I’ve been an avid follower of the web comic a softer world for years. I’d already been reading it for a long time when sweetie turned me on to the fact that there are “secret” messages when you mouse over the images. They often make the comic twice as good and sometimes provide a welcome laugh after the darker ones. A few weeks ago I discovered that a friend who reads the comic was similarly unaware. And she’s pretty geeky. (That’s a compliment.)

So consider yourself informed if you weren’t already, and go read the comic if you haven’t.

I love that hidden goodies online are becoming increasingly ubiquitous and even expected, along with easter eggs and google bombs and other computer nerd hijinx. Also, I’m not remotely an expert on this, but I think that including image descriptions helps with accessibility for people who require screen reading software. If they can’t see the image, they can at least get some information about whatever may not be clear from context.