Collected Over Spread @collectedoverspread@qoto.org

An organization posting a public statement as an image on social media is nothing new. But making the alt text an abridged version of the statement and not the actual text in the image, that's certainly different.

(And again, the organization has a perfectly functional website where it could post this statement as proper text!)

#WritingInImages #WebAccessibility #accessibility #a11y

Some other perspectives on this hearing:

"In the midst of complaints that the presidents failed to adequately condemn antisemitism, scant attention has been paid to their opening remarks." - "University Presidents Were Right to Condemn Hate Speech and Defend Free Speech" by Stephen Rohde in First Amendment News https://www.thefire.org/news/blogs/ronald-kl-collins-first-amendment-news/special-post-stephen-rohde-university-presidents

"I’m surprised by the people who think the university presidents were somehow tricked or couldn’t have answered differently. They weren’t and they could have." - "I know university presidents can respond better to odious speech — because I saw it happen at my school" by Ari Kohen for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency https://www.jta.org/2023/12/12/ideas/i-know-university-presidents-can-respond-better-to-odious-speech-because-i-saw-it-happen-at-my-school

#FreeSpeech #FirstAmendment #antisemitism

Seems like I'm not the only one frustrated by the response to college presidents' responses about at the recent "Holding Campus Leaders Accountable and Confronting Antisemitism" congressional hearing.

Ken White (The Popehat Report) has written about this, and the title alone may be enough: "Stop Demanding Dumb Answers to Hard Questions" https://popehat.substack.com/p/stop-demanding-dumb-answers-to-hard

In the American political context, "Hate speech is free speech," has a specific meaning, and I think grasping this is critical for any discussion about how we handle objectionable speech, not just in the current context of the war in the Middle East but also in, for example, the context of social media.

#FreeSpeech #FirstAmendment

"Colorado high court to hear case against Christian baker who refused to make LGBTQ-themed cake" by Colleen Slevin and Jesse Bedayn for Associated Press

https://apnews.com/article/colorado-baker-lbgtq-cakes-court-case-346930f66dbf451b84c0d72c5c7c2cc5

Specifically, someone ordered a pink cake with blue frosting (and no writing) to celebrate gender transition. This case is going to be interesting to watch. Personally I don't think this should be considered speech, assuming that the baker provides options for cake and frosting colors as a normal part of doing business.

If I had a nickel for every time I started sponsoring a #FOSS creativity tool after crappy pricing changes from proprietary competitors, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice. https://fund.godotengine.org/ #Godot #GodotEngine

Someone needs to make a #Bluesky #BlueskySocial -themed parody of "Mr. Blue Sky"

"The problems are these:

"We don’t have anything resembling a consensus on what 'cancel culture' is and we’re not having a serious discussion about defining it;

"We don’t have a consensus on how we reconcile the interests of speakers and responders, and we’re not making a serious attempt to reach one.

"We don’t have a consensus about what to do about it and we’re not trying to reach one."

"Our Fundamental Right To Shame And Shun The New York Times" by Ken White in The Popehat Report https://popehat.substack.com/p/our-fundamental-right-to-shame-and

#FreeSpeech #CancelCulture

Additional hashtag variations #303Creative #303CreativeLLCvElenis

Curious about the ramifications of the recent #303CreativevElenis #SCOTUS decision. Does it mean that I, as an atheist website designer, can refuse to create wedding websites with religious references? (This would not be based on the actual religion of the partners, only the content of the site.) Or what if I want to create websites for only same-sex couples? Must I have a sincerely-held religious belief to this effect or can I simply exercise my #FirstAmendment #1A right to not speak in certain situations?

I always had a distaste for Pinterest since it required you to login to view things, while #Twitter didn't. Now Pinterest doesn't require login (just found this out today, I'll admit) and Twitter does.

@test Seems like posts from Mastodon and similar Fediverse applications appear in the "microblog" in Kbin, which I guess makes sense, but I'm still not sure about this dichotomy.

Test post from Mastodon to the "Threadiverse" (Kbin) @test