Fuck video “documentation” and write a goddamn user manual

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@susannah would you please elaborate? I am curious about this, since I recently started thinking a/v is "better" for non-techies while text is better for machines (something we shouldn't go out of our way to optimize for).

@susannah don't you think there is a chance that preferring (English) text to a/v involves a bias towards able-bodied people (Westerners)? admittedly, text can be accessed via Braille or read out, whereas audio can't be rendered to text as feasibly.

@tetrislife Also, text is typically easier to translate - by people or machines if you're concerned about an English bias

@tetrislife Video documentation is incredibly slow, not searchable, difficult to skim, padded with incredible amounts of bullshit information that you can't skip without possibly missing the one thing you're looking for, useless as a reference, and, if you're making the documentation, is MUCH slower to update or edit. Text is a profoundly accessible technology, especially when it's screen-reader ready with images with good alt-text. Video requires better internet, better computers, and needs transcripts and image descriptions.

Video can be nice when you're learning some hands-on stuff (caulking a bathtub!) but even in those situations, it is far superior to have text + diagram supplemented by a very brief video.

In general, video is a way to waste people's time and get ad money.

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