Discouraging the use of textual screenshots in questions

Question

[This was originally posted as an answer to another question and was transformed into a question following a comment to this effect.]

To discourage rapid postings of the type alluded to in another questions, I would suggest the community simply close questions containing screenshots of text. I can understand a screenshot of a figure, but if the text part of a question can be easily typeset with the built-in editor, there’s no place for a screenshot.

If anything, the time and effort going to typesetting makes it easier to justify that the OP has done some effort - at least a tysetting effort - in thinking about and posting the question.

Of course typesetting also means a question becomes searchable and all those advantages, but it seems to me that intolerance to screenshot questions (at least the textual part of the question) is enough of a deterrent to eliminate the most egregious cases.

As to screenshots of equations, there is already a discussion elsewhere that would be applicable to questions as well as answers; the discussion on screenshots of equations seems to be inconclusive at this time.

[Here are a first and and a second example of questions where text is posted as screenshot. The OPs are not rapid posters.]

Answer 1

I agree. Screenshots of text have no place on this site.

There is simply no reason that plain text should ever be presented as a screenshot, and plenty of reasons why it shouldn't. If you want to quote text from a separate source which you have as an image, it is your responsibility to transcribe it.

• Transcribing the text, simply put, makes the site easier to read for everyone. It might make things more awkward for the reader by just a little bit, but it's definitely there and it's your responsibility to make your posts as readable as possible.

• More importantly, it is an important accessibility concern. Do you have good eyesight, and are you reading this site without accessibility tools or without zooming in on text? Then good for you! but not every user of the internet has that ability. There are plenty of people with visual impairments, going from difficulty reading all the way to complete blindness, that have every right to use the internet, which they do relying on assistive technology such as screen readers that do just fine if text is typeset as text, but which get stopped in their tracks when it comes to screenshots. Using proper typesetting (including good use of Markdown and MathJax) provides additional HTML syntax that those assistive technologies can use to give a more meaningful account of the content on the page.

  There are some disciplines that are intrinsically hard for visually-impaired people (say, photography? though even then, there are surprises) and physics is not one of them. I would like this site to be open to all, and proper typesetting is one of the things that allows us to be that.

• This machine-readability also makes the text easier to register and index by search-engine crawlers, which makes the post easier to search for and easier to find by other users, and which therefore makes the post more useful for a broader cross-section of internet users.

• Transcribing the text is also an important favour to the potential answerers who might want to copy-paste that text into their answers in order to refer to it in more detail in their answers.

• On a separate track, transcribing the text in your question is a way to demonstrate that you're prepared to match the effort you're asking others to perform in researching and writing an answer to your question with an effort to the best of your abilities to write the best question you can. If you cannot be bothered to type out two paragraphs of text, which then means that prospective answerers need to spend extra time squinting at a smudgy screenshot, then that speaks very poorly about how you value the effort you're soliciting.

This specific thread is explicitly about text, which has no entry barriers to transcribing. Quite often, though, screenshots of text will also include some mathematics, which do require learning to use the LaTeX syntax used by the site's MathJax engine. I do not think this is an excuse: if you want to quote mathematics, it is your responsibility to typeset it accurately. This is indeed an entry barrier, and you do need to learn how to do so - the Mathematics SE site has an excellent tutorial - which goes back to putting in the effort in formatting your question correctly, to match the effort you're expecting from the answerers.

(Furthermore, using the correct MathJax to display the math is even more of an accessibility concern. MathJax output is displayed using MathML, which contains a ton of semantic information that can be used by screen readers. To see just how much, right click on any complicated formula (here's one for convenience, $f(x) = \sum_{n=-\infty}^\infty c_n e^{inx}$) and click on Show Math As > MathML Code (so, for my example, it produces this code, which is the 'true' internal representation of the maths as the browser understands it). The resulting mess is not meant to be human-readable (the way LaTeX syntax is) but it is a bonanza for an automated system.)

Now, from time to time (and in practice quite often), community members might step in and transcribe an image for you, particularly if you're a new site member. That's great! somebody decided to help you out and help improve the site on their own. However, if this happens more than two or three times, then it quickly starts becoming abuse of the site's community mechanisms. You are responsible for the content you post and for ensuring that it does not unduly waste other people's time, either editors or readers.

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As to what this community should do with questions that contain screenshotted text: what we've been doing already, namely downvoting and, where appropriate, closing; leave a link to this thread if you feel like the downvote requires an explanation. If you have the time and inclination, transcribe the image, particularly if it's a new user, but do make it clear to the poster that they should be doing that on their own.

I use the AutoReviewComments userscript described in this answer and I've added a link to this answer to my copy of the 'Text, not pictures' template, which now reads

Text, not pictures

Please do not post images of texts you want to quote, but type it out instead so it is readable for all users and so that it can be indexed by search engines. For formulae, use MathJax instead.

and as copyable source

### Text, not pictures
Please [do not post images of texts you want to quote](https://physics.meta.stackexchange.com/q/10563), but type it out instead so it is readable for all users and so that it can be indexed by search engines. For formulae, use [MathJax](https://math.meta.stackexchange.com/q/5020) instead.

This takes a lot of the friction out, and it makes it much easier to autocomment, downvote, and then move on with one's life.

And to deal explicitly with the specific question: is the presence of a non-transcribed screenshot of text, by itself, reason enough to close a question? Frankly, I personally think that that is excessive and not a very effective way to tackle the problem. As I said, I think that screenshots of text have no place on this site, but the close-fix-reopen cycle is too sluggish to deal effectively with the problem.

More importantly, though, for the vast majority of questions that fall in that category there will also be other, more established, reasons to close the post, which makes the question moot most of the time. If none of that is applicable then, in my view, the first action should be a sharp word and a pointer to this thread. Typically the screenshot will be fixed one way or another, but if a newcomer insists on forcing others (by their inaction) to transcribe their screenshots then (as in the "elsewhere" reference for mathjax) question closure becomes a more appealing option as a way to force them to take notice.

Ultimately, of course, people's votes are their own, but to offer a definitive guidance proposal: vote to close on any other applicable reasons first, and if none are applicable for me the relevant question is: does this question's use of a screenshot constitute an abuse of this site's community mechanisms that can be effectively dealt with through a question closure? If the answer is yes, then I'd say a custom-reason closevote pointing here is warranted.

Answer 2

I agree that text should not be a screenshot. A link could refer to the text and the content described.

That elsewhere reference refers indirectly to me, because I am not open to learning mathjax . The reason is age, so if the physics.SE community wants to discourage old physicists, they should state it clearly.

I started with computers back in 1967 ,often correcting code on binary cards, and by 2000 when I retired C had become the latest programming tool; and papers were written in postcript.I have reached a saturation limit on memorizing tools. What is wrong in using ^ for a power after all? it is another symbol, and the answers are not going to the printer for a pretty book . When I need to use elaborate formulas I use a screenshot.

One thing has become clear,though, negative votes with no physics reason behind them, it must be people who consider that format is very important.

Answer 3

1. Is posting text as screenshots okay? NO.

2. If a post is perfectly okay, except that it contains a text screenshot, should we close it? No, we should fix it.

3. What if there is no resource to fix? (= nobody converts it to text or latex before the VtC vote is done). I think, if the post is really useful, somebody will once do it. If it is not so good, then bye.

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I think rationality dictates to check the content.

1. If there is a high school student being lazy to even type in his homework. Then there are also many other problems most likely (homework, unclear, and so on).
2. The other end: if there is an old physicist, not knowing latex, but giving high quality content. I think we should help him on the spot.

The cases what we actually find in the review queues, are between (1) and (2), but (1) is the overwhelming majority. But the people in (2) are IMHO too worthy for an iron-fist ban.

Banning screenshots won't eliminate them, because rep1 first-posters don't know anything from the meta site. They don't know the rules. They will still post. We can't eliminate them, because in their first post, we have no idea, if they have the potential to become an useful site member or not.

Thus, the rules should target to filter them. If their first experience with the site is that their post is killed because they were nit-picked, then they likely won't ever come back. In the "first posts" review, we should be nicer and repetitive, like a school teacher.

Somewhere I've read an SE insider stat(*), how the first-posters tend to react to the different events what happens to their post. For me, the most surprising result was that they don't take closures so badly as they are. They don't take care to the votes. Their chance to appear and post again is the highest if they get an answer, but even comments and edits help a lot.

Unfortunately, the official site rules are binary: something is either okay or not. Un-officially, there is some flexibility in the system. In this case, in my opinion, having a post with screenshot should be a huge disadvantage, but not a standalone reason to close.

_{*: I am ready to hunt for my source on ask.}

Answer 4

In my experience, there are generally two types of users who post screenshots of books/papers

• users who are asking us to do their work
• users who are answering questions (frequently to posts of the first type)

The first bullet is usually off-topic anyway, so these ought to be closed and downvoted so that the Roomba can delete them (assuming they're not deleted sooner by high rep members). This already happens on a regular basis.

The second bullet is generally considered low quality & are usually flagged as such, but one should leave a comment leading to the MathJax tutorial (often this could be extended to doing one equation for them as an example as well) in hopes that they become a good, contributing user. Often times, higher-rep members will replace the whole image (this is also true for the first bullet).
If the user doesn't respond to the call to typeset their work, then the answers are usually deleted as low quality but usually just left as downvoted.

So it seems to me that there isn't any problem to be solved here: the current policies are already in line with OPs expectations and the community handles them as such in practice.