cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/58189605
What it looks like:
Here's an example of such a post: https://sh.itjust.works/post/58082125
They uploaded an image and then included a URL as the body/text.
On Lemmy, it looks like an image post, with a small expando to the right of the title that you can click to show the body:
Why you should stop doing it:
- It makes high-quality posts look the same as low-quality ones.
I automatically downvote most image/meme submissions and posts with bad/non-descriptive titles for quality control. Linking directly to a source is how you make a high-quality submission. You can include screenshots or quotes in the body of the post.
I could start clicking the expando next to the title to check if a source was provided, but there's going to be a user option to block image posts in the next lemmy update (v0.20), so that format is not good since lots of people will start to automatically block them.
You can put images in the body of the posts.
Why should anyone care?
Low-quality, easy-to-digest content will dominate and drown out everything else if no one does anything to limit it. It degrades the internet and our brains.
A blog that elaborates:
The Cargo Cult of The Ennui Engine https://medium.com/@max.p.schlienger/the-cargo-cult-of-the-ennui-engine-890c541cebcb
Replacing images with URLs makes viewing images slightly more difficult and doesn't allow people to scroll endlessly through lots of images, so it could be a nudge in the right direction. But it's probably inappropriate for most instances since it applies to all subs and basically ruins any sub where images are the main attraction.
Depends on the sub, the cooking subs are image based, but tend to have titles like:
"Homemade jumbo crumpet with baked strawberries topped with mascarpone" https://media.piefed.social/posts/R9/I8/R9I8hg1C1D7qWrO.jpeg
which is enough for me to decide whether to click (I clicked this one). It ruins subs that already have poor accessibility, due to non-descriptive titles and missing alt text. Which is fine.