

Show HN: Cliptext, a tool for sharing pre-selected text as images on Twitter - davidadamojr
http://www.cliptext.co

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unknownian
>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.

~~~
davidadamojr
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...](https://medium.com/five-hundred-
words/hacking-the-tweet-stream-52ed63a0731)), there is obviously no consensus
as to whether this trend is good or bad. Some hate it, some find it
convenient.

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

~~~
davidadamojr
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.

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nthitz
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)

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devindotcom
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
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. :)

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

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jdawg77
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
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
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. ;)

