Hello everyone. Today’s question is a very basic one that can affect your perception of any article you read online. On blogs or other sites, do you prefer reading articles that contain pictures of any kind, or do you prefer text-only articles?

In this article, whenever I refer to a picture, I am referring to pictures that show something from real life, and whenever I refer to an image, I am referring to the concept of images, which includes both pictures from real life and other visual art. Let us assume for this article that we are dealing with a language where the main focus relies on using text as a communication tool, and not images alone, even though text itself is a form of an image we use to come up with different meanings and sounds.

Some people can understand articles better if there is text along with pictures, as those people may either be better at having both pictures and text talk about something, instead of digesting text only. Other people may understand articles better if there is only text, as they may either be better at having text as their only focus about something, or they may have a hard time seeing pictures or may actually not be able to see and thus may be using some software to have their computers read back any online article. In that latter case, any picture description or the explanation of the picture within the html code becomes their text association¹.

Articles without pictures

1. An association with the text can happen in many ways, including using a picture or a set of words or letters. In the concept of association using a set of words or letters, I am referring to cases where a person who may have a hard time seeing may be reading the site through a browser that reads text out loud, and thus that person may associate some group of words with the article in question. For example, the picture of a person with a tattoo on his back, as shown in this paragraph, can become an association for people who can see the picture. For people who may have a hard time seeing for various reasons, I try to make available the “alt” description in the html coding or the very text itself, which in this example says “picture of a male with colorful tattoo on his back“, as an association with the text and article in question. The “alt” text exists to show a text in case the picture does not load. I like to use it so that it can be used to explain pictures to people who cannot see the pictures for other reasons also. I like using the image “alt” text area to explain an image in as much detail as possible so that everyone who comes across the image in almost any manner knows what is going on and can create an association if they wish. Most browsers allow you to hover over the image with your mouse and see what the “alt” text is, if you leave the mouse on the image for a second or two. [↩]
2. I will cover that topic, of whether or not having any kind of an image on a site means the site has images and is not a text-only site, in the near future. [↩]
3. I will cover a related topic, of whether or not having only pictures and no text can be useful, in the near future. [↩]
4. An association with the text can happen in many ways, including using a picture or a set of words or letters. In the concept of association using a set of words or letters, I am referring to cases where a person who may have a hard time seeing may be reading the site through a browser that reads text out loud, and thus that person may associate some group of words with the article in question. For example, the picture of a person with a tattoo on his back, as shown in this paragraph, can become an association for people who can see the picture. For people who may have a hard time seeing for various reasons, I try to make available the “alt” description in the html coding or the very text itself, which in this example says “picture of a male with colorful tattoo on his back“, as an association with the text and article in question. The “alt” text exists to show a text in case the picture does not load. I like to use it so that it can be used to explain pictures to people who cannot see the pictures for other reasons also. I like using the image “alt” text area to explain an image in as much detail as possible so that everyone who comes across the image in almost any manner knows what is going on and can create an association if they wish. Most browsers allow you to hover over the image with your mouse and see what the “alt” text is, if you leave the mouse on the image for a second or two. [↩]

I am seeing an increasing number of bloggers reward and interact with blog commentors more than blog readers. While it is true that a blogger can communicate easily through comments with a commentor, it is also true that a blogger can communicate easily through a post with the reader. Because of the thirst for more blog traffic, many bloggers are slowly starting to choose between blog readers and blog commentors, creating a thin line between different site visitors.