I've been using the forum for a few years and have always been interested in what I'm able to do with the codes and tags; I have never once known about the alt-text option on this forum. I've known that it was a thing elsewhere, but I have never (knowingly) seen anybody using this. The forum has had problems loading images lately, and I don't see any particular reason for this to not be the default. I threw you a merit, because you taught me something new, I agree with this 100% and I can't find a flaw with it. It would make sense to at least alert users that there is an image there, when they are on a slow connection or the forum is experiencing general slowness.

If we could get a PSA on this, that might help remedy the issue somewhat.