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Alt Text Labeler @alt-text-labeler.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

Unless our pipeline crashes and we need to fix it, that is.

Alt Text Labeler @alt-text-labeler.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

Hello! We are still live testing, hundreds of thousands of labels every day is quite a challenge. But we are getting there, just bear with us in times of service interruptions or lower label visibility ratios. Depending on post volume we manage between 70 and 99.9% more or less consistently.

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Alt Text Labeler @alt-text-labeler.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

That said, reports received during service downtimes are actually quite helpful for identifying where the problem is. If we label reported posts manually, and the labels appear, it’s usually on our side, if they don’t appear, it’s usually on the Bluesky side 😅

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Alt Text Labeler @alt-text-labeler.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

A good point, but at the moment interruptions are rather the norm than the exception, and we do not want to annoy people. Once we have managed to stabilize operations sustainably, we are thinking of a daily post with current stats, and also - hopefully rare - automated technical status updates.

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Alt Text Labeler @alt-text-labeler.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

Also, unless the cursor gets stuck, we only label fresh posts atm, not historic ones. But you can also report older posts. So, any post from 5 or maybe 15 minutes old to one day old is a good candidate for reporting, older posts are also ok, but not in scope for the automated processes.

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Alt Text Labeler @alt-text-labeler.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

Excellent question. Under ideal conditions, labels should appear within 1-2 minutes after post creation, or even less. For labels that don’t appear within 5 minutes, we have automated remediation which de- and then re-labels posts and checks visibility (repeatedly), within a 15-minute window.

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Alt Text Labeler @alt-text-labeler.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

Ask away 😊 The scope is all posts, we do not differentiate between top level or comments (not sure if there even is a way to filter the firehose accordingly). Usually, when we get a report, we also scan the comments of that post for images without alt, so reporting the top level post is sufficient.

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Alt Text Labeler @alt-text-labeler.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

You can add text, but you can also save the effort, since it is all rather one-dimensional at the moment. Later, when we also try to capture nonsense alt text, it might be helpful to indicate certain patterns or context you may have noticed so we can develop and adjust our pattern recognition.

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Alt Text Labeler @alt-text-labeler.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

Please do (continue). So far we have been able to clear the reports queue at least once every 24 hours, and it has turned out it’s a very useful checkpoint in terms of posts we miss vs. posts where the label is applied but not visible. Thank you!

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Alt Text Labeler @alt-text-labeler.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

Yes. As in the previous message, here is the link to an AI imagery labeler: bsky.app/profile/labe... No idea if it‘s the one you were looking for, though.

bsky.app

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Alt Text Labeler @alt-text-labeler.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

We run an auto-labeling service - given the number of posted images without alt text there is no feasible way to do this manually. So if your image has no alt text, it will probably get labeled. If you are describing the images anyway, why not copy paste the text into the respective field?

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Alt Text Labeler @alt-text-labeler.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

You probably mean this one: bsky.app/profile/labe... We label images without alt text.

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Alt Text Labeler @alt-text-labeler.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

Still busy with getting label visibility on Bluesky to stay consistently above 99%. But Blacksky integration is definitely next in line on the to do list.

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Alt Text Labeler @alt-text-labeler.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

So your feeds - that by which you choose what to see in your timeline - do not affect this.

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Alt Text Labeler @alt-text-labeler.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

We are consuming and processing the entire firehose, and, once we have solved the technical issues we are still struggling with, this will work across the entire platform. Posts are selected for labeling only by the criteria of whether they have images, and whether those images have alt text or not.

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Alt Text Labeler @alt-text-labeler.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

Thank you! All reported posts have now been labeled.

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Alt Text Labeler @alt-text-labeler.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

We check for reports at least once every 24 hours, usually several times a day. We currently haven‘t configured the interface for sending responses, but you can bookmark the posts you reported and check after a few hours, or after a day maximum. So far we have been able to keep up with all reports.

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Alt Text Labeler @alt-text-labeler.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

As you would report any other post to a moderation service: Click the three horizontal dots at the bottom of the post (see picture 1), choose a reason (see picture 2, we recommend "Other"), choose the labeler when asked for the moderation service, and then submit (picture 3, no need for a comment).

Screenshot of some of the interaction items below a Bluesky post, from left to right:

Like/Fav, Bookmark, Forward, Additonal Options (three horizontal dots).

Choice of moderation / reporting options:

Why should this post be reviewed?

Other (An issue not included in these options)

Select a reason

Other (Autoselected)

Select moderation service

Bluesky Moderation Service
By @moderation.bsky.app

Skywatch Blue
By @skywatch.blue

Alt Text Labeler
By @alt-text-labeler.bsky.social

As before, with the Labeler selected, now also showing the Submit Report button and the comment field.

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Alt Text Labeler @alt-text-labeler.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

We are improving our diagnostics atm, and if that confirms our suspicion that the effect is correlated with sudden increases in post volume, we plan to build an autoscaler that can adapt the labeler‘s throughput quickly. Feel free to report such posts, though, we can label them manually. 2/2

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Alt Text Labeler @alt-text-labeler.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

Hi, thanks for bringing this up. We have a few issues to solve still, sometimes we have labels showing (in your case, with the "hide" setting, that means those posts are not showing) with a ratio of 99.9% over hours, and then label visibility / post invisibility suddenly dropping to 60/70%. 1/2

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Alt Text Labeler @alt-text-labeler.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

If you want, you can report the post, and we will label it manually :)

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Alt Text Labeler @alt-text-labeler.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

Thank you for pointing this out. It is an older post however, and for the moment we are only labeling fresh posts, trying to cope with the volume and improving stability and label visibility. When those things are reliably fixed, we will probably add specialized workers to label older posts as well.

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Alt Text Labeler @alt-text-labeler.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

Update after the Bluesky crash: We decided to reset/refresh the cursor, because given the unstable situation on the Bluesky side we were unable to catch up with the backlog without a major architectural rebuild. We learned a lot, though, and will consider that rebuild for the near future.

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Alt Text Labeler @alt-text-labeler.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

So feel free to report, and we will check each report and fix the labeling, but we can only do that once a day. And please don’t report older posts, there are millions of them. Thank you. 2/2

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Alt Text Labeler @alt-text-labeler.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

Hello. We are aiming to label posts automatically, which works well, but Bluesky has to show the labels, which does not yet work reliably. So we are focusing on getting that fixed, and will only be able to handle reports manually once a day. Also, please notice that we focus on fresh posts. 1/2

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Alt Text Labeler @alt-text-labeler.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

That part of the workflow is unreliable, unfortunately. Until Bluesky fixes those issues, we are putting a workaround in place, but this is also still in testing and we will need some time to get it to run reliably and with sufficient performance. Thank you for your patience. 2/2

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Alt Text Labeler @alt-text-labeler.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

Appreciate the feedback. Please consider that we are still in the live testing and bug fixing phase. If Bluesky isn’t currently crashing, we are labeling more than 99.9% of fresh posts successfully. However, for the labels to actually become visible, we have to rely on the Bluesky AppView. 1/2

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Alt Text Labeler @alt-text-labeler.bsky.social · 16/04/2026

What a day, huh? Relaunched the labeling service now, will first try to digest several (currently 8) hours of accumulated backlog, but unless we can catch up significantly within the next 2-3 hours we will reset the cursor to the current firehose head, prioritizing fresh posts.

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Alt Text Labeler @alt-text-labeler.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

Update: Service relaunched from fresh firehose cursor. Still analyzing the cause of the interruption, but labels should now start appearing again. Apologies for the inconvenience.

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Alt Text Labeler @alt-text-labeler.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

Experiencing some unplanned service downtime. Apologies. Will be relaunching asap.

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Alt Text Labeler @alt-text-labeler.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

This is probably a bug, apparently there are similar cases where that picture appeared without the user‘s knowledge (see below):

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Alt Text Labeler @alt-text-labeler.bsky.social · 12/04/2026

Alt Text Labeler Statistics Update: In the past 24 hours, ≈3.44m posts were created on Bluesky, 17% of which included images. Only 27% of image posts had alt text. During that time, the labeler • published ≈415k labels • with 90.5% avg label visibility* *within 5 minutes after post creation

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Alt Text Labeler @alt-text-labeler.bsky.social · 12/04/2026

Thank you. This is our fault. The post has a label, but it is not visible. We currently have about 10% of such cases (out of all labels applied). We are working on this. I have republished the label manually, should be visible now.

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Alt Text Labeler @alt-text-labeler.bsky.social · 12/04/2026

Hi, we still have some small percentage of labels which are applied to eligible posts, but are not visible in the AppView. Looking into it, as they say. However, this should not affect reposts. If you can, please share a link or a screenshot so we can validate this. Thank you.

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Alt Text Labeler @alt-text-labeler.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

Alt Text Labeler Statistics Update: In the past 18 hours, ≈2.5m posts were created on Bluesky, 16% of which included images. Only 27% of image posts had alt text. During that time, the labeler • published ≈290k labels • with 90% avg label visibility* *within 5 minutes after post creation

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Reposted by Alt Text Labeler

Ɐuska @auska.esq · 10/04/2026

Damn, Butch, you live like this meme but Max and Roxanne are standing in front of the Utopia city

Missing alt text image hidden by alt text labeler

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Alt Text Labeler @alt-text-labeler.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

With an image in the post, there can be no link card, and therefore no thumbnail. Again, thank you for your feedback, and this opportunity to clarify. 2/2

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Alt Text Labeler @alt-text-labeler.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

Ok, thanks. That is a post with an external link - without link card and thumbnail - and an image that has no alt text, and therefore has been labeled. As far as we know, you can either post a link with a link card (and a thumbnail, if there is one) or an image in the same post, but not both. 1/2

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Alt Text Labeler @alt-text-labeler.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

Do you have a link or a screenshot, so we can validate? Atm we are not even filtering for thumbnails in embedded links, so this shouldn’t happen. There seems to be a general issue with thumbnail images in embedded external links, however, hence the confusion, perhaps.

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Alt Text Labeler @alt-text-labeler.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

So, should we use a separate label for videos then, or no label at all?

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Alt Text Labeler @alt-text-labeler.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

Hello. We label posts that have no alt text. Still testing, but testing live now.

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Alt Text Labeler @alt-text-labeler.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

Hi, apart from some general label visibility issues we are currently only publishing labels on the Bluesky AppView (via Ozone), see screens below. Still need to explore how we can publish to Blacksky and other AppViews at the same time. Would love to compare notes if and when. Thx

Bluesky Screenshot, Post by Zohran Mamdani (with "Missing Alt Text Label")

Text:

The hungry red panda at the Prospect Park Zoo? Adorable.
The HungryPanda delivery app scamming small businesses? Not adorable. So they will be paying $580,000 back.
We'll keep pursuing companies that take advantage of New Yorkers, and we'll keep asking if we can pet a red panda just for a second.

Blacksky Screenshot, same post by Mamdani, but with a 2-part picture of the NYC Mayor in front of the red panda compound at Prospect Park Zoo, captioned "The delivery app HungryPanda will be held accountable for scamming small businesses. Were making them pay back the $500,000 they stole.
The hungry red panda behind me will be held adorable."

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Alt Text Labeler @alt-text-labeler.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

We had some issues with rate limits earlier, but the new architecture solved that. Right now the biggest issue is label visibility, we are at around 70% atm but we can surely fix this somehow.

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