Azure Jane Lunatic (Azz) 🌺 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
azurelunatic) wrote2013-10-26 07:15 pm
azurelunatic) wrote2013-10-26 07:15 pm
Alt text your shit.
I don't always remember to. Last night I was very glad that I'd done so on the epic chocolate saga from '09. I dug it up for AD. Then I saw that the pictures, which were hosted on LJ, were not loading for some reason.
I panicked.
Then I very angrily dug into my external drive and tracked them down, happy that they had not been lost in a computer crash. I wrestled them into Dreamwidth. Then, shot by shot, I went through the newly uploaded images and the entry.
The folder with the originals had extra shots that I hadn't used, some of them functionally identical. I went through comparing the alt text and the images. It was a huge load of work doing those original image descriptions, but I knew that for a thing that big, people would appreciate it. In addition to the blind people I knew would need it, people with images turned off appreciated it. I didn't realize that future-me would appreciate it so much.
I went through the images, matching the description to the image. Sometimes it was really easy. Sometimes it was a lot harder. Sometimes I was thinking that I'd just grab an image arbitrarily out of a bunch of similar ones, but then I looked closer and yep, that was the only one that matched the description. Sometimes I went down and realized that I'd used the other one later on, so it had to be this one. But I got them in there. I decided I'd just stuff in the thumbnails, save it, and worry about other stuff later.
Then the pictures on LJ loaded again, and I looked through the halfway-renovated entry with growing delight. Shot for shot, I'd matched the images based on my memory of what I'd put where, and my detailed text descriptions. Thanks, past self. I owe you one.
I panicked.
Then I very angrily dug into my external drive and tracked them down, happy that they had not been lost in a computer crash. I wrestled them into Dreamwidth. Then, shot by shot, I went through the newly uploaded images and the entry.
The folder with the originals had extra shots that I hadn't used, some of them functionally identical. I went through comparing the alt text and the images. It was a huge load of work doing those original image descriptions, but I knew that for a thing that big, people would appreciate it. In addition to the blind people I knew would need it, people with images turned off appreciated it. I didn't realize that future-me would appreciate it so much.
I went through the images, matching the description to the image. Sometimes it was really easy. Sometimes it was a lot harder. Sometimes I was thinking that I'd just grab an image arbitrarily out of a bunch of similar ones, but then I looked closer and yep, that was the only one that matched the description. Sometimes I went down and realized that I'd used the other one later on, so it had to be this one. But I got them in there. I decided I'd just stuff in the thumbnails, save it, and worry about other stuff later.
Then the pictures on LJ loaded again, and I looked through the halfway-renovated entry with growing delight. Shot for shot, I'd matched the images based on my memory of what I'd put where, and my detailed text descriptions. Thanks, past self. I owe you one.