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

19 points by davidadamojr 12y ago

nilved 12y ago
Please no. Pictures of text are such a bad idea.
- veidelis 12y ago
  It's bad but it may gain popularity.
- davidadamojr 12y ago
  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.
unknownian 12y ago
>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.
- audiodude 12y ago
  Agreed, this is horrifying.
- davidadamojr 12y ago
  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-stream-52ed63a0731 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.
devindotcom 12y ago
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?
- davidadamojr 12y ago
  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. :)
nthitz 12y ago
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 https://projects.propublica.org/weibo/?s=Long-Text
hammeiam 12y ago
Hi davidadamojr, I recently developed a similar web app (no mobile :( ) called squawkr (http://squawkr.me http://squawkr.me) and I'd love to chat with you sometime!
- davidadamojr 12y ago
  Hi hammeiam, squakwr looks pretty cool. I'll be happy to chat sometime. Twitter: @davidadamojr
jdawg77 12y ago
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?
- davidadamojr 12y ago
  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 http://github.com/davidadamojr/cliptext
  - jdawg77 12y ago
    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. ;)

19 points by davidadamojr 12y ago

nilved 12y ago

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

veidelis 12y ago
It's bad but it may gain popularity.
davidadamojr 12y ago
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.

unknownian 12y ago

>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.

audiodude 12y ago
Agreed, this is horrifying.
davidadamojr 12y ago
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-stream-52ed63a0731 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.

devindotcom 12y ago

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?

davidadamojr 12y ago
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. :)

nthitz 12y ago

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

hammeiam 12y ago

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

davidadamojr 12y ago
Hi hammeiam, squakwr looks pretty cool. I'll be happy to chat sometime. Twitter: @davidadamojr

jdawg77 12y ago

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?

davidadamojr 12y ago
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 http://github.com/davidadamojr/cliptext
- jdawg77 12y ago
  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. ;)