In the discussion “Image hash code in description of forum topic shared on Facebook/Twitter,” ChrisBeach reports that image hash codes are appearing in og:description and twitter:description tags, making social media shares look unclear. sam asks for the “raw” content of the actual post, and ChrisBeach shares it.
sam suggests renaming the image to something more sane, but ChrisBeach explains that most users wouldn’t know how to or care to edit the image code. codinghorror confirms that uploading an image from a phone results in a guid appearing in the code.
codinghorror and gerhard discuss improving the handling of file names uploaded from mobile devices and removing [image] tags from excerpts used in og:description and twitter:description. ChrisBeach agrees that removing the [image] tags would be a good idea.
gerhard updates that the first part of the fix is merged, and codinghorror agrees to test it out. gerhard notifies ChrisBeach that updating to the latest version should resolve the issue, and ChrisBeach thanks gerhard for the change and notification.
Image hash codes are appearing in og:description and twitter:description tags.
<meta property="og:description" content="[58C86A72-CC43-4B36-A8C7-2F360BBA228E] One Tree Hill, Honor Oak 🎉 Welcome to Lewisham ..." />
<meta name="twitter:description" content="[58C86A72-CC43-4B36-A8C7-2F360BBA228E] One Tree Hill, Honor Oak 🎉 Welcome to Lewisham ..." />
It’s rare, if ever, that the image caption contains any useful content - most of the time they are lengthy hash codes. If these captions were stripped from the og: tags it would help my social media shares look clearer (I rely on shares to bring people to my forum - they’re an important part of my branding).
<sub>One Tree Hill, Honor Oak</sub>
## :tada: Welcome to Lewisham
- The highest number of [parks and green spaces](http://www.lewisham.gov.uk/inmyarea/openspaces/Pages/default.aspx) of any London borough.
- London's largest free fireworks [at Blackheath](http://www.lewisham.gov.uk/inmyarea/events/whats-on/fireworks/Pages/default.aspx) each year.
...
Yes we should handle this guid case for mobile, @gerhard can you add this to your list? I assume all iOS devices will benefit from better behavior here.
Should we remove the [image] tags from the excerpt used in og:description and twitter:description or is replacing the GUID in images uploaded from iOS enough?
Showing the alt text of images in those descriptions feels like a bad idea most of the time, but I guess there are some usecases where it makes sense to include them.
@ChrisBeach There shouldn’t be any image tags in the descriptions anymore when you share a topic on Twitter and Facebook. All you need to do is update to latest for this to work.
