousands of characters in one post. So no threading policy here because I don't do threads, because I don't have to.
You don't like any of this? Feel free to block me. Chances are I don't have anything to say that's of interest for you anyway, except that I sometimes feel like the only one in the Fediverse who can explain to the "Fediverse = only Mastodon" crowd how deep the rabbit hole that's the Fediverse actually goes, and what the Fediverse beyond Mastodon looks like.
Reporting me to the hub admins for moderation won't work. I'm not breaking any rules, not within Hubzilla. And neither I nor any Hubzilla hub admin can do anything about Mastodon's limitations and how it renders everything coming in from outside potentially unsafe.
