this post was submitted on 08 Apr 2026
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What it looks like:

Here's an example of such a post: https://sh.itjust.works/post/58082125

They uploaded an image and then included a URL as the body/text.

On Lemmy, it looks like an image post, with a small expando to the right of the title that you can click to show the body:

Why you should stop doing it:

  1. It makes high-quality posts look the same as low-quality ones.

I automatically downvote most image/meme submissions and posts with bad/non-descriptive titles for quality control. Linking directly to a source is how you make a high-quality submission. You can include screenshots or quotes in the body of the post.

  1. I could start clicking the expando next to the title to check if a source was provided, but there's going to be a user option to block image posts in the next lemmy update (v0.20), so that format is not good since lots of people will start to automatically block them.

  2. You can put images in the body of the posts.

Why should anyone care?

Low-quality, easy-to-digest content will dominate and drown out everything else if no one does anything to limit it. It degrades the internet and our brains.

A blog that elaborates:

The Cargo Cult of The Ennui Engine https://medium.com/@max.p.schlienger/the-cargo-cult-of-the-ennui-engine-890c541cebcb

top 18 comments
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[–] HubertManne@piefed.social 1 points 8 hours ago

I really don't like links or images where the poster does not talk about it in the body. I want it to be like if we were in person. Hey guys I came across this article and I think its neat because of how it discusse X in a y manner or it goes in depth on Z which I always found interesting or something like that.

[–] Outdated4134@piefed.zip 1 points 9 hours ago

Why does no one care about medium quality posts?

[–] Voidian@lemmy.dbzer0.com 34 points 1 day ago
[–] CombatWombat@feddit.online 26 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Low quality and easy to digest are orthogonal concerns. You can have high-quality posts that are easy to digest and low quality posts that are hard to digest. We shouldn’t make grocery bags heavier to increase the average person’s upper body strength, even if it would work.

[–] carlnewton@feddit.uk 1 points 15 hours ago (2 children)

Mate! It was you who commented something to this effect on my post a while back! I'm trying to understand what you mean, I really am, but it's not going in. Could you humour me, and explain to me what it is about an image accompanying a text post that makes it bad? Is it that so very often when an image accompanies an article you've seen so many instances of it being low quality content that you're conditioned to assume the same even when it isn't the case?

[–] Anon518@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 hour ago

It's explained in the OP.

[–] sik0fewl@piefed.ca 1 points 13 hours ago

While I agree with OPs general sentiment, your post is fine to me.

I think part of the problem is that Lemmy doesn’t allow for posts with both a link and an image.

[–] frongt@lemmy.zip 13 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Additionally, don't post text as an image. It's not searchable or accessible.

[–] Catoblepas@piefed.blahaj.zone 24 points 1 day ago

It is if you add alt text, which makes the internet more accessible for everyone 👍

[–] Anon518@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 day ago

Yep, that's another good reason I missed.

[–] yessikg@fedia.io 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

If you don't add alt text to your image/gif/video a ton of people on the Fediverse will miss out on your post

[–] Anon518@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] yessikg@fedia.io 5 points 1 day ago

So, there are many people on Mastodon that will ignore any image/gif/video post that doesn't have alt text, in support of accessibility. There's also the people who need the alt text to be able to interact with those kinds of posts

[–] Lauchmelder@feddit.org 0 points 1 day ago