# What does "border="0" alt=""\> mean?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-border-0-alt-mean/140452
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [December 4, 2002, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-border-0-alt-mean/140452 "2002-12-04T15:55:57Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Tigers2B1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tigers2B1)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2002, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-border-0-alt-mean/140452/1 "2002-12-04T15:55:57Z")
I’ve seen it on this board and could make a stab at its meaning but I’m not certion. While you’re at it what does “OP” means?
Here are my guesses if you want a laugh
1. “border =“0” alt=”"\> means something like ‘no definition is possible’ OR ‘you statement lacks meaning’
2. “OP” stands for original proposition.
OK, now you see why I asked.
Thanks in advance - border =“0” alt=""\> ☹
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### Author:  [@Oblong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oblong)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2002, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-border-0-alt-mean/140452/2 "2002-12-04T15:59:26Z")
OP means “Original Post”, the one that started the thread.
The other, I don’t know. Have you seen it in posts or could it be your browser not reading something properly?
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### Author:  [@Tigers2B1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tigers2B1)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2002, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-border-0-alt-mean/140452/3 "2002-12-04T16:02:53Z")
\*\* Oblong\*\*–I’ve seen it in posts in the Great Debates section. Could be the browser – If you don’t see it after 1034 posts than I’m sure it is -
Thanks – Border=“0” alt=""\> 🙂
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### Author:  [@micco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/micco)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2002, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-border-0-alt-mean/140452/4 "2002-12-04T16:09:48Z")
border=“0” alt=""\> is an HTML fragment from an image tag. When you use \ to insert an image in an HTML page, you can define “alt” text to describe the image to people who use screen readers or browse with image downloading turned off. This is typically done to make web pages accessible to the visually handicapped and to assist in keyword indexing of images. The border=“0” part is used to turn of the link outline that appears around an image when it’s used as a link. If you put an \ tag inside an \ tag to make it clickable, most browsers will display the image with a blue border (or whatever color is defined for use in text links). This is usually aesthetically undesirable, so you turn off the link borders with border=“0”.
If you’re seeing this, it probably means the HTML you’re viewing has errors that are causing the fragments to be displayed instead of parsed, or someone tried to insert an image in a post (which isn’t allowed on this board). Of course, it may have some conversational meaning which is one big _swoosh_ to me.
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### Author:  [@Urban\_Ranger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urban_Ranger)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2002, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-border-0-alt-mean/140452/5 "2002-12-04T16:12:17Z")
1. These are called _attributes_ for the HTML \ tag. Normally, when an image is used as a link, browsers will create a border around it. The “border=‘0’” part eliminates it. “Alt” gives a textual description for the image, so if the image doesn’t load (or somebody is surfing with an all-text browser such as _Links_), you can still see what it is supposed to be. It is a bad practice not to set it.
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### Author:  [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2002, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-border-0-alt-mean/140452/6 "2002-12-04T16:19:00Z")
Even more specifically, \ tags ending that way seem to get generated for smilies. Your smilie for instance is:
\
They probably should have generated the text form of the emoticon as the alt attribute, but I doubt that VB would consider it a very high prioroty request.
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### Author:  [@Tigers2B1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tigers2B1)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2002, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-border-0-alt-mean/140452/7 "2002-12-04T16:31:09Z")
OK - great. I thought coders were talking about me behind my back! I feel a lot better.
Thanks
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### Author:  [@Futile\_Gesture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Futile_Gesture)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2002, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-border-0-alt-mean/140452/8 "2002-12-04T17:02:37Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Tigers2B1 \*
> **OK - great. I thought coders were talking about me behind my back!**
\ \
😉
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### Author:  [@RM\_Mentock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RM_Mentock)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2002, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-border-0-alt-mean/140452/9 "2002-12-04T17:09:23Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Oblong \*
> **OP means “Original Post”, the one that started the thread.**
Or, sometimes, depending upon context, the “Original Poster”. As in, “the OP said in the OP, ‘Here are my guesses if you want a laugh’”