Thread view is defective when images are disabled

[sourcejedi]

I disabled images + javascript in Firefox a few minutes ago, to see if it would help with a website which was timing out.

I noticed on MobileRead, there appeared to be a problem with the replacement text for images. The left hand column of the thread is bloated out like this (simple copy+paste):


Hellmark
Wizard
Hellmark can eat soup with a fork.Hellmark can eat soup with a fork.Hellmark can eat soup with a fork.Hellmark can eat soup with a fork.Hellmark can eat soup with a fork.Hellmark can eat soup with a fork.Hellmark can eat soup with a fork.Hellmark can eat soup with a fork.Hellmark can eat soup with a fork.Hellmark can eat soup with a fork.Hellmark can eat soup with a fork.

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Posts: 1,098
Karma: 9260
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Winfield, Missouri, USA
Device: Nokia N800, PRS-505

[montsnmags]

The cause is, I think, that each one of those little, blue boxes in a row under each username and title has the hover/alternative text attached to it (the "hover text" feature is intentional, as that seemingly random text is a "fortune" attached to different degrees of Karma a user has obtained).

I am unsure if anything can be done about this affect when you disable images here, but thought I'd at least mention it by way of explanation.

Cheers,
Marc

[DaleDe]

Aren't you tired of getting Karma fortunes by now?

[montsnmags]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

Aren't you tired of getting Karma fortunes by now?

I like the twist of getting them in mantra-form, as sourcejedi has highlighted.

(And for your troubles, I shall now curse you with more Karma, Dale. )

Cheers,
Marc
PS. But I'm not sure what can be done for sourcejedi. Perhaps someone with something like the Greasemonkey add-on for Firefox has met similar problems, and found a way around it that might help

[sourcejedi]

Thanks for the explanation!

I don't "need" it fixing... disabling images isn't something I do very often - but it was annoying enough to comment on. I'd think it'd affect visually impaired people who use screen-readers, though.

If it was felt worth it, I'm pretty sure it could be fixed at the HTML level. You can generate tooltips using the TITLE attribute instead of the ALT attribute. (And set the ALT attribute to an empty string, to indicate that the image can safely be ignored -- otherwise there's a risk that it backfires and screenreaders will read out the entire image URL instead). Of course that doesn't say how difficult it is to change the code that generates the HTML.

While I was googling this, I saw a claim that IE8 has actually stopped showing alt-text as a tooltip, so TITLE should also make for more consistent behaviour.

Post icon: 8-) (glasses-wearing-geek).

[montsnmags]

Originally Posted by sourcejedi

Thanks for the explanation!

I don't "need" it fixing... disabling images isn't something I do very often - but it was annoying enough to comment on. I'd think it'd affect visually impaired people who use screen-readers, though.

If it was felt worth it, I'm pretty sure it could be fixed at the HTML level. You can generate tooltips using the TITLE attribute instead of the ALT attribute. (And set the ALT attribute to an empty string, to indicate that the image can safely be ignored -- otherwise there's a risk that it backfires and screenreaders will read out the entire image URL instead). Of course that doesn't say how difficult it is to change the code that generates the HTML.

While I was googling this, I saw a claim that IE8 has actually stopped showing alt-text as a tooltip, so TITLE should also make for more consistent behaviour.

Post icon: 8-) (glasses-wearing-geek).

I wasn't sure if you needed it or not, and "want" would be sufficient to make a request anyway. But sorry for interpreting your post as such a request rather than the technical feedback intended.

Thanks for all that other information too (you glasses-wearing-geek, you ). While it's somewhat outside of my ken and access, even as a Mod, it'll help the MR backroom-to-the-backroom types that play with all the knobs and buttons here. I'll leave them to make of it what they will.

Cheers,
Marc

[GeoffC]

just as long as the backroom boys stay away from the red button ...