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When you write hashtags that contain multiple words, make the first letter of each word a capital letter, for example #DogsOfMastodon. This will make the tag readable to blind people.
Blind people use the internet through screen reader apps, which read text out aloud. By putting a capital at the start of each word in a hashtag, you are telling the screen reader how to say the tag correctly.
In the non-techy world this is generally known as "CamelCase".
(Techy people may call it PascalCase)
Tâi Siáu-káu 台痟狗 ㄊㄇㄉ 🇳🇫 台灣國
@feditips
What about placing underscores between the words of a multiword hashtag — is that any better/worse? 🤷🏽♂️
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Unfortunately hyphens and underscores don't work in hashtags on the Fediverse, so it's best to stick to CamelCase.
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p.s. Before any programmers chip in, I know that there's "camelCase" in programming, but that doesn't get across that every word should be capitalised.
"CamelCase" is the easiest to remember and clearest in its intent. I know it's not an accurate term in programming, but this post is aimed at non-programmers doing non-programming tasks.
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It's nothing to do with alts.
This is for hashtags in the actual post itself.
So, if you're tagging a post, make sure that the first letter of each word is a capital letter.
Unprecedented 2023
@feditips I do not put #s in ALT. Are you advising whether ALT or not use the CamelCase?
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That doesn't work with hashtags on the Fediverse, unfortunately.
Alex
@feditips i prefer snake_case... much nicer looking and easier to read.
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Every single time I have posted about this, it has turned into a thread about 1990s programming language conventions 😁
Supergrobi
@feditips sounds like you recently encountered a good load of *splaining
Tâi Siáu-káu 台痟狗 ㄊㄇㄉ 🇳🇫 台灣國
@feditips
Underscores work…
https://mstdn.social/tags/Joe_Biden
Sam Shores
@feditips I hear that pattern often referred to as "Title Case"
Thomas H Jones II
@feditips Except that when I start typing a tag, if I let it autocomplete, it decapitalizes. Maybe the Mastodon tools need to be updated to prevent that?
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If you just ignore the suggestions it will keep your capitalisations intact.
There was a bug a couple of versions ago where the suggestions autoreplaced capitalisations even if you ignored the suggestion, but that bug was fixed.
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Yes, this is a really good point! 👍
I'll add that to the fedi.tips article on this.
And even abled people find capitalised words easier to read in hashtags.
e. hashman
@feditips Blind people aren't the only people who use screenreaders. It's helpful for all sorts of disabilities!
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