Is it considerate or is it passive aggressive to reply with alt text when the original poster neither wrote any nor asked for any?

Kim Scheinberg

[boost if you're so inclined]

Adrian Cochrane

@kims I often get thank yous from the original poster when I do so!

And I think its the most considerate why to encourage good alt-text practices on the fediverse, the least likely to backfire!

Kim Scheinberg

I wish I could see a gender breakdown on these answers

I don't boost things that don't have alt text. Every so often I see a toot that I *really* want to share and my choices are

1. ignore my own rule
2. repost the image myself with alt text
3. post the alt text as a reply and hope it gets updated

I've learned not to do (1) whenever possible, and (2) seems kinda dickish. When I volunteer alt text, I'm not scolding anyone. I'm saying "Your post is awesome and I really want to boost it."

katzenberger

@kims

There's the #Alt4You hashtag for this. There may be many reasons why people can't supply alt text, including severe diseases. There is also the #Alt4Me hashtag by which you can ask others to provide alt text for you, when you simply can't manage right now to write it yourself.

Stefan Bohacek

@kims I typically just skip images that don't have an alt text.

Sometimes I might repost them with my own alt text, and link to the original post to give credit (basically a "quote boost"), but I was once called ableist for doing this ‍️

I think it's fine to suggest people an alt text that they can copy and use themselves, but I know some people can be very touchy when you do this, even if you're nice about it and non-judgmental, and I'd rather just not deal with folks like that.