Show HN: Cliptext, a tool for sharing pre-selected text as images on Twitter | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Cliptext, a tool for sharing pre-selected text as images on Twitter

cliptext.co

19 pointsdavidadamojr14 comments

>Why not share it as an image?

I can think of many reasons. Lack of semantics, no screenreading capabilities for the visually impaired, lowered quality, extreme waste of bandwidth and storage. I hate this trend, even if it offers some convenience to me.

Yes. Good points raised. I guess the lack of these capabilities is an "expensive" tradeoff for the slight convenience.

Judging by the comments on this blog post (https://medium.com/five-hundred-words/hacking-the-tweet-stre...), there is obviously no consensus as to whether this trend is good or bad. Some hate it, some find it convenient.

Agreed, this is horrifying.

Please no. Pictures of text are such a bad idea.

Yes indeed. There are quite a number of people who absolutely think this is a bad idea and for good reason too... However, one may argue that it can be rather convenient.

It's bad but it may gain popularity.

I know on networks such as Weibo, text as images is one method to get around automated censorship filters. Granted such images will likely be deleted by human filters, but not before being able to reach a wider audience.

https://projects.propublica.org/weibo/?s=Long-Text

Really seems weird. Is your fork not cutting your food well enough? Here, try this fork-sharpening tool.

Also if you can see the text, presumably you can screenshot it just as easily as you can copy-paste it to this service? And aren't there extensions and scripts that will even auto-upload screencaps and so on?

I admit it is weird. However, the primary purpose of the tool is to eliminate all that copy-paste and also avoid taking a full screenshot that contains irrelevant aspects as well as going to through the hassle of uploading the screenshot yourself. Whether or not it achieves this purpose is a whole other story. :)

Hi davidadamojr, I recently developed a similar web app (no mobile :( ) called squawkr (http://squawkr.me) and I'd love to chat with you sometime!

Hi hammeiam, squakwr looks pretty cool. I'll be happy to chat sometime. Twitter: @davidadamojr

You can do this with hookupJS for free - and then share the images on Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus and more.

Oh, and, wow. Underwhelming options. Our code is open source, free to use, no login, host on your own box & more.

Also, I fail to see a Terms of Service, only Privacy Policy, on your site. Odd. Makes me uncomfortable, honestly.

It's always a mystery to me how some stuff gets attention (like this) and other things get ignored; maybe because this, "Innovation," seems 100% aimed at making Twitter less accessible to visually impaired?

PS: we store the images we build as layers, so, we keep the text and can include it for later analysis, along with the background color used, font & more. In addition to tracking stats for you on the content you make, to see how well it performs on Facebook.

Sigh; would be cool if you'd add that to your roadmap. Or perhaps just relaunch with our code?

HookupJS sounds awesome. Having underwhelming options was completely intentional. The aim was to do ONE THING, and do it as fast and in as few steps as possible. The equally underwhelming source is actually available at http://github.com/davidadamojr/cliptext

One thing, super fast - bingo. Just wanted to say that, in terms of "end game," it fails to excite me after having worked in accessibility roles at companies large - and small. Eg, when you find out your employer got sued and lost for accessibility it feels like you failed the evolutionary test of compassion; sure, they passed the corporate, "Cost / Benefit," litmus test, but, was the work they did, "Good?"

Thank you for the compliment - I passed your link to my engineering partner, because, I'm the clueless business monkey. ;)

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