I just tried to google about this and it turns out I've been wrong all this time - what I've been using is, apparently #PascalCase whereas #camelCase has the first letter after the hash as little?
I do remember someone posting ages ago that their screenreader did benefit from people using Camel Case (camelCase?) but I can't remember now which one they used.
I think we all agree that it's good to use #camelCase in tags, since it makes them accessible to users with various perceptual impairments. But should the first letter be upper or lower case? I'd argue for lower case, because single word tags are usually all lower case, and starting multi-word tags in lower case looks more consistent. Do you agree? Are there any technical or aesthetic reasons to favor one or the other? Am I overthinking this? 🙃
For consideration by @david &/or @mods [sorry, i never know who is the right addressee for my toots like this].
Wrt attached pic, is there some way to purge the #TechLGBT server/s of #hashtags improperly written in all #lowercase, & replace with the proper #CamelCase ones? I really try to do the right thing in my toots, but it's so tedious when the auto-suggest routinely offers me "bad" [lowercase] rather than "good" [CamelCase] tag suggestions. This error / bad practice is prevalent for IMO most#hashtags i use, not merely this one example now.
@mods Hi, thanks. I understand your underlying point that no, fixing the bad tags is not possible. However, even though there's no chance of that happening unfortunately, i just wish to try to clarify the "why" of my request.
Your last para implies a possibility i might not have asked my question with due explanation. That is, as someone who tries to respect & apply the etiquette for vision-impaired readers, #CamelCase not #lowercase is advised for compound-word tags.
In effect, the unfortunate inclination of the auto-suggest tool to offer mainly lowercase tags means that for all practical purposes, auto-suggest is useless & might as well be disabled, because if anyone uses them then all subsequent vision-impaired readers will be disadvantaged & indeed discriminated against. Otoh for those tooters trying to do the right thing, it becomes faster to completely ignore the suggestions & just manually type the desired tags, in proper CamelCase.
Erin summarized this via TikTok as well, saying: “A federal appeals court […] ruled that a #GenderAffirmingCare#ban in Tennessee can take effect. This overrules a lower-level judge. To do so they cite the #Dobbs#abortion decision that allowed abortion to be banned, stating that gender-affirming care and #trans people
If you are a #transgender, non-cis, or #nonbinary person needing to flee your current state/location, feel free to use any of these hashtags, and tag any of those accounts. Remember to use #CamelCase so your tags are accessible to screenreaders.
Are you new to Mastodon and looking for your tribe, clan, or clade? Let me suggest #hashtags! They are a slightly different kind of currency on Mastodon.
You can search on hashtags!
You can follow hashtags!! Whoa!
And you can include the liberally in your posts and bio so other people can find you!!!
Tip: if your hashtag is made up of multiple words, capitalize the first letter of each word (#CamelCase) so that screen readers can read them. Please and thank you.
Since we're seeing another huge influx of users on #Mastodon, I figure now's a good time to bring up the importance of #hashtags for search on this platform.
Add hashtags to make your posts easy for other people to find. For example #FuckElonMusk works way better in search here than "fuck Elon Musk."
Also, use #CamelCase for multi-word tags (first letter of each word capitalized, no spaces) so people using screen readers get a better understanding of the text.
Welcome to the new arrivals, especially from the #Twitter demise - some tips:
follow @feditips who toots excellent, helpful info. Check out their previous toots.
follow hashtags, a great way to find like-minded people (examples: LeichenSubscribe, #Mosstodon, ThickTrunk(day), HashtagGames, StarTrek, CouchPeloton)
when using hashtags, use #CamelCase (each word starts with a capital) to help vision impaired people who use screen readers.
please use #AltText with your images, and be descriptive. This helps people who are vision impaired and use screen readers. An optional addition in the alt text is to include what is audible, as this helps them contextualise as that’s a big way they experience the world.
ok so everything i'm reading is saying to hashtag like crazy (i can live with that) and write an introduction/pinned post (....asdfasdaf) ...i am going to have to mull on that second part
the problem here with the hashtags is gonna be that i'm also from #tumblr and uh. in the ~~ever-shifting recursive tumblwildes we put spaces in our hashtags (/audience murmurs) and write entire meta essays in them (/sounds of distress!). Not that I'm unfamiliar with #camelCase from twitter and IG, it just. Uh. Doesn't work as well to do that in places that use tags differently. so. i'll try to avoid the ubiquitous #kinda / other similar commentary
Posted because I kept seeing this quote posted with the names filed off, so I did a quick google search to find the original so I could share it with full attribution.
I'm getting super-spammed with retoots and faves, so I don't need any more.
I'm somcak, a #librarian currently in #Connecticut. I have 2 mini #dachshunds and 2 #cats. I enjoy all sorts of music, yes, even death metal on occasion! :bugcat_wiggle:
I've been on Mastodon since October, and this is my 3rd server. I finally found the folks I want to hang with!!
I use content warnings for all sorts of stuff, just trying to be considerate! I always make sure there's #AltText and #CamelCase for my own posts as well as those I boost. #Accessibility matters.
One of the finer points of making your hashtags accessible for people who use screen readers, beyond using #camelCase or #PascalCase:
If you're using an acronym as a hashtag, don't lowercase any of the letters the way you might if it was title case.
Why? A lowercase letter following an uppercase letter is treated as a word, so title casing your acronym will muddle your meaning for those reliant on screen readers.
My heartfelt thanks to all of you who use AltText to add descriptions to your pics and media. As someone who used to be able to see but has been blind for over 30 years now, it allows me to see the pic in my mind and is greatly appreciated and allows me to enjoy them.
Another heartfelt thanks to those who use #CamelBack in their hashtags. This makes it so much easier to understand with a screen reader and for those who read print as well! ❤️
@feditips@eyebee@BlindQuilter I hadn't heard of #CamelCase or AltText image descriptions before seeing this thread. Glad to learn about them and start using them
I've done some basic reading on the current behavior and browsed the codebase a bit, but I'm a backend dev with minimal experience with #Ruby or #JavaScript so I got a bit lost.
If you have relevant experience, would you like to spend some time over a video call or similar hacking on this?
@SpaceLifeForm I believe these come from across the Fediverse, not just Mastodon and I think it is because it adds a post to a topic for easy discussion.
I'm selfhosted so Mastodon is pulling hashtags from somewhere. Other posts, I assume.
I want to edit the tags I use the most so when they popup while I am adding them, they are already #CamelCase
For screenreaders, it's better if hashtags have each word capitalised. So not #thedawnofeverything but #TheDawnOfEverything. Yet, the suggestions that pop out while typing the hashtag are mostly all lowercase. Could this be improved? Even if I start typing TheDawnOf it will still suggest thedawnofeverything though I have only used the one with CamelCase myself. Accessibility should be made the default as much as possible.
@60pencilgirl I love #camelCase and #PascalCase, and it is really annoying that the UIs usually promote the lowercaseonly alternatives in the picklists. I mostly type PascalCase explicitly, but when in a hurry... well, you know.