Post #3149564

2026-05-10 19:01 UTC

You all know I'm trans. So, I care a LOT about presentation, about how I look and how I'm perceived. In a medium that is primarily text-based, I would think it's important to preserve the manner in which the author's text is formatted. ESPECIALLY WHEN THAT AUTHOR IS DESCRIBING THEMSELVES! Look, I might as well just change the BIO text field to: "See https://lisamelton.net/about/ because Mastodon constrains self expression" Am I upset about this issue? Yes! Aren't you? 2/3

Replies (6)

@lisamelton@mastodon.social 2026-05-10 19:01

If you don't see this behavior in your Mastodon profile, it's probably because you're running an older version of the Web software. I'm on mastodon.social and it's currently running version v4.6.0-alpha.7+pr-38939-5f3002f. Again, because I don't normally look at my own profile, I have no idea when this heinous formatting began in the development process. Because my version is an alpha, I hope that means there's plenty of time for Mastodon to fix this self-inflicted mistake. 3/3

Open ##3149565
@mathling@mastodon.social 2026-05-10 19:10

@lisamelton@mastodon.social Yes. It's on mine too. And I don't like it one bit.

Open ##3149602
@CStamp@mastodon.social 2026-05-10 19:21

@lisamelton@mastodon.social Oh, crap. I just looked. Oh, crap. It looks crappy. :(

Open ##3149603
@stefan@stefanbohacek.online 2026-05-10 19:23

@lisamelton@mastodon.social Has this been on your radar? Might be worth your time! https://stefanbohacek.online/@stefan/116550886655618589

Open ##3149608
@moss@kind.social 2026-05-10 19:28

@lisamelton@mastodon.social Accessibility hell to boot!! I hope they fix it asap, it seems such a silly choice ⁃ Person whose bio is bullet points

Open ##3149611
@nikclayton@mastodon.social 2026-05-11 09:51

@lisamelton@mastodon.social > Look, I might as well just change the BIO text field to: This is the correct approach, as different clients may display your profile/bio info however they see fit, and in different contexts (viewing your account standalone, viewing your account in a list of accounts, ...). Some clients show pronouns, some don't. Some users might even elect not to show emojis, or images, or disable animation. If you want full control over the presentation then linking to a PDF is probably best.

Open ##3149612