Okay, the results of the screen reader survey are in:
"People who use screen readers, do you prefer hashtags to all be at the end of a post, or do you prefer hashtags to be mixed in with the main text?"
- 100 votes prefer hashtags all at end
- 42 votes prefer hashtags mixed in text
...so, it seems to be that hashtags at the end have a lot more fans, but it's not unanimous.
(Link to survey: https://social.growyourown.services/@FediTips/112977620571623981)
@FediTips
Thanks. I'll start putting them at the end.
@FediTips Good to know.
I'll work on rewording my posts so that I can write what I mean and still have enough characters left to include the hashtags I want to use for post discoverability while minimizing repeating words.
@FediTips a different view from a sighted person here: hashtags in the text break up the flow of the sentences, making them difficult to read. I often skip over posts with hastags in the text and often don't boost them.
@timo21 @FediTips before this poll, I would use hashtags that matched the name or phrase I was using.
For example, "Once again, #pierrepoilievre stepped in a pile of controversy." That way I don't have to add him as a separate hashtag at the end.
But having heard how it comes from a reader, I'll now move my hashtags to the start or end of a post.
@FediTips Good to know! TY!
If they are not at the end, they may not show up as clickable hashtags. YMMV.
@FediTips I think main issue is that many Mastodon front ends suck at representing hashtags - why are they so #highlighted?
It should be treated as a muted hyperlink but usually it's underlined and super high contrasted that it sticks out like a sore thumb.
I'm using Stylus browser extension to mute hashtag visuals and this makes it much easier to read posts with online hashtags. Here's a comparison:
@fuzzface @FediTips yeah I'm aware of that and it's a brilliant feature. All I'm saying is that default UI is hostile towards inline hashtags and that's why it doesn't work.
If I post something with inline hashtags I have no control over my readers experience so I have to base my style around default implementations which means no inline hashtags for now as every default I've seen is bad.
@wraptile @FediTips hashtags are already marked in the text by using the hashtag character at the beginning, which in theory wouldn't need any other style to be recognizable as a link. Indeed, it would make sense to reduce the stress of the styling on them, to allow reading the message with less distractions
They're not underlined on vanilla Mastodon. I think your server has modified the software to make them underlined?
@FediTips
I don't care much for in-line hashtags, but sometimes, given the meager standard Mastodon character limit, I have to do it to save space.
@FediTips I think its a design flaw in the first place to invest in thinking how a post is related to any person or topic, it should be typical machines work.
Hate it when hashtags are written in all case variants camel, pascal, lower case...
There should be a better system even including/reducing implicit hashtags.