⚠️ DO NOT USE FLASHING IMAGES OR FLASHING EMOJI.

[buffyleigh@mas.to]

@FediTips Thank you for sharing this! I frequently use animated emojis that might be fine but I'm not really sure, will be more thoughtful about using them.

[testoceratops@disabled.social]

@FediTips @buffyleigh One of the worst animated emoji for me is the one of a cat's head moving around quite fast, I believe? I think it has quick color changes too (flashy ones are the worst to me, but it depends on everyone), or maybe it's another one. "Glitch" aesthetic (don't know how to name it) is horrible for me, even when not animated

I have autoplay off for everything, but when I open in another tab and it isn't on my instance, it's sometimes animated. Which sometimes caused seizures.

[integerpoet@sfba.social]

@FediTips Yes, but what I really mean is: let’s do all of the above **including** building software which is safe by default. Nobody really **needs** animated GIFs. Defaulting to disabling them means most people won’t ever enable them. Safety is more important than dancing hamsters.

[buffyleigh@mas.to]

@Testoceratops @FediTips Damn, that's horrible. So sorry you have to deal with that.

[feditips@social.growyourown.services]

@integerpoet

That's a fair point

[testoceratops@disabled.social]

@buffyleigh @FediTips I'm lucky enough to be able to spend a week without seizures sometimes, which is great.

When it happens a lot, well at least that's how I felt, you kinda get used to it. It remains exhausting, physically too even if there are no injuries. But when I haven't had one in a week, it feels worse somehow. Don't know if it's just me, though. Thank you for caring

[zl2tod@mastodon.online]

@FediTips

Rise time is a factor too.

Thus Xenon strobes, camera flashes, and LEDs with the usual fast switching, are more troublesome than incandescent sources.

Car tail lights strobing with sharp risetimes at epileptic trigger frequencies are common.

Single flashes can precipitate seizures.

[argv_minus_one@mastodon.sdf.org]

@FediTips

Note that 60Hz is also the refresh rate of most screens, so they aren't *capable* of displaying a flash that's too fast to trigger seizures.

[argv_minus_one@mastodon.sdf.org]

@FediTips

I'm reminded of a GIF I once saw, from some people who were apparently *trying* to trigger photosensitive epilepsy in unsuspecting website viewers. For their own amusement, apparently. Jerks.

It was called “Epilepsi” (sic). Very rapid, very intense flashing. On that day, I found out that I'm not epileptic…the hard way!

[argv_minus_one@mastodon.sdf.org]

@FediTips @buffyleigh

Wikipedia describes it as rapid changes in luminance. Equally rapid and dramatic changes in color, without a change in luminance, do not trigger seizures. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photosensitive_epilepsy

[argv_minus_one@mastodon.sdf.org]

@Testoceratops

Yeah, I saw on Wikipedia just now that even static images can trigger seizures in some people. I knew that rapid changes in luminance over *time* can cause seizures, but I didn't know rapid changes over *space* can do it too!

And yeah, the glitch aesthetic is pretty much exactly that. High contrast, lots of visual noise, resembling the output of buggy graphics code. Parsing such an image is pretty hard on the brain, even if it doesn't seize.

@FediTips @buffyleigh

[stgiga@blahaj.zone]

@FediTips@social.growyourown.services Let it be said the Netscape blink element aged badly

[bazkie@beige.party]

@argv_minus_one @FediTips ? the sensitive range mentioned is *lower* than 60 Hz tho! or am I missing something

[baardhaveland@snabelen.no]

@argv_minus_one @FediTips

Yeah, that's got to be wrong... If it triggered seizures, _any_ shared office space would be a major safety hazard.

Although, on a 60hz CRT, pixel intensity fades between each refresh, causing a constant "flickering wave" across the screen. (Not entire screen at once though.)

While on 60hz LCD (and similar), the pixels keep the same intensity while waiting for the next update. So no fading in between.

So that reference to 60hz may be from older tech, maybe?

[light@noc.social]

@FediTips
>It matters because a lot of people may not be able to prevent autoplay
There ought to be a browser extension that does that.

[light@noc.social]

@FediTips
In fact, Firefox probably has a setting in about:config to do that.

[chancerubbage@mastodon.social]

@FediTips

One time a house guest went catatonic. The only possible thing I could think of as an external physical trigger was a small flashing light on an electronic keyboard. I immediately thought back to the film Andromeda Strain.

Misdiagnosis however.

But I wonder about frame rates, as I can be very prone to motion sickness with certain films and video games.

Again, probably not related.

Haven’t seen to much web flashing since HTML 3.0 <blink> 26 + yrs ago.

[simonzerafa@infosec.exchange]

@FediTips

Would the options in Animations and accessibility be useful here?

[jetlagjen@gts.phillipsuk.org]

@FediTips flashing and flickering can also be bad for a range of non-epilepsy conditions like migraines, light sensitivity, motion sickness, etc.

They're typically not as serious as epilepsy can be, but they're still a thing. The kerb cut effect in action

[feditips@social.growyourown.services]

@simonzerafa

Yes, and they're covered in the guide, but there's a risk that someone views the animation without any restrictions in place (on someone else's device, on a shared link etc).