Explanation for anyone interested: This was more a test of the kbin ecosystem as a whole, but I was curious to see how the app handles it as well
I know this is a touchy subject, so I want to be clear from the start: I'm 100% for making the use of alt text the norm...
but alt text on kbin is broken. I'm sorry, but it is.
Current widespread wisdom is that you should specify alt text with the format  but this ISN'T behaving as alt text. It's a label. True alt text doesn't get rendered out. It doesn't need to. It's not meant for those who are able to see it. (It's a nice feature that apps like pixelfed give you a button to see it, because it can give extra context, but this is a secondary feature.)
the ! in that format is asking for the content to be embedded, rather than just being a link. This should cause the image to be embedded and fully expanded. For various reasons, I'm perfectly fine with how this currrently works. Just stumble into any thread that's been brigaded by hexbear users to see why I think current, automatically collapsed behaviour is fine here.
the [alt text] section could be rendered out. It's fine that it's treated as a label, but then it should be used as such. Labels are meant for things like crediting the photographer. See any well written news articles for examples of this. This one has an image of some sharks as a header. You'll see underneath that it has an explanation and credits NIWA for the image.
There IS a way to specify labels in markdown, and leave the alt text in tact. The correct format is  but this isn't currently recognised by kbin and the label gets completely stripped out. (link)
THIS is the bug that I think should be fixed as a priority. The "alt text" that users are specifying, isn't actually being set as alt text.
You can verify what I'm saying by using something like this plugin.
Notice how all the post images are marked as "Missing alt attribute"
Notice how things like the magazine icon don't render out their alt text "ArtemisAppPlayground Icon"
I honestly think it's fine to keep using the first [part] as labels, mostly because this syntax is already widely in use, but I think the second (link "this bit") should be set to the image's alt text attribute.
Again, just to be clear, keep using the labels until this is fixed. Something is better than nothing.
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