https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&user=Greyson&feedformat=atomexplain xkcd - User contributions [en]2024-03-29T00:29:08ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.30.0https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1635:_Birdsong&diff=1100871635: Birdsong2016-01-27T18:25:46Z<p>Greyson: /* Explanation */ I fixed a bit of punctuation.</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1635<br />
| date = January 27, 2016<br />
| title = Birdsong<br />
| image = birdsong.png<br />
| titletext = Maybe if I put it in a box for a while with a speaker playing some pleasant pastoral music, I can reprogram it.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
The comic shows [[Cueball]] walking along with a bird singing above him; Cueball is apparently enjoying the perfect weather and the birdsong as he comments on both. In the next panel, it becomes apparent that the bird is actually singing the words to the song "{{w|Smooth (song)|Smooth}}" ([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Whgn_iE5uc official video]) by {{w|Santana (band)|Santana}} featuring {{w|Rob Thomas (musician)|Rob Thomas}}. The bird's singing begins to annoy Cueball, so he chases the bird with a {{w|butterfly net}} in an attempt to catch it. Meanwhile the bird just continues with the song. (Interestingly the two lines from the last two panels follow each other in the song, but Cueball manages to get hold of the net in between).<br />
<br />
The lines the bird sings are (most) of the last three lines from the chorus (see the [http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/santana/smooth.html lyrics]):<br />
*And it's just like the ocean under the moon<br />
*Well, that's the same as the emotion that I get from you<br />
*You '''got the kind of loving that can be so smooth, yeah.'''<br />
*'''Gimme your heart, make it real'''<br />
*'''Or else forget about it'''<br />
<br />
The comic is a play on the words 'bird' and 'song'. Birds, of course, don't actually sing: the sounds they make are territorial challenges, mating cries, etc. But in Western cultural traditions, particularly the {{w|pastoral}} one, imagining these sounds as 'song' is part of seeing nature as beautiful and harmonious. Ironically, the fact that this bird is really singing urban pop music, is perceived by Cueball to be an intrusion. Playing {{w|Pastoral#Pastoral_music|pastoral music}} to 'reprogram' the bird is of course an even more unnatural intervention - all with the purpose of restoring the pastoral naturalness of the morning. Of course some birds can actually {{w|Talking bird|emulate human words}}, and in this way actually sing real words, like with the {{w|common hill myna}}. Other birds can mimic any odd and unusual sounds, particularly the {{w|lyrebird}} of Australia, known to reproduce all types of sounds from chainsaws to barking dogs and certainly also music.<br />
<br />
The title text of "reprogramming" the bird by placing it in a box also refers to {{w|B. F. Skinner|B.F. Skinner}} and his development of {{w|Programmed learning|programmed learning}} through his theories of operant conditioning and behaviorism in psychology. By famously using birds in so-called {{w|Skinner boxes}}, he conditioned birds to respond to certain stimuli and expect rewards for particular behaviors, leading to an understanding of many impulsive behaviors in humans like addiction. Cueball apparently hopes to "correct" the bird and its song through this method.<br />
<br />
Lately [[Randall]] has had his characters catch several things, but never butterflies with a butterfly net. (See [[1193: Externalities]], [[1523: Microdrones]] and [[1622: Henge]].)<br />
<br />
It is also possible that the comic is a reference to the video game "Undertale". Shortly before the end of a No Mercy/Genocide Run (attempting to complete the game by killing all monsters), the final boss has the following line of dialogue.<br />
"It's a beautiful day outside. Birds are singing, flowers are blooming... on days like these, kids like you...<br />
Should be burning in hell."<br />
At the very end of a Genocide Run, the player is faced with the choice to walk away from the game forever (to "forget about it"), or to sell their soul to reverse the erasure of the game ("Give me your heart, make it real"). These parallels may indicate that Randall has played Undertale. However, given how the players of Undertale tend to spam the Internet with spoilers of the game (ironically, given how sensitive the game is to spoilers), Randall may simply be familiar with the secrets of the game out of osmosis.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[Cueball is walking and talking, while a bird, flying above him is singing, with four notes floating around it to indicate this. The notes are clearly above and removed from Cueball's text.]<br />
:Cueball (singing): The sun is shining, the birds are singing—<br />
<br />
:[Cueball stops and looks up when the bird above him starts to sing using human language, four notes are floating around the text. The text of the bird's song is in ''italic text'' to indicate this.]<br />
:Bird (singing): ''Got the kind of lovin' that can be so smooth, yeah''<br />
<br />
:[Cueball looks down and black smoke emanates from the top of his head. The bird now flies above the panel but still sings in human language, four notes are floating below the text.]<br />
:Bird (singing - off-panel): ''Give me your heart, make it real''<br />
<br />
:[Cueball is chasing the bird with a butterfly net, the bird is flying away from Cueball, continuing to sing, four notes are floating around the text.]<br />
:Bird (singing): ''Or else forget about it''<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Animals]]<br />
[[Category:Music]]<br />
[[Category:Songs]]</div>Greysonhttps://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1635:_Birdsong&diff=1100861635: Birdsong2016-01-27T18:25:08Z<p>Greyson: /* Explanation */ I added another incidence of butterfly nets. I also refined a couple of things of Undertale.</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1635<br />
| date = January 27, 2016<br />
| title = Birdsong<br />
| image = birdsong.png<br />
| titletext = Maybe if I put it in a box for a while with a speaker playing some pleasant pastoral music, I can reprogram it.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
The comic shows [[Cueball]] walking along with a bird singing above him; Cueball is apparently enjoying the perfect weather and the birdsong as he comments on both. In the next panel, it becomes apparent that the bird is actually singing the words to the song "{{w|Smooth (song)|Smooth}}" ([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Whgn_iE5uc official video]) by {{w|Santana (band)|Santana}} featuring {{w|Rob Thomas (musician)|Rob Thomas}}. The bird's singing begins to annoy Cueball, so he chases the bird with a {{w|butterfly net}} in an attempt to catch it. Meanwhile the bird just continues with the song. (Interestingly the two lines from the last two panels follow each other in the song, but Cueball manages to get hold of the net in between).<br />
<br />
The lines the bird sings are (most) of the last three lines from the chorus (see the [http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/santana/smooth.html lyrics]):<br />
*And it's just like the ocean under the moon<br />
*Well, that's the same as the emotion that I get from you<br />
*You '''got the kind of loving that can be so smooth, yeah.'''<br />
*'''Gimme your heart, make it real'''<br />
*'''Or else forget about it'''<br />
<br />
The comic is a play on the words 'bird' and 'song'. Birds, of course, don't actually sing: the sounds they make are territorial challenges, mating cries, etc. But in Western cultural traditions, particularly the {{w|pastoral}} one, imagining these sounds as 'song' is part of seeing nature as beautiful and harmonious. Ironically, the fact that this bird is really singing urban pop music, is perceived by Cueball to be an intrusion. Playing {{w|Pastoral#Pastoral_music|pastoral music}} to 'reprogram' the bird is of course an even more unnatural intervention - all with the purpose of restoring the pastoral naturalness of the morning. Of course some birds can actually {{w|Talking bird|emulate human words}}, and in this way actually sing real words, like with the {{w|common hill myna}}. Other birds can mimic any odd and unusual sounds, particularly the {{w|lyrebird}} of Australia, known to reproduce all types of sounds from chainsaws to barking dogs and certainly also music.<br />
<br />
The title text of "reprogramming" the bird by placing it in a box also refers to {{w|B. F. Skinner|B.F. Skinner}} and his development of {{w|Programmed learning|programmed learning}} through his theories of operant conditioning and behaviorism in psychology. By famously using birds in so-called {{w|Skinner boxes}}, he conditioned birds to respond to certain stimuli and expect rewards for particular behaviors, leading to an understanding of many impulsive behaviors in humans like addiction. Cueball apparently hopes to "correct" the bird and its song through this method.<br />
<br />
Lately [[Randall]] has had his characters catch several things, but never butterflies with a butterfly net, see [[1193: Externalities]], [[1523: Microdrones]] and [[1622: Henge]].<br />
<br />
It is also possible that the comic is a reference to the video game "Undertale". Shortly before the end of a No Mercy/Genocide Run (attempting to complete the game by killing all monsters), the final boss has the following line of dialogue.<br />
"It's a beautiful day outside. Birds are singing, flowers are blooming... on days like these, kids like you...<br />
Should be burning in hell."<br />
At the very end of a Genocide Run, the player is faced with the choice to walk away from the game forever (to "forget about it"), or to sell their soul to reverse the erasure of the game ("Give me your heart, make it real"). These parallels may indicate that Randall has played Undertale. However, given how the players of Undertale tend to spam the Internet with spoilers of the game (ironically, given how sensitive the game is to spoilers), Randall may simply be familiar with the secrets of the game out of osmosis.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[Cueball is walking and talking, while a bird, flying above him is singing, with four notes floating around it to indicate this. The notes are clearly above and removed from Cueball's text.]<br />
:Cueball (singing): The sun is shining, the birds are singing—<br />
<br />
:[Cueball stops and looks up when the bird above him starts to sing using human language, four notes are floating around the text. The text of the bird's song is in ''italic text'' to indicate this.]<br />
:Bird (singing): ''Got the kind of lovin' that can be so smooth, yeah''<br />
<br />
:[Cueball looks down and black smoke emanates from the top of his head. The bird now flies above the panel but still sings in human language, four notes are floating below the text.]<br />
:Bird (singing - off-panel): ''Give me your heart, make it real''<br />
<br />
:[Cueball is chasing the bird with a butterfly net, the bird is flying away from Cueball, continuing to sing, four notes are floating around the text.]<br />
:Bird (singing): ''Or else forget about it''<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Animals]]<br />
[[Category:Music]]<br />
[[Category:Songs]]</div>Greysonhttps://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:345:_1337:_Part_5&diff=109652Talk:345: 1337: Part 52016-01-20T21:57:25Z<p>Greyson: I added an alternate view.</p>
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<div>Does anyone know if such an IP address really exists, where you can point a streaming audio player at the right time to hear her "rock out"? [[User:Saibot84|Saibot84]] ([[User talk:Saibot84|talk]]) 05:33, 9 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
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127.0.0.1 [[User:HitiadlfElaineR|HitiadlfElaineR]] ([[User talk:HitiadlfElaineR|talk]]) 08:36, 19 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
While this was a joke, I can find a more inspirational view. In this case, while Elaine Roberts is fictional, you (that is, the programmer who reads xkcd) can be excellent hackers. You have the potential to achieve exploits (not just cracking ones). You just have to work towards your goal. In other words, the reason why the IP address points to your home is because you have the 'spirit' of Elaine Roberts. [[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 21:57, 20 January 2016 (UTC)<br />
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<br />
Shouldn't we mention Dread Pirate Roberts a.k.a. Ross William Ulbricht, the Silkroad founder? {{unsigned ip|141.101.64.71}}<br />
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Also, the joke is that the sentence from the Princess Bride _isn't_ exactly mimicked. Cary Elwes says "you'd make a wonderful Dread Pirate Roberts," where DPR is the full title. Elaine is told that she make a "great dread Pirate, Roberts," - Roberts being Elaine's surname. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.86|173.245.52.86]] 23:28, 6 November 2014 (UTC)<br />
* Rather pedantic bit of critique. The comma is just there so the joke makes sense as a line.- Pennpenn [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.205|108.162.249.205]] 02:24, 20 January 2015 (UTC)<br />
It should also be mentioned that the "Dread Pirate Roberts" was the nickname of the guy who ran Silk Road.--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.150|108.162.219.150]] 18:07, 29 January 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
according to Wikipedia, he Silk Road wasn't started until years after this comic was published. Interestingly enough, the titular comic 1337 was, which coincidentally also happens to be titled "Hack."[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.76|108.162.216.76]] 17:39, 12 March 2015 (UTC)</div>Greysonhttps://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Category_talk:Extra_comics&diff=104311Category talk:Extra comics2015-11-01T17:30:31Z<p>Greyson: The lost comic</p>
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<div>I sincerely believe that we should place this comic here due to this comic, while apparently part of the 5-minute comic series, is not a numbered one, despite still being one by Randall Munroe:<br />
http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/940:_Oversight<br />
[[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 17:30, 1 November 2015 (UTC)</div>Greysonhttps://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:656:_October_30th&diff=103785Talk:656: October 30th2015-10-22T05:12:37Z<p>Greyson: Back to the Future II</p>
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<div>I like this. I might do it next time I go Trick or Treating :) {{unsigned ip|108.162.249.218}}<br />
<br />
The 30 year-interval is probably an allusion to the interval between years 1955, 1985 and 2015, the years in which BTTF 1 & 2 take place.--[[Special:Contributions/141.101.96.222|141.101.96.222]] 11:54, 28 January 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I overshot the other way... in Puerto Rico time, at least. [[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 05:12, 22 October 2015 (UTC)</div>Greysonhttps://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:102:_Back_to_the_Future&diff=103784Talk:102: Back to the Future2015-10-22T05:11:57Z<p>Greyson: Back to the Future II</p>
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<div>[[User:Rikthoff|Rikthoff]] ([[User talk:Rikthoff|talk]]) I noticed the character on the right has hair in the first two frames, but is bald in the last frame... Two persons?<br />
<br />
[[User:Rikthoff|Rikthoff]] ([[User talk:Rikthoff|talk]]) The issue date might be off. All files since #101 have been created on April 11th, 2006. Anyone with an actual issue date?<br />
I agree with Rikthoff, I don't think this is Cueball. Being bald is one of his main features and this guy definately has hair.--[[User:Popuppete|Popuppete]] ([[User talk:Popuppete|talk]]) 13:42, 12 September 2012 (UTC)<br />
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[[User:tesshavon|tesshavon]] Could it be possible that Megan's dad died because of something the other character (let's not call him Cueball until we know for sure) did in the future to "make sure his parents got together and helped his dad to be less of a loser"?<br />
<br />
:It's more likely to have been the result of a airliner full of jet fuel crashing into the tower, causing it to burn and collapse. Megan is probably thinking that Cueball (I'm still going to call him Cueball, sorry) could maybe have alerted somebody that this was going to happen. In the past. Him having access to a time machine and all. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.58|108.162.219.58]] 20:31, 24 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
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Why do we take for granted alt text refers to the Cueball/Hairy and not the father? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.89.210|141.101.89.210]] 21:55, 29 March 2014 (UTC)<br />
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What if the alt text refers to Marty McFly and not Cueball/Hairy? You don't have to think about the comic very hard to know C/H was an asshole, but I think the implication is that Marty could have taken the DeLorean and done less petty, personal things with it.<br />
--[[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.47|173.245.54.47]] 21:51, 12 May 2014 (UTC)<br />
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Have people forgotten? The DeLorean time machine was destroyed at the end of the third film - it spent less than a day in total in 1985 (first used 1.20 am, destroyed by a train c. midafternoon). Cueball even references this in the comic. {{unsigned ip|108.162.250.223}}<br />
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Megan can still contact the friend and get her own time machine... maybe. [[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 05:11, 22 October 2015 (UTC)</div>Greysonhttps://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:864:_Flying_Cars&diff=103783Talk:864: Flying Cars2015-10-22T05:09:48Z<p>Greyson: Back to the Future II</p>
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<div>Self driving flying car. Happy now? '''[[User:Davidy22|<u>{{Color|purple|David}}<font color=green size=3px>y</font></u><font color=indigo size=4px>²²</font>]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 10:01, 9 March 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I think the title text is more of a reference to other things we expected to have by the 21st century: androids and jetpacks. [[Special:Contributions/75.101.102.252|75.101.102.252]] 02:47, 6 May 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I think we're missing an important feature of this comic. And that is that Megan is not wearing a shirt. Discuss. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.219|108.162.250.219]] 14:10, 8 June 2014 (UTC)<br />
:So would this particular strip be considered nsfw? :P [[User:Kirdneh|Kirdneh]] ([[User talk:Kirdneh|talk]]) 04:39, 25 January 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Since mobile/cell phones use part of the <br />
radio spectrum, they are patently two-way in that they send and receive data, and since smart-watches exist (the long-awaited Apple Watch made its debut in March 2015), I'd say that prophecy came true, and we just never properly realised it until now. {{unsigned ip|108.162.250.223}}<br />
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It's sort of like how 3D printers are just very primitive version of replicators from Star Trek... -Pennpenn [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.162|108.162.250.162]] 03:20, 26 June 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Back to the Future II DID predict video calls, though... [[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 05:09, 22 October 2015 (UTC)</div>Greysonhttps://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1516:_Win_by_Induction&diff=90926Talk:1516: Win by Induction2015-04-25T05:18:09Z<p>Greyson: </p>
<hr />
<div>Is the alt text a reference to double-yolkers (eggs with two yolks)? [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16118149 They're only about 1 in every 1000] but it seems like an obvious reference. --[[User:Fenn|Fenn]] ([[User talk:Fenn|talk]]) 08:32, 24 April 2015 (UTC)<br />
:Makes sense to me. I didn't even think of double yolks until you mentioned it here. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.89|173.245.50.89]] 09:04, 24 April 2015 (UTC)BK201<br />
::Seconded. --[[Special:Contributions/188.114.110.52|188.114.110.52]] 14:34, 24 April 2015 (UTC)<br />
:::I'd think it's a reference to the rate of twins, which is currently almost exactly 1/30 (and on the rise) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twin#Statistics] [[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.186|173.245.56.186]] 17:45, 24 April 2015 (UTC)Merkky[[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.186|173.245.56.186]] 17:45, 24 April 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
The explanation currently says that doubling makes it uncountably infinite. I'm pretty sure that doubling at each step (or every few steps) is still a countable infinite set. Proof here: http://practicaltypography.com/the-infinite-pixel-screen.html (see section "The internet demands a recount", because the first attempt is wrong). We can also prove it using the same argument as when proving that N x N is countable infinite (making zig-zag), but in this case making a breadth-first search of the tree of Pikachus: map 1 to the first Pikachu, map 2 and 3 to the two Pikachus at the second level, map 4, 5, 6, 7 to the four Pikachus at the third level, map (2^(n-1))…((2^n) - 1) to the 2^(n-1) Pikachus at level n. {{unsigned ip|108.162.229.177}}<br />
:Saw this too late. Yes, I agree, and I have fixed it accordingly. --[[User:Stephan Schulz|Stephan Schulz]] ([[User talk:Stephan Schulz|talk]]) 09:28, 24 April 2015 (UTC)<br />
:The problem being that we don't have an exact number for how many steps include double Pikachus. Granted, this is just a problem of practice, not theory. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.88|173.245.50.88]] 12:37, 24 April 2015 (UTC)<br />
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"infinite, but countable" {Cough.} Someone doesn't understand infinity. Perhaps they meant "enumerable". [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.155|108.162.250.155]] 09:29, 24 April 2015 (UTC)ū<br />
:Someone doesn't understand countability. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.89.217|141.101.89.217]] 09:46, 24 April 2015 (UTC)<br />
::enumeration is counting, in the simplest sense. "To name one by one; specify, as if in a list". That said, the whole of infinite whole numbers CAN be counted, just not by a human and not within a reasonable amount of time. --[[Special:Contributions/188.114.110.52|188.114.110.52]] 14:34, 24 April 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
"The front most Pikachu speaks." Hey, look, it has those little lines to show it's speaking, not the blank white space behind it. Duh. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.155|108.162.250.155]] 09:32, 24 April 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Looks like Megan is looking at her watch as well. Mention in transcript/explanation? [[User:Fenn|Fenn]] ([[User talk:Fenn|talk]]) 09:34, 24 April 2015 (UTC)<br />
:Are Megan and Cueball supposed to fight each other? It seems like Cueball still has his closed Pokéball in his hands. Is it then Megan's Pokéball that has evolved into all these Pikachu? And is it because she waits for her Pokémon to be ready to fight Cueball, that she checks her watch? I do not know anything about the Pokémon game/world. But it seems to me that some part of this setup is unexplained by the above... --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 11:23, 24 April 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
<br />
Friendly reminder: Grammatically speaking, Pokémon are like sheep or deer. Singular and plural are both written the same. One Pikachu, many Pikachu, all the Pikachu. You'd be surprised at how much rage forgetting this causes in certain corners of the Internet. {{unsigned ip|141.101.99.42}}<br />
<br />
What doesn't make sense to me is how this could continue indefinitely – after all, each of those Pikachu must have caught its own Pikachu beforehand. I don't see any infinite loop here, just a bunch of Pikachu that already had one another caught itselves. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.96.217|141.101.96.217]] 10:13, 24 April 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
The word "induction" could also be intended to have a double meaning, referring also to electromagnetic induction. Pikachu is, after all, and electric pokémon. {{unsigned ip|141.101.105.194}}<br />
:Yes, I think this is right. Something about Maxwell's equations and induction. {{unsigned ip|173.245.54.203}}<br />
::From an engineering standpoint, in my opinion, Pikachu act more like biological capacitors (stored electric charge at potentially high voltage able to deliver large discharge currents) than inductors ("storing" magnetic energy via constant current, able to deliver high voltage when interrupted, like the ignition coil for an older automotive engine). I'm not too familiar with the Pokémon in-game/in-show universe, but I would imagine the Nurse Jenny corps could use electric Pokémon such as Pikachu (or Raichu) like defibrillators for cardiac events! --BigMal // [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.177|173.245.50.177]] 11:42, 24 April 2015 (UTC)<br />
:::There are certain moves, including some that Pikachu can learn, that appear to be based on induction (Thunder Wave and Shock Wave). Besides, they build up charge in their bodies from somewhere; I'd suspect induction from the surrounding environment is what charges them up. --[[Special:Contributions/188.114.110.52|188.114.110.52]] 14:34, 24 April 2015 (UTC)<br />
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There's a point floating about how infinity doesn't imply completion. For instance, the number of all even integers is infinite, yet any given integer "only has a 50% chance of being even", so the series is quite obviously incomplete. This article seems to tend towards the idea (in diction) that an infinite number of pikachu would result in a win based on a 'logical' premise, without referring specificially to the terms of it's assumption. [[User:Xerxesbeat|Xerxesbeat]] ([[User talk:Xerxesbeat|talk]]) 11:38, 24 April 2015 (UTC)<br />
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What happens if the Pikachu in the ball is recursing - picking himself? That doesn't fit the 30-40 double yolk thing, but would explain an infinite series. Food for thought. Megan is bored, waiting for the fight to start. I thought the game was supposed to begin when the players choose, though, so I don't understand why the wait is happening at all. {{unsigned ip|108.162.221.151}}<br />
<br />
I doubt this is an intentional part of the joke, but the strongest Ground-type moves (Earthquake, Precipice Blades, etc.) are multi-target, hitting all foes in a 1v5 situation such as Horde Battles. In theory, a strong enough super effective move from Cueball's lead would still end the battle in one turn. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.176|173.245.56.176]] 12:04, 24 April 2015 (UTC)<br />
:Not Land's Wrath, Dig, or Earth Power, which are strong ground-type moves.[[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.126|173.245.48.126]] 13:05, 24 April 2015 (UTC)<br />
::Actually, Land's Wrath is multi-target. (The ones you named are also weaker than Earthquake and Precipice Blades, so the original comment stands regardless. Although a lucky Magnitude is more powerful than any of those.) --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.98|108.162.221.98]]<br />
<br />
I normally get a hearty chuckle out of Randall's graphical musings, but this one had me scratching my head. Fortunately, ExplainXKCD always comes to the rescue! After reading this page, my first thought was: Pokéception! 13:17, 24 April 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
;Induction<br />
<br />
Two other possibilities: one, in a bit of googling, it would appear that there is a type of Pokémon evolution called induced evolution, which involves stones of some kind? Alternately, we can use the term induction in the sense of soneone being ''inducted'' into a group. In this case, Megan has trained her Pikachu to be a Pokémaster. (Perhaps by arranging for it to be inducted into a rarified "gym"? I confess, I know nothing about the show.) [[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.196|173.245.56.196]] 13:11, 24 April 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
<br />
I'm surprised no one mentioned that Pokémon is a game a long time before becoming a show. Although it was because of the animated series that Pikachu became "special" among the hundreds of other cute critters.<br />
<br />
Also, no mention to the russian matryoshka dolls? Come on...<br />
Closest other xkcd I recall is https://xkcd.com/878/ {{unsigned ip|198.41.230.68}}<br />
<br />
;Axiom of choice<br />
<br />
Could this be to do with the {{w|axiom of choice}} from set theory? From my understanding, it's a fundamental axiom of set theory that says 'given a set of sets, it's possible to choose one element from each of those sets'. "Choosing" is in this case a specific operation that can be performed on an element.<br />
<br />
One specific detail about the axiom is that all sets under consideration must be nonempty; that is, they must contain at least one element. So I think this is analogous to the situation of a Pokemon trainer owning multiple (full) Pokeballs: his Pokeballs are a collection of non-empty sets from which he is now trying to choose a single element ("Pikachu, I choose you!").<br />
<br />
Under ''normal'' circumstances, he can do this without invoking the axiom of choice because he knows the names of all his Pokemon and so can select one from each set. In this case, he could prove his ability to make the choice simply by releasing all of his Pokemon from their balls one at a time. (The Pokemon's name is actually irrelevant, because simply releasing the Pokemon counts as a choice).<br />
<br />
However, the situation becomes more complex if it turns out that his Pokemon also possess Pokeballs, because now his ability to make the choice is uncertain. In this situation, there could be ''infinitely many'' Pikachus, and so he can't definitely select a Pikachu from all the Pokeballs under his control. In a situation like this, a mathematician would invoke the axiom of choice.<br />
<br />
However, it seems that Cueball is actually having a go at it using an inductive method of choice: first by choosing a Pikachu, then having each Pikachu choose a Pikachu. If the number of Pikachus carrying Pokeballs is finite, then eventually, this will demonstrate that the choice can be made and so the axiom of choice is unnecessary. However, if it's ''infinite'', then this will generate a neverending stream of Pikachus. In the latter case, the game never begins, because you can't begin a Pokemon battle until all participants have chosen Pokemon. Most likely, the other players would simply abandon the game, which Cueball could claim as a victory. [[User:Hawthorn|Hawthorn]] ([[User talk:Hawthorn|talk]]) 13:52, 24 April 2015 (UTC)<br />
:I think you are confused about the AoC. AoC states that given any collection of elements, you can choose an element from EACH set. If you are choosing a pokemon from a collection of pokeballs, it's equivalent to choosing one full pokeball from the collection and you are picking an element from a single set, which doesn't involve the AoC (this is something you can always do as long as the set is non-empty). In the example in the comic, AoC is not needed because there is already a natural ordering (ignoring the alt-text, which would make the set a partial ordering), so it's trivial to construct a choice function for any subset (choose the "least" pikachu in the sequence). On the other hand, if we have infinite pikachus running wild, we would need the Axiom of Choice (preferably its equivalent, the Well-Ordering Theorem) to assert that they can be ordered so that all of them except one is captured in a pokeball held by another pikachu.[[User:Aube|Aube]] ([[User talk:Aube|talk]]) 05:10, 25 April 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
This sentence is nonsensical: ''When Trainers do battle, the anime's dub has immersed the phrase "<Pokémon's name>, I choose you!" into popular culture memory, which is accompanied by throwing the ball containing the selected Pokémon to the ground, which releases the Pokémon at full size.'' [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.161|108.162.219.161]] 17:51, 24 April 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Should it be noted that the Pikachu is drawn without its tail? It would normally a have lightning bolt shaped tail that appears to the side or from behind its head. (Trivia or other note?) [[User:Azule|Azule]] ([[User talk:Azule|talk]]) 15:22, 24 April 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
In Pokemon games from Gold and up, pokemon are able to hold items, including pokeballs. While in the game, once a pokeball is filled it is no longer available to select as an item, this comic would seem to imply the possible 'inception' scenario of having a pokemon hold an active pokeball (as the games have already shown that a pokeball can go into a pokeball). --[[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.193|173.245.54.193]] 14:13, 24 April 2015 (UTC)<br />
: ahem... "pokeception" short for "pocket inception" - I can't be the first one to coin this (?) - [[User:Brettpeirce|Brettpeirce]] ([[User talk:Brettpeirce|talk]]) 16:33, 24 April 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
With Megan looking at her watch and Cueball holding the ball, I think we're meant to understand that Megan IS the Pokémon Cueball intends to use against Pikachu.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.153|108.162.221.153]] 19:12, 24 April 2015 (UTC)<br />
:Since Cueball has a closed ball in hand he has yet to choose a Pokemon. Tjus Megan cannot be his. She must have thrown the first Pikachu ball. Should be changed in explanation.[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:31, 24 April 2015 (UTC)<br />
It is possible the "win by induction" is from the Pikachu's opponent inferring the series in infinite, and conceding. 19:56, 24 April 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Am I missing something or does Randall not quite understand how Pokemon works? (Or is intentionally misrepresenting it for the sake of the joke) Pokemon don't come out with their own pokeball with them-- the pokemon aren't magically created. In theory, if someone were to give a pokemon its own pokemon, a chain could occur, but it would be limited to the number of pokemon previously caught. The pokemon are born in the wild and are captured inside pokeballs-- not created from them. {{unsigned ip|108.162.219.91}}<br />
<br />
Bother this. I send out Quagsire. Use Earthquake. '''Please''' do not wait.[[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 05:18, 25 April 2015 (UTC)</div>Greysonhttps://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1497:_New_Products&diff=86049Talk:1497: New Products2015-03-11T13:31:14Z<p>Greyson: </p>
<hr />
<div>Seems to me that the humor on the first two is based on engineers and programmers not understanding the general public's needs and wants. Also based on how engineers may find products "exciting" based on how novel the product's functionality is, not based on how useful that functionality is. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.150|108.162.215.150]] 07:02, 11 March 2015 (UTC)MW<br />
:It seems to me to be a bash on various makes, remakes, re-remakes, /(re-){2,}remakes/ and sequels of sequels that become very successful. —[[Special:Contributions/141.101.106.95|141.101.106.95]] 07:52, 11 March 2015 (UTC)<br />
::It looks to me that it refers for example to the Oculus rift.[[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.125|173.245.53.125]] 08:22, 11 March 2015 (UTC)<br />
:::I took the point of the first category to be that if smart people (programmers and engineers being assumed to be smart) can't understand why anyone would want some stupid useless piece of crap, that it will be a huge success because stupid people outnumber smart people a hundred to one (ref: MS Windows), and the point of the second category to be that if it excites smart people, it'll fail in the marketplace because stupid people outnumber smart people a hundred to one. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.133.27|199.27.133.27]] 08:57, 11 March 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I would be interested in a chart of examples of each category<br />
<br />
Sean Malstrom talked about this. In general, Super Mario Bros, the Legend of Zelda, and Metroid, while classic, are actually nothing new... just having a high level of crasftmanship. Besides, people want familiar experiences. In a way, that makes sense. Meanwhile, hype tends to inflate expectations. The only game that ever fulfilled hype was Super Mario Bros. 3... still a classic. Then again, hype is a mere tactic used in getting people to buy poor games; great games do not need hype. [[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 13:31, 11 March 2015 (UTC)</div>Greysonhttps://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1452:_Jurassic_World&diff=79783Talk:1452: Jurassic World2014-11-26T16:07:29Z<p>Greyson: </p>
<hr />
<div>Uh ... maybe, just maybe, is Megan referring to the ACTUAL tyrannosaurus, the animal which lived several millions years ago? -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 11:47, 26 November 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Any reason why "white hat" is not wearing his hat in the final panel? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.194|173.245.54.194]] 12:20, 26 November 2014 (UTC)<br />
: Good catch. [[User:Jarod997|Jarod997]] ([[User talk:Jarod997|talk]]) 14:31, 26 November 2014 (UTC)<br />
: none that I feel confident about - perhaps the T-Rex ate it or blew it off swinging his tail around? -- [[User:Brettpeirce|Brettpeirce]] ([[User talk:Brettpeirce|talk]]) 14:35, 26 November 2014 (UTC)<br />
: Logical reason: Randall forgot.<br />
: Fun reason: the surprise blew away the hat! [[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 16:07, 26 November 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Is it just me, or does this particular episode of xkcd just not come off as funny? [[User:Jarod997|Jarod997]] ([[User talk:Jarod997|talk]]) 14:31, 26 November 2014 (UTC)<br />
: I suppose not particularly, but that happens regularly - it's not always supposed to be funny... -- [[User:Brettpeirce|Brettpeirce]] ([[User talk:Brettpeirce|talk]]) 14:35, 26 November 2014 (UTC)<br />
::I really enjoyed this comic. It's probably because I did not see the punchline coming on my small smartphone screen. [[User:RecentlyChanged|RecentlyChanged]] ([[User talk:RecentlyChanged|talk]])<br />
<br />
I believe that Rex from ''We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story'' would be even more 'improved'! [[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 16:07, 26 November 2014 (UTC)</div>Greysonhttps://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=124:_Blogofractal&diff=75817124: Blogofractal2014-09-14T14:19:36Z<p>Greyson: I added explanations to some of the blog posts. (The 'series of tubes' comment was out of clarity.)</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 124<br />
| date = July 5, 2006<br />
| title = Blogofractal<br />
| image = blogofractal.png<br />
| titletext = Edward Tufte's 'The Visual Display of Quantitative Information' is a fantastic book, and should be required reading for anyone in either the sciences or graphic design.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
{{incomplete|Many of the memes need explanations.}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
The {{w|Blogosphere}} is a blanket term for all the blogs on the internet, that link together and share information to the extent that the term "blogosphere" arose to describe the collective of blogs. This comic proposes a new structure for defining all blogs by: a {{w|fractal}} of blogs.<br />
<br />
{{w|Edward Tufte}} is a statistician who worked on data visualization and wrote books on the subject, including "The Visual Display of Quantitative Information", as mentioned in the title text.<br />
<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
! Meme !! Explanation<br />
|-<br />
|TripMaster Monkey says || {{w|Tripmaster Monkey}} is a book by {{w|Maxine Hong Kingston}} about Wittman Ah Sing, an american graduate of chinese heritage. 'Monkey says' may be based on the saying 'Monkey See, Monkey Do'.<br />
|-<br />
|118th Post!! || A riff on the "first post" phenomenon.<br />
|-<br />
|Wikiconstitution! ||<br />
|-<br />
|OMG || Common acronym for "Oh My God", often used in messaging.<br />
|-<br />
|DeCSS || {{w|DeCSS}} was a piece of code for decrypting DVDs. There was a significant effort to prevent this code from being distributed, which triggered the {{w|Streisand effect}}.<br />
|-<br />
|Casemod your Boyfriend!! || {{w|Case modding}} is the modification of a computer chassis (or less commonly other devices), usually to make it more aesthetically pleasing. Casemodding a boyfriend would therefore attempt to make him more attractive.<br />
|-<br />
|FLICKR || A well known [https://www.flickr.com/ photo sharing site].<br />
|-<br />
|They're saying on Kos that || The {{w|Daily Kos}} is a web blog which publishes news and opinions about american politics, from a liberal standpoint. Alternatively, {{w|Kos}} is a greek island and popular holiday destination.<br />
|-<br />
|http://slashdot.org/articl || {{w|Slashdot}} is a technology-related news website frequented by geeks.<br />
|-<br />
|tagCloud || A {{w|Tag Cloud}} is a visual representation of keyword meta-data, usually with font size increasing with importance.<br />
|-<br />
|Cory Doctorow is a little upset about copyright law. || This is an understatement. {{w|Cory Doctorow}} is a strong activist in this area.<br />
|-<br />
|Hey guys what if Google is evil?!? || {{w|Don't be evil}} is the corporate motto of Google, however the sheer quantity of data held by Google is a somewhat scary thought. A number of conspiracy theories exist that Google is evil, bent on world domination, run by the government/CIA/FBI/illuminati/aliens.<br />
|-<br />
|I'll sleep with you for a FreeIpods deal. || This is a parody on how desperate people are in getting either iPhones (extremely popular yet expensive smartphones from Apple) or getting laid. (Coincidentally, years later, someone tried to sell her virginity in the exchange of an iPhone: http://www.techinasia.com/chinese-girl-sells-virginity-iphone4/ ) <br />
|-<br />
|FirstPsot!! || Some users on sites that accept comments will race to write the first comment (usually saying something like "First post!" or some variation thereof).<br />
|-<br />
|Snakes on an I don't Even Care Anymore || There were many jokes about {{w|Snakes on a Plane}} where a supposedly new movie to come out was named "Snakes on a ______". Clearly this person is tired of those jokes. See also [[107: Snakes on a Plane! 2]]<br />
|-<br />
|KiwiWiki || A New Zealand (Kiwi) related wiki exists at [http://kiwiwiki.co.nz kiwiwiki.co.nz], and this is likely included because Kiwi is an anagram of Wiki.<br />
|-<br />
|CSS || Reference to {{w|Cascading Style Sheets}}.<br />
|-<br />
|Comments (0) || The number of comments is zero, sometimes indicating that nobody cares.<br />
|-<br />
|Blogotesseract || This is a joke on the word "blogosphere".<br />
|-<br />
|¡play games! || One of the most frequent ads are those that mention "Play free games!". While these sites are real, they tend to be collections of Flash-based games taken from other sites from the Internet.<br />
|-<br />
|[RSS icon.] || {{w|RSS}} is a standard for web feeds.<br />
|-<br />
|is AYB retro yet? || The shoot-'em-up game "Zero Wing" on SEGA's Genesis console features an English translation so terrible it has long been a source of memetic humor. The line in question is, "'''A'''ll '''Y'''our '''B'''ase are belong to us!"<br />
|-<br />
|Google Google Google Apple Google Goog || ...a reference to how Apple is going into a prominence that rivals the ubiquitousness of Google, perhaps?<br />
|-<br />
|Cheney totally shot a dude!!! || A reference to {{w|Dick Cheney hunting incident}}.<br />
|-<br />
|Watch this toddler get owned by a squirrel!!! || An example of clickbait, usually a sensationalised headline which links to a page or video which is either of passing interesting or none at all. 'Funny' videos of animals and babies/toddlers tend to spread like wildfire online.<br />
|-<br />
|Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers || A reference to [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8To-6VIJZRE a widely circulated video], captured at a developers' conference, features a perspiring Ballmer chanting the word "developers"<br />
|-<br />
|I installed a Mac Mini inside ANOTHER Mac Mini! || This is a reference to Hackintosh, that is, installing a Machintosh operating system in a Windows-designed machine. In this case, installing a Mac Mini inside another is a relatively trivial, albeit meta, task.<br />
|-<br />
|Check out this vid of Jon Stewart ||<br />
|-<br />
|9-11 <-> Trent Lott! || This could refer to the conspiracy theories regarding the incident from September 11, 2001, the date when the Twin Towers of the United States of America fell. While the popular story is that Arab/Muslim terrorists deliberately crashed their planes into the towers with the purpose of killing infidels, the theory tells that the government ordered the intentional demolition of the towers. In this post, the poster linked the September 11 incident to Trent Lott.<br />
|-<br />
|Web 7.1 || This is a parody of Web 2.0, a concept in which content from the Internet is provided beyond the webpage. Despite its name, Web 2.0 does not really involve making an entirely new series of tubes or updating the existing ones, a point that the post parodies.<br />
|-<br />
|Kryptonite™ locks vulnerable to "keys!" || In about 2004, it was demonstrated that some tubular pin tumbler locks of the diameter used on Kryptonite locks could easily be opened with the shaft of an inexpensive Bic ballpoint pen of matching diameter, and this was widely reported.<br />
|-<br />
|Interesting post! Check out my blog, it has useful info on CARBON MONOXIDE LITIGATION || An example of a spam comment found where users can comment.<br />
|-<br />
|FIREFLY!! || Reference to {{w|Firefly (TV series)}}<br />
|-<br />
|HELP ME || This is a simple post where someone is requesting help in hopes that the readers of the blog would bring solutions.<br />
|-<br />
|Engadget || Endgaget is a technology-related website.<br />
|-<br />
|Boing Boing || Reference to collaborative blog site [http://boingboing.net/ Boing Boing].<br />
|-<br />
|Gizmodo || Gizmodo is a technology-related website hosted by Gawker.<br />
|-<br />
|MAKE Blog: DIY baby || This refers to various DIY blogs. In this case, the blog post would refer to how to make a baby, which, most likely, would lead into pornographic territory. This post might also refer to the "How is babby formed?" meme.<br />
|-<br />
|My friend has a band!! ||<br />
|-<br />
|Jon released an exploit in the protocol for meeting girls. || Exploits bypass hardware/software security, permitting cracking or simple extension of the current capabilities of the hardware/software. (One example: an exploit in video-game consoles would permit someone to play homebrew applications or pirated games among other things.) In this case, the exploit went beyond the technological, permitting the exploiter to meet girls.<br />
|-<br />
|Internets! || "Internets" is a memectic version of saying "Internet".<br />
|-<br />
|Howard Dean? ||<br />
|-<br />
|So I hear there's a hurricane. ||<br />
|-<br />
|We should elect this dude! || People have strong political opinions reflected in the Internet.<br />
|-<br />
|Google Maps is da best!! || Goggle Maps is a world mapping service from Google.<br />
|-<br />
|Moderation: +1 Sassy || A joke on Slashdot's moderating mechanism. Each post can get a moderation that consists of a score (+1/-1) and a reason (Insightful/Funny/Troll/etc.) "Sassy" is not one of the standard reasons.<br />
|-<br />
|RSS! || {{w|RSS}} again.<br />
|-<br />
|A-list ||<br />
|-<br />
|<3 || Emoticon for a heart.<br />
|-<br />
|Trackable URL? || This could refer to either marketing or security .<br />
|-<br />
|I shot a man in Reno check it out on YouTube! || The first half of this line comes from Jonny Cash's song "Folsom Prison Blues", which is "But I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die". The second half turns it around, because people often say "I did X, watch it on YouTube".<br />
|-<br />
|HEY LOOK ROBOTS! ||<br />
|-<br />
|Net Neutrality! || {{w|Net neutrality}} is a hot topic. It is the principle that ISPs and governments should treat all data on the Internet equally. There is great debate as to what level this should be enforced or not, and whether it should be regulated.<br />
|-<br />
|Friends Only. ||<br />
|-<br />
|Dupe! || A common note if the same thing gets posted twice on some forum. (Short for "duplicate".)<br />
|-<br />
|AJAX? || AJAX is a generic brand found in Mickey Mouse Works cartoons.<br />
|-<br />
|COMPLY ||<br />
|-<br />
|Cowboy Neal ||<br />
|-<br />
|Blogodrome || This is a parody on the word "blogosphere."<br />
|-<br />
|Hey look I got Linux running on my tonsils! || People would often brag about getting linux to run on strange hardware, from toasters to esoteric computers. This is taken to the ridiculous extreme of tonsils.<br />
|-<br />
|Look alive, blogonauts! ||<br />
|-<br />
|Cafepress cockrings || This refers to the "Prince Albert" piercing. <br />
|-<br />
|BOOBIES!! || Another reference to the "First Post" phenomenon. The popular news site FARK automatically changes entries of "First post" to "BOOBIES" and modifies the timestamp to be many hours in the future.<br />
|-<br />
|MIA || "Missing in Action", a term applied to people who fought in wars yet were never found<br />
|-<br />
|A Beowulf Cluster... of BLOGS!! || A {{w|Beowulf cluster}} is a computer cluster of computers networked together resulting in a high-performance parallel computing cluster. For a while, it was a fad to get one running on various strange platforms. This is a facetious example.<br />
|-<br />
|SPOILER ALERT || Often stated on the top of a post that contained spoilers. (See {{w|Spoiler (media)}}.)<br />
|-<br />
|Dupe! || This is the second instance of this, and therefore a dupe itself.<br />
|-<br />
|You have been eaten by a Grue. || This is a reference to the first of the Zork games. When the protagonist enters a house, the protagonist would quickly enter a dark corridor. Attempting to travel without some form of light would lead to the message "You have been eaten by a Grue," ending the game. Said message became a meme.<br />
|-<br />
|Ruby on a monorail || A riff on the name {{w|Ruby on Rails}}, a common platform for web applications.<br />
|-<br />
|Lesbians! ||<br />
|-<br />
|DNF Released! ||<br />
|-<br />
|Steampunk || Steampunk is a form of science fiction that involves imagining fturistic technology imagined at the Victorian era.<br />
|-<br />
|BLAG || "Blag" is a memectic form of "blog".<br />
|-<br />
|PONIES! || This refers to the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic cartoon series, the latest (at the time) reincarnitaion of the My Little Pony series. Despite its orientation to little girls, the series had proved ridiculously popular with people of all ages and had raised memectic proportions.<br />
|-<br />
|Xeni found some porn! || In some roleplaying games, whenever a character finds something, the message "[name] found [item]" appers. In this case, Xeni found pornography.<br />
|-<br />
|IRONY ||<br />
|-<br />
|LIARS! ||<br />
|-<br />
|Linux on Rails! || Another riff on the name {{w|Ruby on Rails}}.<br />
|-<br />
|Blogocube || This is just a parody of the name "blogosphere".<br />
|-<br />
|del.icio.us! || Del.icio.us (this post making a pun on the word "delicious!", obviously) is a bookmark-sharing service. Currently, Yahoo ate and killed the service.<br />
|-<br />
|404 || Probably the most common error gotten in a web browser: {{w|HTTP 404}}.<br />
|-<br />
|o.O || An emoticon indicating confusion.<br />
|-<br />
|Don't slam the source when you close it. || The original phrase (generally spoken from parents to children) is "Don't slam the door when you close it." This twists it around to refer to {{w|Closed source software}}.<br />
|}<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:From the makers of the Blogosphere, Blogocube, and Blogodrome comes<br />
:the Blogofractal<br />
<br />
:[A large rectangle subdivided into rectangles in a fractal pattern, most with a phrase or word inside.]<br />
:[Mostly left to right from top-left corner.]<br />
:TripMaster Monkey says<br />
:118th Post!!<br />
:Wikiconstitution!<br />
:OMG<br />
:DeCSS<br />
:Casemod your Boyfriend!!<br />
:FLICKR<br />
:They're saying on Kos that<br />
:<nowiki>http://slashdot.org/articl</nowiki><br />
:tagCloud<br />
:Cory Doctorow is a little upset about copyright law.<br />
:Hey guys what if Google is evil?!?<br />
:I'll sleep with you for a FreeIpods deal.<br />
:FirstPsot!!<br />
:Snakes on an I don't Even Care Anymore<br />
:KiwiWiki<br />
:CSS<br />
:Comments (0)<br />
:Blogotesseract<br />
:¡play games!<br />
:[RSS icon.]<br />
:is AYB retro yet?<br />
:Google Google Google Apple Google Goog<br />
:Cheney totally shot a dude!!!<br />
:Watch this toddler get owned by a squirrel!!!<br />
:Developers<br />
:Developers<br />
:Developers<br />
:Developers<br />
:I installed a Mac Mini inside ANOTHER Mac Mini!<br />
:Check out this vid of Jon Stewart<br />
:9-11 <-> Trent Lott!<br />
:Web 7.1<br />
:Kryptonite™ locks vulnerable to "keys!"<br />
:Interesting post! Check out my blog, it has useful info on CARBON MONOXIDE LITIGATION<br />
:FIREFLY!!<br />
:HELP ME<br />
:Engadget<br />
:Boing Boing<br />
:Gizmodo<br />
:MAKE Blog: DIY baby<br />
:My friend has a band!!<br />
:Jon released an exploit in the protocol for meeting girls.<br />
:Internets!<br />
:Howard Dean?<br />
:So I hear there's a hurricane.<br />
:We should elect this dude!<br />
:Google Maps is da best!!<br />
:Moderation: +1 Sassy<br />
:RSS!<br />
:A-list<br />
:<3<br />
:Trackable URL?<br />
:I shot a man in Reno check it out on YouTube!<br />
:HEY LOOK ROBOTS!<br />
:Net Neutrality!<br />
:Friends Only.<br />
:Dupe!<br />
:AJAX?<br />
:COMPLY<br />
:Cowboy Neal<br />
:Blogodrome<br />
:Hey look I got Linux running on my tonsils!<br />
:Look alive, blogonauts!<br />
:Cafepress cockrings<br />
:BOOBIES!!<br />
:MIA<br />
:A Beowulf Cluster... of BLOGS!!<br />
:SPOILER ALERT<br />
:Dupe!<br />
:You have been eaten by a Grue.<br />
:Ruby on a monorail<br />
:Lesbians!<br />
:DNF Released!<br />
:Steampunk<br />
:BLAG<br />
:PONIES!<br />
:Xeni found some porn!<br />
:IRONY<br />
:LIARS!<br />
:Linux on Rails!<br />
:Blogocube<br />
:del.icio.us!<br />
:404<br />
:o.O<br />
:Don't slam the source when you close it.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics with color]]</div>Greysonhttps://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1395:_Power_Cord&diff=71809Talk:1395: Power Cord2014-07-16T13:34:09Z<p>Greyson: </p>
<hr />
<div>Beret Guy is obviously exhaling a lighter-than-air gas, either by just taking a large breath of helium beforehand or by a very special cellular breathing process. Moreover, it should be noted that one averts one's eyes before something holy. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.220.41|108.162.220.41]] 11:02, 16 July 2014 (UTC)<br />
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Is there any reason why you would have to avert your eyes... i would think that it may create a dust cloud from the keyboard... but it is a fictional situations, so there may be other reasons...[[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.218|108.162.249.218]] 06:02, 16 July 2014 (UTC)<br />
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Has anyone noticed Beret's uncanny ability with power cords? [[User:Thendenster|Thendenster]] ([[User talk:Thendenster|talk]]) 06:29, 16 July 2014 (UTC)<br />
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What a stupid unrealistic comic. Things that are blown up with air don't float! >:-C --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.254.97|108.162.254.97]] 07:26, 16 July 2014 (UTC)<br />
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You obviously don't know how gross a keyboard can be...<br />
Also, if you think this is unrealistic, you obviously haven't read enough XKCD. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.220|108.162.249.220]] 07:41, 16 July 2014 (UTC)<br />
:Yes and as can be seen someone has already added a link to the previous comic on gross keyboards so... [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 07:45, 16 July 2014 (UTC) And who says that it is not blown up with helium or the like. First of all we would never see if a stick character was inflated - so Beret guy could be big and filled with helium. Or it is just his crazy ability that makes his blow into the socket turn the "air" into helium in the PC - or something much lighter since the shown inflation would never be enough to carry a laptop. In the end the whole comic is just an excuse to make three crazy puns (like them or not, that is up to the reader) and refeer back to [[237]] [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 07:45, 16 July 2014 (UTC)<br />
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Given that Beret Guy often does crazy correctitive things when he perceives something is amiss in his (surreal) visions of the world, I'm wondering if that's a specific protest against having the power chord plugged into the laptop but not the wall (during normal operation, I presume, rather than deliberately depleting the battery of testing the reduced-power settings, or temporarily while other powered devices require the power sockets with more urgency). I don't know whether I personally find this set-up more or less disturbing than a power-chord plugged into the wall but ''not'' plugged into the intended laptop. Although (apart from the risk of leaving residue across the pins), the comic's version is at least safer than the opening text of the explanation would suggest. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.192|141.101.99.192]] 12:11, 16 July 2014 (UTC)<br />
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...inflation in an xkcd comic? Cue the inflatophobes... [[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 13:34, 16 July 2014 (UTC)</div>Greysonhttps://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:553:_Pirate_Bay&diff=70680Talk:553: Pirate Bay2014-07-01T17:20:53Z<p>Greyson: </p>
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<div>"Just some stats..."... here are some reasons why TPB is down sometimes - and how long it usually takes to fix: "Tiamo gets *very* drunk and then something crashes: 4 days "Anakata gets a really bad cold and noone is around: 7 days "The US and Swedish gov. forces the police to steal our servers: 3 days".. yawn." <br />
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The piratebay IS...<br />
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:<br />
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I would consider unremovable Hungarian subtitles to be an [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Unishment Unishment]; even if I can not ignore the subtitles, I would end up learning Hungarian! I like learning languages! [[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 17:20, 1 July 2014 (UTC)</div>Greysonhttps://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=802:_Online_Communities_2&diff=70055802: Online Communities 22014-06-20T16:37:01Z<p>Greyson: At least, I write some 'blog blog' posts... (I added some site explanations.)</p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 802<br />
| date = October 6, 2010<br />
| title = Online Communities 2<br />
| image = online_communities_2.png<br />
| titletext = Best trivia I learned while working on this: 'Man, Farmville is so huge! Do you realize it's the second-biggest browser-based social-networking-centered farming game in the WORLD?' Then you wait for the listener to do a double-take.<br />
}}<br />
A larger version of this picture can be found here: [http://xkcd.com/802_large/ http://xkcd.com/802_large/].<br />
<div class="toclimit-3" style="float:right; margin-left: 10px;"> __TOC__ </div><br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Not all of the regions are fully explained. Many labels aren't even mentioned outside of the transcript.}}<br />
This comic shows a map of internet communities where the size of each region roughly corresponds to its size, and its proximity to other regions indicates similarities.<br />
<br />
This is the successor of [[256: Online Communities]]. It differs in that it is updated, and furthermore, instead of using the ''membership'' of whichever service to determine its size on the map, it uses its "daily social activity."<br />
<br />
The map actually has two super−maps: the online community map is surrounded by the "countries" of E−Mail and SMS ("Instant Messaging"). These, in turn, are surrounded by the "Spoken Language" country (which is odd, considering that e−mail, SMS, and the Internet in general are based on ''written'' language) with its own sub−country, "cell phones" (which ''do'' involve e−mail and the Internet while being the mean medium of SMS's).<br />
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At the title text [[Randall]] explains that, using his definition of "most activity per day", Farmville is actually the ''second'' most popular "Facebook farming game". This will strike many as odd, because Farmville is by far the most famous, leading one to wonder how the most famous could not be the most played. The phrase "browser-based social-networking-centered farming game" is an example of [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OverlyNarrowSuperlative an overly-narrow superlative].<br />
<br />
===Facebook Region===<br />
The Facebook region deals with social networks, that is, websites oriented towards having people meet.<br />
<br />
'''{{w|Facebook}}''' is a social networking site that allows people to meet old real−life friends and make new friends that share similar interests. One of its most notable features is that a member can update a "status" or make normal posts about the happenings of the member's life, complete with pictures, other members "liking" these posts. The size of the Facebook region is not exaggerated; most websites seem to allow "liking" their content or allow/require logging in the website with a Facebook account. There even are cell phones with a "Facebook" button!<br />
<br />
'''Farmville''', '''Happy Farm''', and '''Farm Town''' are all Facebook games in which users manage farms. Happy Farm, which is more used in China, does not require Facebook integration, so it is separated by a solid line from Facebook. The "Unethical Bay" refers to how these games tend to addict players into constantly buying virtual items of questionable value.<br />
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The '''People You Can't Unfriend''' refer to people whom, due to real-life expectations and relationships, unfriending them is difficult, no matter how you really feel about them.<br />
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The '''Data Mines''' refer to the data mining that Facebook does with the interests of its members. This fuels the profitable advertising business at the expense of customer trust.<br />
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The '''Plains of Awkwardly Public Family Interactions''' refer to how interactions with family members on Facebook suddenly become more awkward because everyone on Facebook (and sometimes ''off'' Facebook, given that you do not necessarily need to log in if you want to see someone's Facebook account) if you are discussing with your family through post comments.<br />
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'''"Old Facebook" Resistance''' refers to Facebook's earlier users, who have often resisted (and resented) changes made to Facebook as it became more popular. <br />
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'''Privacy Controls''' is located on the map surrounded by a Lava Pool, which is a reference to how difficult it is to find the privacy controls within Facebook.<br />
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While Facebook is the largest "country" of the Facebook Region, there are a lot of smaller "countries" that represent smaller social networks.<br />
<br />
*Below Facebook (and "'Old Facebook' Resistance") is '''{{w|Diaspora (social network)|Diaspora}}''', a fully open-source, decentralized, privacy-respecting-and-expecting alternative to Facebook. From what this map tells, Diaspora is little-known, even if Facebook is taken out of the context.<br />
*'''{{w|Taringa!}}''' is a Spanish-speaking social network that is based on a forums. Copyrighted material is frequently found there.<br />
*'''{{w|Classmates.com}}''' is a services in which the user can meet classmates that came from the same high school. The website is probably best known by its memetic advertisement that said [http://dudemanphat.blogspot.com/2005/10/how-am-i-supposed-to-care-about-nick.html "She married him??!! And they've got 7 kids??"] (Incidentally, [http://seattletimes.com/html/businesstechnology/2003325519_adcouple27.html there is more to the coupled picture than what the advertisement says.])<br />
*'''{{w|MySpace}}''' is a social networking website that is a kind of proto-Facebook: users could customize their one-page websites with whatever they wanted, make their interests and daily lives public, and interact with other users. Back in the mid 2000s, MySpace was the largest social network, many people using the website; however, the surprisingly-less-customizable Facebook ended up taking the place of MySpace. The "bands" country of MySpace refers to how a lot of bands in the day advertised and interacted using the website. Indeed, the latest incarnation of MySpace (in terms of 2013) is more oriented towards band members.<br />
*'''{{w|LinkedIn}}''' is a social network aimed towards people in the workplace, which is why it is adjancent to '''Corporate Bay'''.<br />
*'''{{w|Orkut}}''' is one of Google's first social networks before Google made [https://plus.google.com/ Google+].<br />
*'''{{w|Hi5}}''' is a social network that is very popular among people in Latin America.<br />
*'''{{w|Renren}}''' ('''「人人」''', "people" in Chinese) is "a Chinese copy of Facebook."<br />
*'''{{w|Bebo}}''' is a social network popular in the United Kingdom and Ireland.<br />
*'''{{w|Friendster}}''' - One of the first major social networks, it has fallen way off in usage in recent years and was eclipsed by MySpace.<br />
*'''{{w|Vkontakte}}''' or VK, is the second largest social network service in Europe after Facebook. It is available in several languages, but particularly popular among Russian-speaking users around the world.<br />
*'''{{w|Netlog}}''' Netlog (formerly known as Facebox and Bingbox) is a Belgian social networking website specifically targeted at the global youth demographic.<br />
*'''{{w|Mixi}}''' is an online Japanese social networking service.<br />
*'''{{w|Qzone}}''' is a social networking website, which is big in China. According to a report published by Tencent, possibly surpassing other social networking websites like Facebook and MySpace in China.<br />
*'''{{w|Tuenti}}''' is a Spain-based, social networking service, that has been referred to as the "Spanish Facebook."<br />
*'''{{w|Cloob}}''' is a Persian-language social networking website, mainly popular in Iran. After the locally (and internationally) popular social networking website Orkut was blocked by the Iranian government, a series of local sites and networks, including Cloob, emerged to fill the gap.<br />
*'''{{w|Kaixin001}}''' is a social networking website which ranks as the 13th most popular website in China and 67th overall.<br />
*'''{{w|Piczo}}''' was a privately held blog website for teens. In November 2012, Piczo.com shut down.<br />
*'''{{w|Odnoklassniki}}''' is a social network service for classmates and old friends. It is popular in Russia and former Soviet Republics.<br />
*'''{{w|Adult Friend Finder}}''' is a pornographic dating site.<br />
*'''{{w|Match.com}}''' is a dating site.<br />
*'''{{w|Ok Cupid}}''' is another dating site.<br />
*'''{{w|Plenty of Fish}}''' is yet another dating site.<br />
<br />
Other areas of note are the '''Niche Market Mountains''', where social networks aimed towards more niche markets are located. Similar to how mountains tend to be isolated from mainland, niche social networks tend to be just that: niche, without much interaction with the general populace. Above the Niche Market Mountains are the '''Charred Wasteland of Abandoned Social Networks'''. Given the popularity of MySpace and Facebook, there would be no doubt tons of websites wanting to take advantage of the success of these websites or even wanting to compete or even overpower with them. Even so, these websites tend to not have the userbase or even the expertise towards the long-term, hence they become wastelands: environments devoid of life, except the few life forms that are from these wastelands (in this case, the ones who are loyal to the website or which are sadly few). Within the '''Charred Wasteland of Abandoned Social Networks''' stands {{w|Ozymandias}}, the titular broken statue of Shelley's poem. In the poem, only "two vast and trunkless legs of stone" and a "shattered visage" are all that remain of the once-great statue and both of these features are present in the comic.<br />
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Also visible are the '''Duckface Mountains''', the '''Red Cup Mountains''', and '''Buzzword Bay'''. "Duckface" refers to [http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/duck-face this incredibly obnoxious facial expression], and "red cup pictures" are any pictures containing party-goers holding disposable red plastic beverage cups. Facebook is absolutely flooded with both types of pictures. {{w|Buzzword}}s are words and phrases that make you sound a lot more topical than you actually are, used to garner attention; again, Facebook status updates are commonly filled with buzzwords.<br />
<br />
===MMO Isle===<br />
MMO's (short form of "MMORPG", short form of "Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Player Game") are websites that host online games where multiple people take the role of a character and play in a setting hosted by the website. These types of games tend to be fantastical in setting. Frequently, missions are added to the game, giving current player more incentive towards playing more.<br />
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*'''[https://www.habbo.com/ Habbo Hotel]''' is a website where someone creates a human avatar an interacts in a virtual world that is not that different from the one in real life.<br />
*'''[http://www.clubpenguin.com/ Club Penguin]''' is [http://disney.com/ Disney's] MMO where someone creates a penguin avatar and interacts with other in a more polar, cartoony setting. Club Penguin is aimed towards children.<br />
*'''[http://maplestory.nexon.net/ Maple Story]''' is an MMO that has a more natural setting. The most distinguishing feature of Maple Story is its cartoony pixel art.<br />
*'''[http://www.gamefaqs.com/ GameFAQs]''', while not an MMO, is a website that has the largest repository of walkthoughs, that is, guides that help someone beat a game. GameFAQs is notable for not only its large repository of walkthroughs of games that are across an extreme variety of consoles, handhelds, and even computers (not all of them MMOs), but also the drama that is rumoured to happen in the GameFAQs forums.<br />
*'''[http://www.ign.com/ IGN]''' (full: '''Imagine Games Network'''), while also not an MMO, is the largest website that gives news on video games in general, not just MMOs. Each of the games mentioned in the site have pages that have summaries, reviews, screenshots, other art, videos, and links to news related to its games.<br />
*'''[http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/index.shtml FFXI]''' (full: '''Final Fantasy XI''') is an MMO from SquareEnix, being the first MMO of the popular ''Final Fantasy'' series.<br />
*'''[http://www.runescape.com/community Runescape]''' is an older MMO.<br />
*'''[http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/ Starcraft II]''' is a realtime strategy game with a science fiction setting that heavily involves space travel. While technically not an MMO, it has a significant online multiplayer component.<br />
*'''[http://us.battle.net/wow/en/ WoW]''' (full: '''World of Warcraft''') is the definitive MMO, being not only the most popular and one of the longest-running but also the most expansive (having its own spinoff games, comic books, novels, and even figurines), WOW giving the idea of how an MMO should be. A player can choose from a variety of races, each with its own heavy history.<br />
*'''[http://secondlife.com/ Second Life]''' is similar to Habbo, albeit with a bigger suspension of disbelief (one example being that the player does not need to be a human) and in a 3D setting. <br />
*'''[http://www.nationstates.net/ NationStates]''' is a text-based political simulation game. Notably, some of its traffic comes not from the actual game (which is optional), but the extensive set of political, roleplaying, and general forums attached.<br />
*'''[http://www.eveonline.com/ Eve Online]''' is a science fiction MMO which is notable because of its virtual economy.<br />
*'''[http://www.gaiaonline.com/ Gaia]''' (full: '''Gaia Online'''), while not an MMO, is a forums oriented towards pop culture, including video games and Japanese media. Its most notable feature is the heavy customization possible of a member's pixel-art avatar. Its members tend to roleplay a lot, albeit in a more written, story-based form. Gaia has gained a revaination of its members stealing art and causing drama.<br />
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Other notable regions include:<br />
*The '''Mountains of Steam''', referring to the game distribution service [http://store.steampowered.com/ Steam] where people could buy and download video games in general, not just MMOs.<br />
*'''River Grind''' refers to "grinding." In most MMOs, the character is a fighter of some sorts, yet starts at a level 1, signifying the character's aptitude level in combat. The character can level up and gain more aptitude levels through earning experience, of which the most reliable and otherwise common way is the process of "grinding," that is, repeatedly fighting opposing monsters (sometimes of a level notably lower that your character's), gaining experience points from winning these battles until your character gains a level, that is, "levels up". While a practical necessity in strengthening the character, this process can be tiresome, hence the expression "grinding."<br />
*'''Spawn Camp''' refers to "spawn points", the places in combat-oriented MMO's tend to produce ("spawn") random AI-powered creatures, and the act of "spawn camping", in which the player character simply stands behind or around the spawn points to fight the enemy creatures as soon as they appear.<br />
*'''Gulf of Lag''' refers to how the MMO can be slowed down a considerable amount due to the large amount of players simultaneously using the same server, this congestion bogging down the server and frustrating the users.<br />
*'''[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/final-boss-of-the-internet End Guy for the Internet]''' refers to "end bosses", the last — and usually hardest to defeat — "bad guy" in a game (or a section of a game).<br />
<br />
===YouTube Region===<br />
The YouTube region refers to websites that are based on user-created content.<br />
<br />
'''[https://www.youtube.com/ YouTube]''' is the definitive video website where people can upload videos with the purpose of public viewing, ranging from home movies through official music videos through Let's Plays of people playing video games to questionably-legal uploads of cartoons and films. Google had purchased YouTube.<br />
<br />
Many of the sites on the map are just references to {{w|viral video}}s at {{w|YouTube}}:<br />
*'''Viral Shores''' refers to how viral videos (whether they be viral marketing or simply memes) tend to proliferate on YouTube.<br />
*'''Britney''' likely refers to pop singer {{w|Britney Spears}} and the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHmvkRoEowc "Leave Britney Alone" guy].<br />
*'''Maru Gulf''' refers to Maru the Cat, a YouTube celebrity [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/676:_Abstraction also mentioned in xkcd].<br />
*'''Prairie Dog Habitat''' likely refers to the viral video [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1Y73sPHKxw Dramatic Chipmunk] (which is actually a Prairie Dog).<br />
*'''Rick Rolling Hills''' references, well, {{w|Rickrolling}}. More information [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ here]. The "deserted" note likely refers to how Rick Astley himself is tired of the meme, or again, how people tend to leave the video upon getting "Rick Roll'd," never actually going to the video with the express purpose of viewing the video.<br />
*'''Lunar Landing Soundstage''' is, of course, a reference to the {{w|Moon landing conspiracy theories}}, which Randall has railed on before.<br />
*'''{{w|OK Go}} Bay''' refers to the band "OK Go" who have multiple viral music videos on YouTube, most famously [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTAAsCNK7RA "Here it goes again"] featuring treadmills.<br />
<br />
The '''HTML5 swamp''' refers to the spotty support of HTML 5 (an update on HTML that is frequently touting its media capabilities, making HTML 5 a viable alternative to Flash) YouTube has. Of course, by the time the comic was written, HTML 5 was still in its infancy. The Music Video Bay refers to the amount of music videos (official or otherwise) are present in YouTube.<br />
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Other counties of the YouTube region include:<br />
*'''[https://vimeo.com/ vimeo]''', a website where people tend to showcase artistic content that they made on their own, notably independent studios.<br />
<br />
Snob Sound:<br />
*'''[https://secure.flickr.com/ Flickr]''', a website where people can upload and share photographs they took.<br />
*'''[http://fotolog.com Fotolog]''', a photo website very popular in South America in 2004-2008, which was used as a social network.<br />
*'''[http://www.last.fm/ Last.fm]''', a music website that is notable of its "scrobbling" feature.<br />
*'''[http://www.deviantart.com/ deviantArt]''', the largest art website, where people can upload, sell, and buy not only art itself, but also video, audio, Flash-work, and even skins (the original purpose of deviantArt). While many big-name/professional people and organizations have their works in deviantArt, the site is more infamous for the large amount of people who upload low-quality fan-art and fan-characters, most notably of media from Japan. Another point of infamy is the large amount of drama that can happen in the website.<br />
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*'''[https://www.newgrounds.com/ Newgrounds]''', a website that hosts art, (Flash-based) videos, audio, and (Flash-based) games to which other users can comment and rate. Even so, content from Newgrounds tends to be obscene, though there is a filtering system if a viewer does not wish to see obscene content.<br />
*'''[http://www.chatroulette.com/ Chatroulette]''' is a website where people are randomly paired up with each other and video/text chat.<br />
*'''{{w|Brickshelf}}''' is the online resource for {{w|LEGO}} fans.<br />
*'''[https://tumblr.com/ Tumblr]''', where people could make a blog and post text, pictures, video, audio, quotes, and links. The most distinguishing feature is the ability to "reblog" these posts from other's people's blogs into the user's own blog. Notable features of Tumblr include sketchblogs (where people upload their sketches), Ask blogs (where people answer questions other users ask, the moderators of these blogs usually pretending to be a character from a form of media), and the large amount of "social justice" (where people fight against racism, sexism, and other forms of negative discrimination). (See also [[1043: Ablogalypse]].)<br />
*'''{{w|b3ta}}''' is a popular British website, described as a "puerile digital arts community" by The Guardian.<br />
<br />
<br />
The '''Isle of teenagers who just discovered macroeconomics''' is a joke about how teenagers tend to think that the world and the economy are a lot simpler than they actually are. Combined with the typical internet mindset, this leads to a lot of teenagers posting blogs and videos and comments on blogs and videos describing how idiotic the government and other red-tape-related adults are.<br />
The '''Snob Sound''' could refer to the large amount of people who look down on others in the surrounding websites (one example being an original artist looking down on people who draw mainly fan-art). '''The Iraq''' is a reference to Miss Teen USA 2007, Ms. Teen South Carolina - Lauren Katlin said "I believe that our education like such as in South Africa and the Iraq everywhere like such as...the US should help the US and should help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the asian countries so we are able to build up our future." The usage of "the iraq" became a meme.<br />
<br />
===Twitter Region===<br />
*'''Bieber Bay''' is a reference to {{w|Justin Bieber}} a pop singer whose singing sprouted on YouTube and became very popular on Twitter and other social media. He is very much vilified because of his rather feminine appearance and his hordes of fans (called "Beliebers") that seem to support him to ridiculous extents. Lately, though, Justin Beiber has taken a "bad boy" attitude because of all the Beliebers who are willing to defend him no matter what, him partaking in a lot of questionable activities that include tattoos, questionably-legal substances, and buying prostitution, thus lowering his popularity in the general populace.<br />
*'''{{w|Google Buzz}}''' is a former social network attempted by Google. It has since been shut down.<br />
*'''Bit.Ly Mountains''' is a reference to the URL shortening service {{w|bit.ly}}.<br />
*'''Kayne's Isle of Sadness''' is a reference to the musician {{w|Kayne West}}.<br />
*'''Sarah Palin USA''' is the Twitter handle of former politician {{w|Sarah Palin}}.<br />
*'''Clueless Politician Coast''' is a reference to the number of politicians on Twitter and other social networks who repeatedly share clueless updates that more often create an uproar than help their election chances.<br />
*'''Desert of Food Updates''' is a reference to the number of pictures of food that are shared on social media (especially Twitter). There has even been some controversy on posting such pictures.<br />
*'''Journalists Trying to Find the Cutting Edge''' is referencing journalists on Twitter trying to keep up with the way that news is gathered and delivered now, despite usually working for a newspaper that publishes once a day.<br />
*'''{{w|SHAQ}}''' is a reference to the former NBA basketball player, {{w|Shaq}}.<br />
*'''{{w|identi.ca}}''' is an open source social networking and micro-blogging service, being an alternative to Twitter.<br />
*''' Breaking! Waves''' is a pun on the fact that so many people used the word "Breaking" at the beginning of tweets that do not warrant that tag that the word has lost most of its meaning and become a joke. It is a pun because waves "break" on the shore.<br />
*'''Web 3.0''' refers to the unofficial term {{w|Web 2.0}}. In this case, "Web 1.0" refers to accessing the Internet using Web Browsers, e-mail, and chatting, mainly through the use of computers. "Web 2.0" refers to accessing the Internet through new means (for example, RSS Feeds that read the news) through more devices (for example: tablets and cell phones). As such, "Web 3.0" means either what the Internet is like now in its current state of development, or what it will soon develop into; either way, it is still very much Under Construction.<br />
<br />
===Geotagged Bay===<br />
*'''{{w|Yelp}}''' is a website where people post reviews of real-life public locations (one example being restaurants).<br />
*'''{{w|Geocaching}}'''<br />
*'''{{w|Foursquare}}''' is a location-based social network.<br />
*'''Latitude''' refers to {{w|Google Latitude}}.<br />
<br />
===Troll Bay and the Sea of Memes===<br />
*'''Reddit''' - {{w|Reddit}} is the self-described "front page of the Internet" in which users submit stories, photos and videos and the best are "up-voted" to the top of the page.<br />
*'''Wikipedia talk pages''' refer to the pages that describe members of Wikipedia, edited by their respective members.<br />
*'''{{w|Wikia}}''' is 3rd party wiki software, used in the making of the user-editable encyclopedias of just about any subject matter.<br />
*'''StumbleUpon''' is a website-sharing service.<br />
*'''Delicious''' is a bookmarking and bookmark-sharing service.<br />
*'''{{w|Digg}}''' is a former competitor to Reddit in the social-news sphere, but now has been sold and restarted as an aggregator of news stories.<br />
*'''Slashdot''', labeled "/." on the map, is a technical news site.<br />
*'''Fark''' is a stricter user-generated news site.<br />
*'''YTMND''' is an acronym for "You're The Man Now, Dog!" It's also a community in which users can create meme-type nonsense by playing music over an image (either static or animated).<br />
<br />
===Skype Region===<br />
The Skype Region refers to different IM, or Instant Messaging services, that enable almost-real-time text chatting between multiple people. These often allow services like voice chat and even video calls.<br />
<br />
*'''{{w|Skype}}''' is, according to Randall, the most popular of these among the internet. It has many features to allow peer-to-peer voice chats, as well as allowing calls to be made at a price to actual phones.<br />
*'''{{w|AIM}}''' or AOL Instant Messenger is a chat client created by AOL.<br />
*'''GG''' is {{w|Gadu-Gadu}} and instant messenger client popular in Poland.<br />
*'''{{w|Yahoo Messenger}}''' is an instant messenger client by Yahoo.<br />
*'''{{w|Google Talk}}''' is a voice/video chatting service from Google. Google Talk also has an invasion fleet at its shores.<br />
*'''{{w|ICQ}}''' is an older messaging service, albeit with an 18+ requirement (despite pornography not being the point of ICQ).<br />
*'''{{w|Windows Live Messenger}}''', or "MSN", was the messaging service of Microsoft before Microsoft bought Skype. MSN was useful in that people could draw and send pictures to other chatters.<br />
*'''{{w|UseNet}}''' was one of the original ways to communicate on the internet, though peaple can download (copyrighted) files through the service. Since it is still in use by some, it gets the tag "Still Around!" on the map.<br />
*'''{{w|IRC}} Isles''' refers to the ancestor of Internet-powered chatting. People would have connected to a server and spoke publicly. IRC is still in use (per 2014, notably in getting help from users4. One of those isles is #xkcd which is an IRC community around [[xkcd]].<br />
<br />
===Bay of Drama===<br />
*'''FanFiction.net''' is a website where people can submit their fanfiction (stories by fans written about other peoples' media, normally that about popular media). The website tend to have people that are not helpful to those who legitimately want critique of their own stories.<br />
*'''{{w|Xanga}}''' is a blogging service that, while popular at its time, lost out to...<br />
*'''{{w|LiveJournal}}''', one of the definitive websites and Internet communities. More specifically, LiveJournal was the most popular blogging service before Tumblr becahe popular.<br />
*'''ONYD''' - Reference to {{w|Oh No You Didn't}}, which is explained in the Blogosphere region.<br />
*'''Dream WIOT?'''<br />
<br />
===Blogosphere===<br />
The Blogosphere region contains several general blog topics.<br />
*'''Photo Blogs''' - One popular use of blogs is the chronicling through photographs the lives of the authors.<br />
*'''Diary Blogs''' - Another popular use (and, in fact, the original use) is writing commentary about the authors' lives.<br />
*'''Writing/Poetry'''<br />
*'''Bay of Grammar Pedantry''' - This bay deals with the fact that, whether due to a lack of proper education, a habit of using "chat-speak" in the text-limited SMS and MMS, or simply due to the (generally) more relaxed nature of the Internet, tend to write with horrible composition, a point of annoyment to a lot of other people due to the subsequent increased difficulty of reading the horribly-written material.<br />
*'''Fandom Blogs''' - A "fandom" is a community of fans. A fandom blog deals with the subject matter of the respective fandom.<br />
*'''Sea of Zero (0) Comments''' - These are the blogs that get very little attention and therefore have no comments.<br />
*'''Gossip Blogs'''<br />
*'''Political Blogs'''<br />
*'''Music Blogs''' - This can refer to independent bands who use a blog in their attempts to have their music heard.<br />
*'''Tech Blogs'''<br />
*'''Business Blogs'''<br />
*'''SpamBlog Straits''' - Spammers use blogs to increase the number of links to their site to try to game search engines.<br />
*'''Corporate Blogs'''<br />
*'''Religious Blogs'''<br />
*'''Blog Blogs''' - These can refer to blogs that talk about the matter about blogging itself, though they can also refer to blogs which authors use in talking about blogging.<br />
*'''Miscellaneous Blogs'''<br />
*'''OffTopic.com'''<br />
<br />
===Blogosphere (Core Region)===<br />
Gossip Blogs: <br />
Each blog below focuses on gossip surrounding celebrities and other well-known persons.<br />
*'''{{w|Jezebel}}''' is a liberally feminist blog, hosted by Gawker.<br />
*'''{{w|Deadline}}'''<br />
*'''{{w|TMZ}}'''<br />
*'''{{w|Gawker}}''' is a blog that is the host of other blogs.<br />
*'''LJ Oh No They Didn't''' - LiveJournal {{w|Oh No They Didn't}} - Oh No They Didn't, also known as ONTD, is the largest community on LiveJournal with over 100,000 members. The community focuses on celebrity gossip and pop culture with most of its posts aggregated from other gossip blogs.<br />
*'''{{w|Doucheblog}}'''<br />
*'''Isle of Mockery''' is a reference to the fact that some of what these blogs do is mock celebrities or other for doing or saying stupid things on camera.<br />
<br />
Liberal Blogs: <br />
Each blog below focuses on American political news with a "liberal" or "progressive" slant. These blogs tend to lean for the Democratic party.<br />
*'''{{w|Huffington Post}}''' is a news blog.<br />
*'''{{w|Paul Krugman}}'''<br />
*'''{{w|Daily Beast}}'''<br />
*'''TPM''' - {{w|Talking Points Memo}}<br />
*'''{{w|Ezra Klein}}''' - Ezra used to have his own site at the Washington Post, but is now the editor of [Vox.com]. <br />
*'''{{w|Think Progress}}'''<br />
*'''Kos''' - {{w|Daily Kos}}<br />
<br />
Bay of Flame:<br />
*Politics Daily<br />
*CNN Political Ticker<br />
*Mediaite<br />
*NY Times<br />
*The Talk<br />
*Libertarian Isle<br />
<br />
Conservative Blogs: <br />
Each blog below focuses on American political news with a "conservative" or Republican slant.<br />
*Pajamas Media<br />
*Michelle Malkin<br />
*Hot Air<br />
*Red State<br />
*American Thinker<br />
*Townhall<br />
<br />
Tech Blogs:<br />
*Boy Genius Report<br />
*Gizmodo is a news and opinion blog, hosted by Gawker, that talks about life's more technological matters.<br />
*Engadget is another technology-oriented, albeit independent, blog.<br />
*Crunchgear<br />
*Techcrunch<br />
*Joystiq is a news and opinion blog that focuses on gaming.<br />
*Kotaku is another gaming-oriented news/opinion blog, the main difference beig that Kotaku is owned by Gawker. <br />
<br />
Assorted:<br />
*BoingBoing is "i blog about wonderful things", the topics being quite random.<br />
*Lifehacker, another Gawker blog, is a blog that teaches people how to simplify their lives through 'lifehacking', that is, using their resources in creative wayss. While the subject matter is life in general, there is a significant technological slant.<br />
*{{w|Deadspin}} is a sports and sports gossip blog founded by Will Leitch.<br />
*Meatorama<br />
<br />
===QQ Region===<br />
*'''Baidu Baike''' (「百度百科」, "Baidu Encyclopedia") and '''Hudong''' (「互动百科」, "Interactive Encyclopedia" ) are two Chinese online encyclopedias. Baidu Baike is powered by the same company as Baidu, the search engine popular in China.<br />
* The '''Ma Le Ge Bi''' and the '''Grass Mud Horse Bay''' could refer to the {{w|Baidu 10 Mythical Creatures}}.<br />
* The '''Location of Jia Junpeng''' refers to the Internet meme of {{w|Jia Junpeng}} in 2009 in China.<br />
*'''{{w|Tencent QQ}}''' is a Chinese instant messaging program.<br />
*In English communities "QQ" has several more common definitions:<br />
**An {{w|emoticon}}, representing a face with two large, crying eyes.<br />
**A synonym for "rage quit", in which a video game player quits the game out of sheer frustration. It originated in ''Warcraft II'' multiplayer, where pressing Ctrl+Q+Q would quit the game, and became more widely known in ''World of Warcraft''.<br />
**These definitions are commonly combined, usually to mock the "rage quitter".<br />
*The Gulf of China refers to how sites in the region are based in People's Republic of China ("Red China"). The '''Great Firewall''' refers to {{w|The Great Firewall of China}}, a pun on {{w|The Great Wall of China}}. Similar to how The Great Wall of China was meant to keep intruding nations out of the then-capital of the city, The Great Firewall of China is meant to keep visitors from visiting censored websites. However, either a VPN or remote access to a computer in a "freer" country can circumvent the Firewall.<br />
<br />
===Forums Islands===<br />
Forums are websites where one person post a topic to which other people can discuss.<br />
<br />
While the map has a zoomed in version, this article shall discuss the two bigger islands, first.<br />
<br />
*'''[http://www.2ch.net 2channel]''' is a Japanese imageboard that was actually the original inspiration for 4chan.<br />
*'''[http://www.craigslist.org/about/sites Craigslist]''' is a classified advertisement website with sections devoted to just about everything... which formerly included prostitution services, hence the '''The Former Site of Adult Services'''.<br />
<br />
In the zoomed-in map, there is...<br />
*'''420chan''' and '''7chan''', other imageboards in the style of 4chan (see below). Their relative lack of popularity and derivative nature leads a lot of 4chan users to mock them; hence, their position on Randall's map suggests that they're mere wads of semen.<br />
*'''[http://ohinternet.com/ Encyclopedia Dramatica]''', labeled '''ED''' on the map, is a wiki site dedicated to chronicling internet memes and other noteworthy sites, events, people, and anything else that catches their attention, their respective articles written in an incredibly arbitrary and vulgar manner. The site is ''heavily'' steeped in the attitude of veteran, vulgar 4chan users. People who have articles in the website tend to react with despair, given not only the cruelty in which the articles talk about the person in question, but the presence of the article means that the person is now an eternal target from the trolls. The user is not in a position of retaliation, since the userbase of Encyclopedia Dramatica and 4chan tends to overpower the victim easily...<br />
:...usually. Due to the founder's talk against the Australian Aborignals (the founder is Australian), legal action has gone against the founder to the point of the founder having to shut down Encyclopedia Dramatica, founding the far tamer Oh, Internet! website, instead. Trolls responded by not only uploading their own mirror of the website but also vilifying the former founder forever.<br />
:(Please note that, due to the malicious nature of the pop-up advertisements of Encyclopedia Dramatica, the link above points to its safe-for-work successor, Oh, Internet!)<br />
*'''[https://www.4chan.org/ 4chan.org]''' is an {{w|imageboard}} in which people can upload pictures while others comment on them. The website is infamous for its loose/often non-existent rules, incredibly vulgar userbase, source of new memes, and spawning of trolls. 4chan's random board, known internally as '''/b/''', is almost constantly flooded with porn and image macros. This is why Randall's incarnation of 4chan is shaped like a penis.<br />
*'''Tunnel to Habbo''' is a reference to [http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/pools-closed the 2006 Habbo Hotel Raids], in which hundreds of 4chan Anons simultaneously logged onto Habbo Hotel and proceeded to be as obnoxious as possible, standing in formations of swastikas and penises or body-blocking the swimming pools.<br />
*'''{{w|Catbus}} Route''' is likely a reference to {{w|Lolcat}}s in general.<br />
*'''[http://www.ebaumsworld.com/ eBaum's World]''' is a media-hosting website founded by Eric Bauman. The site has lost a lot of traffic after (quite valid) accusations of stolen content.<br />
*The gulf labelled '''{{w|Anonymous (group)|Anonymous}}''' is a reference to the trolls that label themselves "Anonymous" who recently had gained national acknowledgement because of the group's real-life tirades, including cracking attacks against the Church of Scientology and the founding of WikiLeaks (a website that leaks confidential material related to governments).<br />
*[http://www.somethingawful.com/ SomethingAwful] is a website that is meant to showcase all things "awful". SomethingAwful also has a large trollbase, but they tend to be more honorable than the ones from Encyclopedia Dramatica and 4chan. One example is there being a spotty holding of the no-furries rule in the forums. The forums themselves are famous because of the holding of the Let's Plays of [http://lparchive.org/Dangan-Ronpa/ Dangan Ronpa] and [http://danganronpa2mirror.tumblr.com/ Super Dangan Ronpa 2], which had cooked up public interest to the point of there being an English-language release of the games.<br />
Please note that, due to these Let's Plays being in a forums that frequently hides behind a "paywall" that requires a paid account before accessing, the links provided go to their mirrors.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:'''Map of Online Communities'''<br />
:Size on map represents volume of Daily Social activity (posts, chat, etc). Based on data gathered over the Spring and Summer of 2010.<br />
<br />
:[Two insets on the upper left-hand corner shows that this map is a tiny portion of the huge continent of Spoken Language, encompassing portions of the Internet, Email, and Cell Phones (SMS).]<br />
<br />
:[The largest landmass on the map by far, which takes up nearly the entire northern half of the map is "Facebook" - with large states in the south-east of the country labeled 'Farmville' and 'Happy Farm'. There is a much smaller state to the west of these called 'Farm Town'. To the north of these states is a large swath of unremarkable land entitled 'Northern Wasteland of Unread Updates.' This is directly north of the large Dopamine Sea.<br />
<br />
:A peninsula on the south-west, just below the Plains of Awkwardly Public Family Interactions, houses many tiny states, such as MySpace, Orkut, LinkedIn, Bebo, & Hi5. It is bordered on the south by Buzzword Bay, which contains several islands of varying sizes. Among these are YouTube and Twitter (the largest), which are separated by the Social Media Consultant Channel. To the south-east of Twitter, across the Sea of Protocol Confusion, is another, equally large island. Most of it is Skype, with the north having two largish states called AIM and Windows Live Messenger. On the south-west part of the island are two smaller states called GG and Yahoo Messenger.<br />
<br />
:The Island of Skype is extremely close to, but separated by the Great Firewall (a dashed line), the large landmass of QQ. It's north shore is the Gulf of China and Grass Mud Horse Bay. Outside of these bays, over the Great Firewall are two islands called Craigslist and 2Channel.<br />
<br />
:In the Dopamine Sea, off the southern shores of Farmville and Happy Farm, is MMO Isle. Its largest state is WoW, with Runescape, Lineage, Maple Story, Habbo, and the Mountains of Steam among its notable landmarks. To the southeast of the island is the Gulf of Lag, in which sits the CDC Games island, with Eve Online.<br />
<br />
:To the east of Twitter is Troll Bay, with such islands as Reddit and Reddit, Digg, Stumbleupon, Delicio.us, and Wikipedia Talk Pages. To their south are the IRC isles, of which one is the tiny island of #xkcd.<br />
<br />
:East of these islands, and north of Skype island, is the Sea of Memes. In this sea, to the north of Craigslist and 2Channel, is an archipelago of tiny islands. There is an inset, labeled 'Forums.' (See below.)<br />
<br />
:To the southwest of Twitter island, in the Sea of Opinions, are the blog islands. These lie south of the islands in Buzzword Bay, as well. The northernmost islands in this group are centered around the Bay of Drama, on which can be found Diary Blogs, Gossip Blogs, and Livejournal. Gossip Blogs share an island with Political, Music, and Tech Blogs. To the north of this island is a smaller island called Photo Blogs. South of Diary Blogs, and off the southwest coast of Music blogs is a smaller island called Fandom Blogs. South of Tech Blogs, off of which sprouts the small peninsula of Business Blogs, is the Spamblog Straits. On the other side of the straits is a large island made up of Miscellaneous Blogs, with two states demarcated as Religious Blogs and Blog Blogs. Southwest of the Blog Islands is the Sea of Zero (0) Comments.]<br />
<br />
:[An inset of a group of islands in the sea of memes located on the lower right corner of the map, labeled 'Forums'. The largest by far is 4chan and /b/. Also found here are D2JSP, JLA Frums, Fan Forum, Something Awful, and many smaller ones, too numerous to list here.]<br />
<br />
:[The northeastern third of Gossip/Political/Tech Blogs island is another inset labeled 'Blogosphere (Core)'. This can be found on the lower left corner of the map. Two peninsulas in Political Blogs bookend the Bay of Flame -- these are Liberal Blogs and Conservative Blogs. Between them lie several tiny islands such as Politics Daily, CNN Politcal Ticker, and Mediaite. Off the coast of Liberal Blogs lies the island of NYTimes, off the coast of Conservative Blogs is Libertarian Isle. Between the two lies The Talk. The northern peninsula of Tech Blogs contains places such as Gizmodo, Engadget, Joystiq, and Kotaku.] <br />
<br />
:[Text found between the two insets, which are directly below the main map.]<br />
:ABOUT THIS MAP<br />
:Communities rise and fall, and total membership numbers are no longer a good measure of a community's current size and health. This updated map uses size to represent total social activity in a community -- that is, how much talking, playing, sharing, or other socializing happens there. This meant some comparing of apples and oranges, but I did my best and tried to be consistent.<br />
<br />
:Estimates are based on the numbers I could find, but involved a great deal of guesswork, statistical inference, random sampling, nonrandom sampling, a 20,000-cell spreadsheet, emailing, cajoling, tea-leaf reading, goat sacrifices, and gut instinct (i.e. making things up).<br />
<br />
:Sources of data include Google and Bing, Wikipedia, Alexa, Big-Boards.com, StumbleUpon, Wordpress, Akismet, every website statistics page I could find, press releases, news articles, and individual site employees. Thanks in particular to folks at Last.fm, LiveJournal, Reddit, and the New York Times, as well as sysadmins at a number of sites who shared statistics on condition of anonymity.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics with color]]<br />
[[Category:Large drawings]]<br />
[[Category:Internet]]</div>Greysonhttps://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=256:_Online_Communities&diff=70044256: Online Communities2014-06-20T15:45:15Z<p>Greyson: /* Ocean of Subculture and Sea of Memes (East) */ One part read odd.</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 256<br />
| date = May 2, 2007<br />
| title = Online Communities<br />
| image = online_communities_small.png<br />
| titletext = I'm waiting for the day when, if you tell someone 'I'm from the internet', instead of laughing they just ask 'oh, what part?'<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|May still need some polishing in places.}}<br />
'''''Note:''' This comic dates from Spring 2007. The internet changed a lot since that time. A larger version of the image is available [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/online_communities.png here].''<br />
<br />
<br />
This is Randall's first map of online communities, with a successor (showing some zoomed-in highlights of the map) at [[802: Online Communities 2]]. As Randall says on the map, the area of each "country" is roughly proportional to its membership, at least in 2007. Geographic location means a bit more, however, as the '''Compass-Rose-Shaped Island''' points out. North-south corresponds to a spectrum from practical to intellectual, and east-west corresponds to one from web-focused to real-life-focused. The map also bears a slight resemblance to {{w|South East Asia}}.<br />
<br />
Randall likes to draw maps in a manner like this. Each "Country" is represented by size and related points of interest. We also have a "Sea of memes" and a small "Straits of WEB 2.0".<br />
<br />
===Compass Rose-shaped Island===<br />
A joke located near the middle of the map, that nonetheless serves to organize the illustration. A Compass Rose —the name for the multi-pointed star that shows where North is on the map— appears on most maps; however, here, it's actually land that just coincidentally looks like a compass rose.<br />
<br />
The "points" of the island do, however, roughly organize the map. Left is "Focus on Real Life", labelled "IRL", an abbreviation for "In Real Life". Right is "Focus on Web", labelled ".com". Up is Practicals, labelled "N", as in "North", but with small letters making it spell "Noob", slang for a "Newbie" or "New user" — a person less experienced with the internet, as many of the sites to the top of the map are ones infamous for having large numbers of largely computer-illiterate people. Down is "Intellectuals", labelled ''"&pi;"'', an important constant in mathematics approximately equal to 3.14.<br />
<br />
===The Icy North===<br />
Communities which were once major players, but now in a much reduced role. While some are still fairly large, they're somewhat relics of older times, hence the "Mountains of Web 1.0" that run through them — Web 1.0 is the first major generation of websites.<br />
* '''[http://yahoo.com Yahoo!]''' was the most popular search engine around 1998, but lost out to Google. It remains in business due to diversification (it now owns Tumblr, for instance).<br />
* '''Windows Live''', particularly ''Windows Live Messenger'', used to be a particularly major way for friends to communicate, now taken over by Skype and the like. Once a more-or-less ubiquitous branding, now used much less. https://home.live.com/ is one remnant.<br />
* '''[http://aol.com AOL]''' was once a huge player in the internet service provider market, noted for sending out millions of floppy disks and CD-ROMs in the 1980s and '90s offering a month or so free internet service (followed by high fees and difficult cancellation). Notably, AOL was the first company to sign up large numbers of people to internet access throughout the year, whereas before then internet was mainly provided by colleges and universities, fundamentally changing internet culture (see {{w|Eternal September}}). This influx of new users or "Noobs" (short for "newbies") names the ''Noob Sea'' south of AOL. The ''Chat Rooms'' nearby were a selling feature of early ISPs — ways to communicate with other people from that ISP. They are largely dying now, but were a major selling point in the early days.<br />
* '''[http://classmates.com Classmates.com]''' and '''[http://reunion.com Reunion.com]''' are early sites that offered to help you find your former classmates from school, a role largely taken over by the big, more generalised social media sites. Classmates.com is probably best known by its memetic advertisement that said "She married him??!! And they've got 7 kids??"<br />
* '''[http://friendster.com Friendster]''' was the first big social media site. It was later outpaced by ''Myspace'' and ''Facebook'' (see Social Media below). It has survived by rebranding itself as social gaming site, now used primarily is Southeast Asia.<br />
* '''Qwghlm''': A reference to ''{{w|The Baroque Cycle}}'', a series of science fiction books by Neal Stephenson. In them, Qwghlm is a group of islands in the icy north. See [http://baroquecycle.wikia.com/wiki/Qwghlm http://baroquecycle.wikia.com/wiki/Qwghlm].<br />
* '''Chasm''': A barely-readable note just below the "O" of "NORTH". This may simply be a reference to a lot of fantasy series containing a chasm. (For example, the One Ring is destroyed by flinging it into a fiery chasm in The Lord of the Rings.)<br />
<br />
===Dating sites (Northwest coastal regions)===<br />
* '''[http://eharmony.com E-Harmony]''' and '''[http://okcupid.com OkCupid]''' are dating sites; the other, larger sites near them are mostly social media sites.<br />
* '''The Lonely Island''' label appears to be a joke: Surrounded by, but separate from dating sites and social media sites, it would be a rather lonely place. Possibly named after "[http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Tol_Eress%C3%ABa Tol Eressëa]" (Translation: The Lonely Island) a somewhat obscure location in J. R. R. Tolkien's books, but there are {{w|The Lonely Island|other possibilities}}.<br />
<br />
===Social Media (West)===<br />
Sites mainly used to communicate with friends, such as Facebook and Myspace. The first large one was ''Friendster'', but this has largely become a social gaming site primarily used in Southeast Asia, as discussed in The Icy North, above. Other social media sites listed are:<br />
<br />
* '''[http://faceparty.com Faceparty]''': A UK social media site started in 1999.<br />
* '''[http://myspace.com Myspace]''': A social media site partially owned by, of all people, Justin Timberlake. Started in 2003, and peaking around the time this comic was made, it nonetheless still remains popular for bands (hence "Myspace Bands" in the southwest). It was never known for having a particularly attractive web design (partly because users could extensively customize the look and feel of their profile pages), hence only a very small part of it labelled "Attractive Myspace Pages".<br />
** The '''Series of Tubes''': A reference to an internet meme. In 2006, U.S. Senator Ted Stevens, while arguing for the end of "Network neutrality", a concept that keeps ISPs from favouring or charging more for high-speed access to sites, claimed that such regulation was needed because the Internet was "not a truck" you could just load up with as much as you want, but a "series of tubes". This is not very accurate, and his arguments were rather poor, and, as such, his speech received widespread derision, and became a running gag on the internet.<br />
* '''[http://facebook.com Facebook]''': Generally considered (at least in the West) the "modern" social media network, and the most popular. However, this comic is from 2007, and Facebook did not catch up to Myspace until 2008-2009. [Source: {{w|Myspace}}]<br />
* '''[http://orkut.com Orkut]''': A social media network launched in 2004 by Google, it became hugely popular in Brazil, India, and, to a lesser extent, Japan.<br />
* '''[http://xanga.com Xanga]''': A blogging and social media site launched in 1998.<br />
* '''[http://livejournal.com LJ]''': LiveJournal, a blogging site, more or less, but one that allows an internet forum-like structure where anyone, or selected people, can all start new posts on a community. Noted for a large number of teenagers, fanfic authors, and the like in its heyday, hence the "Bay of Angst" to its south.<br />
* '''[http://www.blurty.com/ Blurty]''': LiveJournal's software is Open Access, meaning anyone can use it to set up a site. {{w|Blurty}} is, according to Wikipedia, an 18+ general community using this software.<br />
* '''[http://cyworld.com Cyworld]''': A South Korean social media site featuring avatars and "mini-rooms".<br />
<br />
===The Blogipelago (Southwest)===<br />
Portmanteau of blog and archipelago. Sulawesi is a real island in the Indonesian archipelago, implying that this region's similarity to Indonesia is probably intentional.<br />
<br />
* '''[http://www.huffingtonpost.com Huffington Post]''': ''The Huffington Post'' is a web-only news site, named after its founder, Arianna Huffington. It's noted for attracting notable people to do very good write-ups of politics and news, generally with a liberal slant, but also for having a medicine section that supports every sort of quackery and nonsense, including a regular column by {{w|Dana Ullman}} promoting {{w|homeopathy}} (see [[765: Dilution]]).<br />
* '''Shipwreck of the SS Howard Dean''': In the 2004 U.S. Presidential election, Howard Dean raised funds mainly over the internet, and was doing very well, until a gaffe caused him to crash and burn just before the primaries began. See {{w|Howard Dean presidential campaign, 2004}}.<br />
* '''Cory Doctrow's Balloon''': Reference to [[239: Blagofaire]].<br />
* '''[http://boingboing.net Boing Boing]''': An occasional trend is for a smallish magazine to get a website, have the website become vastly more popular than its print edition, and become a successful website. Examples include [http://cracked.com Cracked.com], [http://theonion.com The Onion] (which only stopped being a print publication in ''December 2013''), and, the subject of this label, [http://boingboing.net Boing Boing]. Boing Boing is not easy to define — it's a group blog, with focuses including futurism, intellectual property, science fiction, technology, and cyberpunk — the latter of which it was rather influential in developing.<br />
* '''[http://technorati.com Technorati]''': A site for searching blogs.<br />
* '''Sulawesi''': As mentioned above, a real island that is part of the Indonesian archipelago.<br />
* '''{{w|Xu Jinglei}}''': Chinese actress. According to Wikipedia: "In mid-2006, her Chinese-language blog had the most incoming links of any blog in any language on the Internet, according to Technorati."<br />
* '''[http://postsecret.com/ PostSecret]''': A website which people send postcards to, describing their secrets. Some are little secrets (like swigging milk directly from the jug or carton); some are old, deep-seated traumas; and some are just things that they could never admit to anyone publicly. Worth a look.<br />
* '''The Wet Sea''': Perhaps a reference to a West Sea, but not sure what that would be. Maybe just a simple joke, as what else would a sea be but wet?<br />
* ''TWB'' or ''TMZ'': A very-hard-to-read label, south of Technorati.<br />
** '''TWB''' is short for "{{w|Translators Without Borders}}", a charitable project that tries to translate necessary texts into the languages of the people who need them for free. This ''might'' be it, if it's meant to relate to Wikipedia, to the east of it. On the other hand...<br />
** '''[http://TMZ.com TMZ]''' is a major celebrity gossip blog, rated #15 in the "[http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2008/mar/09/blogs World's 50 most powerful blogs]" by ''The Guardian'', and, at time of writing, rating #11 in the [http://technorati.com/blogs/top100/ Technorati top 100].<br />
<br />
===Sea of Culture (Central region) ===<br />
Sites for sharing and showing off music and images, most focusing on self-created content<br />
<br />
* '''Gulf of YouTube''': [http://youtube.com YouTube] is the definitive video website where people can upload videos with the purpose of public viewing, ranging from home movies through official music videos through Let's Plays of people playing video games to questionably-legal uploads of cartoons and films. Google has since purchased YouTube.<br />
* '''Piczo''': Teen-oriented website that allowed one to make a profile and put up pictures. The site has been dead since late 2012, due to the rise of Facebook. See {{w|Piczo}}.<br />
* '''Broadcaster''': Another dead site, almost lost to the web. Only a few scraps of information remain on the web. [http://www.seomastering.com/wiki/Broadcaster.com One of the rare scraps of remaining information] indicates it was a webcam broadcasting service that also allowed YouTube-like sharing of videos.<br />
* '''The Bit Torrent''' and the '''P2P Shoals''': Reference to file sharing (passing around often copyright-infringing files, such as movies, CDs, and the like), often done with the {{w|BitTorrent}} protocol. A "Torrent" can also be a flood of water, hence it being used to name a river. "P2P" stands for "{{w|Peer-to-peer}}", the basis for the BitTorrent protocol.<br />
* '''[http://flickr.com Flickr]''': a website where people can upload and share photographs they took.<br />
* '''[http://lastfm.com LastFM]''': a music website that is notable of its "scrobbling" feature.<br />
* '''[http://deviantart.com DeviantArt]''': the largest art website, where people can upload, sell, and buy not only art itself, but also video, audio, Flash-work, and even skins (the original purpose of deviantArt). While many big-name/professional people and organizations have their works in deviantArt, the site is more infamous for the large amount of people who upload low-quality fan-art and fan-characters, most notably of media from Japan. Another point of infamy is the large amount of drama that can happen in the website.<br />
<br />
'''Straits of Web 2.0''': A ''strait'' is a narrow passage between two outcroppings. Web 2.0 is a term used to describe new internet architectures, which these programs and Wikipedia (the other side of the strait) are examples of. '''Gays of Web 2.0''' is a pun: The opposite of a gay person (homosexual) is a straight person (heterosexual).<br />
<br />
===User-created content and discussions (Southeast)===<br />
Sites such as {{w|Wikipedia}} and chat programs such as IRC.<br />
* '''[http://en.wikipedia.org Wikipedia]''': The world's largest encyclopedia, collaboratively edited by its users. It's labelled as "The Wikipedia Project" (actually called ''{{w|Wikimedia}}''), since Wikipedia has generalised to cover a number of separate web sites, though, at the time of this comic, none near the size of Wikipedia (excepting, possibly, Wikimedia Commons, which is partly an image repository for Wikipedia), perhaps explaining the small size of all the other vertexes of the "web".<br />
* '''Usenet''': The predecessor of most modern forums. A set of discussion groups that dominated the early internet. It also predates the standard web architecture to some extent — there's no standard weblink for it, for instance. See {{w|Usenet}}.<br />
* '''IRC isles''': IRC stands for Internet Relay Chat, a simple, low-bandwidth program for chatting. Common uses include Dungeons and Dragons games and other geeky pursuits.<br />
* '''[http://sourceforge.net SourceForge]''': A code repository. Basically, a place for programmers to meet up and work together on a variety of free and open source projects. See {{w|sourceforge}}. Has become less respectable since this comic was created in 2007, due to [http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/11/08/gimp_dumps_sourceforge_over_dodgy_ads_and_installer/ allowing misleading advertisements intended to trick people into installing questionable software.]<br />
* '''[http://mit.edu MIT]''': The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, one of the most respected universities for Engineering, Robotics, and other such fields.<br />
* '''[http://www.engadget.com/ Engadget]''': A blog/online magazine, in multiple languages, reviewing tech products and commenting on technology news.<br />
* '''[http://gizmodo.com/ Gizmodo]''': A blog about technology and design.<br />
* '''[http://makezine.com/blog/ MakeBlog]''': A blog highlighting bizarre and interesting do-it-yourself projects, often with a geeky theme.<br />
* '''Google's Volcano Fortress''': A volcano fortress is one traditional dwelling place of evil geniuses in fiction, and Google has quietly taken over huge chunks of people's interaction with the web. Perhaps this provides some background for [[254: Comic Fragment]]?<br />
* '''Stallman's Airship''': A joke, perhaps in line with Cory Doctorow's Balloon ([[239: Blagofaire]], also referenced in this strip)<br />
<br />
===Ocean of Subculture and Sea of Memes (East)===<br />
:'''Need descriptions'''<br />
Sites related to smaller internet communities, a.k.a. "Subcultures". Also, a whole lot of internet memes, unsurprisingly. The "Viral Straits" references the idea of something "going viral", e.g. spreading quickly to huge numbers of people on the internet. These sites are often responsible for things going viral, and the memes listed are ones that went viral in the past.<br />
<br />
;Sites<br />
* '''[http://www.2ch.net/ 2Channel]''': a Japanese imageboard that was actually the original inspiration for...<br />
* '''[http://4chan.org 4Chan]''': an imageboard in which people can upload pictures while others comment on them. The website is infamous for its loose/often non-existent rules, incredibly vulgar userbase, source of new memes, and spawning of trolls. 4chan's random board, known internally as /b/, is almost constantly flooded with porn and image macros.<br />
* '''[http://reddit.com Reddit]''': the self-described "front page of the Internet" in which users submit stories, photos and videos and the best are "up-voted" to the top of the page.<br />
* '''[http://digg.com Digg]''': a former competitor to Reddit in the social-news sphere, but has been sold since this map was drawn and restarted as an aggregator of news stories.<br />
* '''[http://fark.com Fark]''': A website that writes humorous commentary on various news reports, especially the strange, bizarre, or things from the political far-left and far-right.<br />
* '''[http://somethingawful.com Something Awful]''': a website that is meant to showcase all things "awful". SomethingAwful also has a large trollbase, but they tend to be more honorable than the ones from ''Encyclopedia Dramatica'' and 4chan. One example is there being a spotty holding of the no-furries rule in the forums. The forums themselves are famous because of the holding of the "Let's Plays" of ''Dangan Ronpa'' and ''Super Dangan Ronpa 2'', which had cooked up public interest to the point of there being an English-language release of the games.<br />
* '''[http://slashdot.org /.]''': ''Slashdot'', a news site for technology-related news stories, which are submitted by its users. The "{{w|Slashdot effect}}" is named after this site.<br />
* '''[http://ytmnd.com YTMND]''': a community in which users can create meme-type nonsense by playing music over an image (either static or animated). Its name is an acronym for "You're The Man Now, Dog!"<br />
* '''[http://StumbleUpon.com Stumble Upon]''': A website that attempts to develop a profile for users in order to recommend which websites they might enjoy.<br />
* '''[http://delicious.com/ Del.icio.us]''': Another image and website aggregator, linking to various things of interest. It uses tags to let people find specific types of content. ('''Note''': Since this comic, this website was renamed as "Delicious".)<br />
<br />
;Memes and related<br />
* '''Isle of Slash''': "{{w|Slash fiction}}" is a type of {{w|fanfiction}} that takes two male characters from another work of fiction and puts them in a plot where they have lots of sex with each other. Named because of a common way of writing pairings in fanfiction, "X/Y", with the / being pronounced "slash". Adding to this, "Isle of" sounds like "I love".<br />
* '''Numa''': A reference to the viral video "Numa Numa", consisting to a fat guy dancing and lip-syncing to the song "Dragostea din tei" (Romanian for "Love from the lindens").<br />
* '''Your Base''': A reference to the "{{w|All your base are belong to us}}" meme, a line from the game ''{{w|Zero Wing}}'', a game with a huge amount of hilariously badly translated {{w|Engrish}} dialogue. See [[286: All Your Base]] for more discussion of the meme.<br />
* '''Bay of Trolls''': {{w|Troll (Internet)|Trolls}} are people who attempt to stir up controversy by intentionally saying statements meant to annoy others into responding. "Bay" can refer to both a sheltered port, and to an animal's cry, so "Bay of Trolls" can be read as "Shelter for Trolls" or "Angry Shouting of Trolls". Given the communities surrounding it, both would make sense.<br />
* '''Soviet Russia''': {{w|Russian reversal|"In Soviet Russia" jokes}} are a style of joke commonly associated with -comedian {{w|Yakov Smirnoff}}, which has since become an internet meme. Example: "In America, you always find a party. In Russia, Party will always find ''you''." — playing off of the idea that "Party" can also refer to the Communist Party. The meme version usually isn't as clever as that, though. See "[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/in-soviet-russia in soviet russia]".<br />
* '''SPAAARTA''': As in, "THIS! IS! SPAAARTA!!!", A famously over-the-top line from the movie ''{{w|300 (film)|300}}''.<br />
<br />
===MMORPGs and related games (Northeast by East)===<br />
An area dedicated to MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games), large-scale games with huge numbers of players put into the same world. The label "Here there be anthromorphic dragons" references a common marking on old maps ("Here there be dragons") but updates it to joke about the more humanoid dragons seen in many games, or again, how dragons, especilally anthropomorphic dragons, are very-very popular in the furry community.<br />
<br />
* '''[http://games.yahoo.com Yahoo Games]''': A branch of Yahoo (see "The Icy North") dedicated to games (mainly boardgames).<br />
* '''[http://uo.com UO]''': ''Ultima Online'', one of the first MMORPGs, and the first to grow to any size. Based on the long-running ''Ultima'' RPG computer games. Started 1997.<br />
* '''[http://www.everquest.com/ EQ]''': ''EverQuest'', another important early MMORPG, started 1999. UO and EQ have declined significantly since then; for a while, they were each the iconic MMORPG, but that role has been taken over by...<br />
* '''[http://www.warcraft.com/ WoW]''': ''World of Warcraft'', an MMORPG launched in 2004, again based on a previously-existing RPG series, and by far the largest and most iconic at the time of this comic's creation. A few others have attempted to challenge it since.<br />
* '''[http://www.runescape.com/ Runescape]''': Free-to-play fantasy MMORPG; the largest in existence.<br />
* '''[http://www.finalfantasyxi.com/ FFXI]''': ''Final Fantasy XI'', the eleventh installment in the ''Final Fantasy'' series of video games, and the first to be a MMORPG. It didn't really take off until after this comic was made.<br />
* '''[http://www.lineage.com/ Lineage]''': 1998 MMORPG. Particularly popular in South Korea, a country with somewhat of a cultural obsession with video games.<br />
* '''[http://secondlife.com Second Life]''': A virtual world, noted for largely working from user-generated content, which can be sold by users for real money. See {{w|Second Life}}. ''Third Life'' is a joke based on Second Life — if it existed it would presumably be a game people play to escape Second Life, which they play to escape their first, real life.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[Hand-drawn fantasy style map with land and sea areas representing populations of online communities. Each area or item is labeled.]<br />
:Map of Online Communities and related points of interest<br />
:Geographic area represents estimated size of membership<br />
<br />
:[Land Area Labels:]<br />
:The Icy North (Yahoo, Windows Live),<br />
:AOL,<br />
::Chat Rooms<br />
:Reunion dot com,<br />
:Classmates dot com,<br />
:E-harmony,<br />
:Friendster,<br />
:Faceparty,<br />
:Chasm,<br />
:Qwghlm,<br />
:Yahoo Games,<br />
:Mountains of Web 1.0,<br />
:The Lonely Island,<br />
:MySpace,<br />
:Attractive MySpace Pages,<br />
:The Series of Tubes,<br />
:Myspace Bands,<br />
:WOW,<br />
:Lineage,<br />
:Second Life,<br />
:Third Life,<br />
:UO,<br />
:EQ,<br />
:FFXI,<br />
:2channel,<br />
:4chan,<br />
:LJ,<br />
:Xanga,<br />
:Orkut,<br />
:Cyworld,<br />
:Blurty,<br />
:OK Cupid,<br />
:Facebook,<br />
:Piczo,<br />
:The Compass-Rose-Shaped Island,<br />
::Practicals (Noob)<br />
::Focus on Real Life (IRL)<br />
::Focus on Web (.com)<br />
::Intellectuals (&pi;)<br />
:Broadcaster,<br />
:The Bit Torrent,<br />
:Flickr,<br />
:Last.fm,<br />
:DeviantArt,<br />
:Isle of Slash,<br />
:Numa,<br />
:Digg,<br />
:Fark,<br />
:Reddit,<br />
:Something Awful,<br />
:Your Base,<br />
:Soviet Russia,<br />
:/. [Slashdot],<br />
:Spaaarta (YTMND),<br />
:StumbleUpon,<br />
:Del.icio.us,<br />
:The Blogipelago,<br />
:Sulawesi,<br />
:Xu Jinglei,<br />
:Post Secret,<br />
:Technocrati,<br />
:[Hard to read label: Probably JWB, TWB, or TMZ]<br />
:BoingBoing,<br />
:Huffington Post,<br />
:Gays of Web 2.0,<br />
:The Wikipedia project,<br />
:MIT,<br />
:Engadget,<br />
:Gizmodo,<br />
:Usenet,<br />
:MAKE Blog,<br />
:IRC Isles,<br />
:Sourceforge.<br />
<br />
:[Sea Area Labels:]<br />
:NOOB Sea,<br />
:Gulf of YouTube,<br />
:Bay of Angst,<br />
:Sea of Culture,<br />
:Ocean of Subculture,<br />
:P2P Shoals,<br />
:Straits of Web 2.0,<br />
:Here Be Anthropomorphic Dragons,<br />
:Bay of Trolls,<br />
:Viral Straits,<br />
:Sea of Memes,<br />
:The Wet Sea<br />
:Item Labels: Shipwreck of the SS Howard Dean, Cory Doctrow's Balloon, Stallman's airship, Google's volcano fortress<br />
<br />
:(Not a complete survey. Sizes based on the best figures I could find but involved some guesswork. Do not use for navigation.)<br />
:Spring 2007<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Internet]]<br />
[[Category:Comics with color]]<br />
[[Category:Large drawings]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Richard Stallman]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]</div>Greysonhttps://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=256:_Online_Communities&diff=70043256: Online Communities2014-06-20T15:44:16Z<p>Greyson: /* MMORPGs and related games (Northeast by East) */ I added a possible reference to furries.</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 256<br />
| date = May 2, 2007<br />
| title = Online Communities<br />
| image = online_communities_small.png<br />
| titletext = I'm waiting for the day when, if you tell someone 'I'm from the internet', instead of laughing they just ask 'oh, what part?'<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|May still need some polishing in places.}}<br />
'''''Note:''' This comic dates from Spring 2007. The internet changed a lot since that time. A larger version of the image is available [http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/online_communities.png here].''<br />
<br />
<br />
This is Randall's first map of online communities, with a successor (showing some zoomed-in highlights of the map) at [[802: Online Communities 2]]. As Randall says on the map, the area of each "country" is roughly proportional to its membership, at least in 2007. Geographic location means a bit more, however, as the '''Compass-Rose-Shaped Island''' points out. North-south corresponds to a spectrum from practical to intellectual, and east-west corresponds to one from web-focused to real-life-focused. The map also bears a slight resemblance to {{w|South East Asia}}.<br />
<br />
Randall likes to draw maps in a manner like this. Each "Country" is represented by size and related points of interest. We also have a "Sea of memes" and a small "Straits of WEB 2.0".<br />
<br />
===Compass Rose-shaped Island===<br />
A joke located near the middle of the map, that nonetheless serves to organize the illustration. A Compass Rose —the name for the multi-pointed star that shows where North is on the map— appears on most maps; however, here, it's actually land that just coincidentally looks like a compass rose.<br />
<br />
The "points" of the island do, however, roughly organize the map. Left is "Focus on Real Life", labelled "IRL", an abbreviation for "In Real Life". Right is "Focus on Web", labelled ".com". Up is Practicals, labelled "N", as in "North", but with small letters making it spell "Noob", slang for a "Newbie" or "New user" — a person less experienced with the internet, as many of the sites to the top of the map are ones infamous for having large numbers of largely computer-illiterate people. Down is "Intellectuals", labelled ''"&pi;"'', an important constant in mathematics approximately equal to 3.14.<br />
<br />
===The Icy North===<br />
Communities which were once major players, but now in a much reduced role. While some are still fairly large, they're somewhat relics of older times, hence the "Mountains of Web 1.0" that run through them — Web 1.0 is the first major generation of websites.<br />
* '''[http://yahoo.com Yahoo!]''' was the most popular search engine around 1998, but lost out to Google. It remains in business due to diversification (it now owns Tumblr, for instance).<br />
* '''Windows Live''', particularly ''Windows Live Messenger'', used to be a particularly major way for friends to communicate, now taken over by Skype and the like. Once a more-or-less ubiquitous branding, now used much less. https://home.live.com/ is one remnant.<br />
* '''[http://aol.com AOL]''' was once a huge player in the internet service provider market, noted for sending out millions of floppy disks and CD-ROMs in the 1980s and '90s offering a month or so free internet service (followed by high fees and difficult cancellation). Notably, AOL was the first company to sign up large numbers of people to internet access throughout the year, whereas before then internet was mainly provided by colleges and universities, fundamentally changing internet culture (see {{w|Eternal September}}). This influx of new users or "Noobs" (short for "newbies") names the ''Noob Sea'' south of AOL. The ''Chat Rooms'' nearby were a selling feature of early ISPs — ways to communicate with other people from that ISP. They are largely dying now, but were a major selling point in the early days.<br />
* '''[http://classmates.com Classmates.com]''' and '''[http://reunion.com Reunion.com]''' are early sites that offered to help you find your former classmates from school, a role largely taken over by the big, more generalised social media sites. Classmates.com is probably best known by its memetic advertisement that said "She married him??!! And they've got 7 kids??"<br />
* '''[http://friendster.com Friendster]''' was the first big social media site. It was later outpaced by ''Myspace'' and ''Facebook'' (see Social Media below). It has survived by rebranding itself as social gaming site, now used primarily is Southeast Asia.<br />
* '''Qwghlm''': A reference to ''{{w|The Baroque Cycle}}'', a series of science fiction books by Neal Stephenson. In them, Qwghlm is a group of islands in the icy north. See [http://baroquecycle.wikia.com/wiki/Qwghlm http://baroquecycle.wikia.com/wiki/Qwghlm].<br />
* '''Chasm''': A barely-readable note just below the "O" of "NORTH". This may simply be a reference to a lot of fantasy series containing a chasm. (For example, the One Ring is destroyed by flinging it into a fiery chasm in The Lord of the Rings.)<br />
<br />
===Dating sites (Northwest coastal regions)===<br />
* '''[http://eharmony.com E-Harmony]''' and '''[http://okcupid.com OkCupid]''' are dating sites; the other, larger sites near them are mostly social media sites.<br />
* '''The Lonely Island''' label appears to be a joke: Surrounded by, but separate from dating sites and social media sites, it would be a rather lonely place. Possibly named after "[http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Tol_Eress%C3%ABa Tol Eressëa]" (Translation: The Lonely Island) a somewhat obscure location in J. R. R. Tolkien's books, but there are {{w|The Lonely Island|other possibilities}}.<br />
<br />
===Social Media (West)===<br />
Sites mainly used to communicate with friends, such as Facebook and Myspace. The first large one was ''Friendster'', but this has largely become a social gaming site primarily used in Southeast Asia, as discussed in The Icy North, above. Other social media sites listed are:<br />
<br />
* '''[http://faceparty.com Faceparty]''': A UK social media site started in 1999.<br />
* '''[http://myspace.com Myspace]''': A social media site partially owned by, of all people, Justin Timberlake. Started in 2003, and peaking around the time this comic was made, it nonetheless still remains popular for bands (hence "Myspace Bands" in the southwest). It was never known for having a particularly attractive web design (partly because users could extensively customize the look and feel of their profile pages), hence only a very small part of it labelled "Attractive Myspace Pages".<br />
** The '''Series of Tubes''': A reference to an internet meme. In 2006, U.S. Senator Ted Stevens, while arguing for the end of "Network neutrality", a concept that keeps ISPs from favouring or charging more for high-speed access to sites, claimed that such regulation was needed because the Internet was "not a truck" you could just load up with as much as you want, but a "series of tubes". This is not very accurate, and his arguments were rather poor, and, as such, his speech received widespread derision, and became a running gag on the internet.<br />
* '''[http://facebook.com Facebook]''': Generally considered (at least in the West) the "modern" social media network, and the most popular. However, this comic is from 2007, and Facebook did not catch up to Myspace until 2008-2009. [Source: {{w|Myspace}}]<br />
* '''[http://orkut.com Orkut]''': A social media network launched in 2004 by Google, it became hugely popular in Brazil, India, and, to a lesser extent, Japan.<br />
* '''[http://xanga.com Xanga]''': A blogging and social media site launched in 1998.<br />
* '''[http://livejournal.com LJ]''': LiveJournal, a blogging site, more or less, but one that allows an internet forum-like structure where anyone, or selected people, can all start new posts on a community. Noted for a large number of teenagers, fanfic authors, and the like in its heyday, hence the "Bay of Angst" to its south.<br />
* '''[http://www.blurty.com/ Blurty]''': LiveJournal's software is Open Access, meaning anyone can use it to set up a site. {{w|Blurty}} is, according to Wikipedia, an 18+ general community using this software.<br />
* '''[http://cyworld.com Cyworld]''': A South Korean social media site featuring avatars and "mini-rooms".<br />
<br />
===The Blogipelago (Southwest)===<br />
Portmanteau of blog and archipelago. Sulawesi is a real island in the Indonesian archipelago, implying that this region's similarity to Indonesia is probably intentional.<br />
<br />
* '''[http://www.huffingtonpost.com Huffington Post]''': ''The Huffington Post'' is a web-only news site, named after its founder, Arianna Huffington. It's noted for attracting notable people to do very good write-ups of politics and news, generally with a liberal slant, but also for having a medicine section that supports every sort of quackery and nonsense, including a regular column by {{w|Dana Ullman}} promoting {{w|homeopathy}} (see [[765: Dilution]]).<br />
* '''Shipwreck of the SS Howard Dean''': In the 2004 U.S. Presidential election, Howard Dean raised funds mainly over the internet, and was doing very well, until a gaffe caused him to crash and burn just before the primaries began. See {{w|Howard Dean presidential campaign, 2004}}.<br />
* '''Cory Doctrow's Balloon''': Reference to [[239: Blagofaire]].<br />
* '''[http://boingboing.net Boing Boing]''': An occasional trend is for a smallish magazine to get a website, have the website become vastly more popular than its print edition, and become a successful website. Examples include [http://cracked.com Cracked.com], [http://theonion.com The Onion] (which only stopped being a print publication in ''December 2013''), and, the subject of this label, [http://boingboing.net Boing Boing]. Boing Boing is not easy to define — it's a group blog, with focuses including futurism, intellectual property, science fiction, technology, and cyberpunk — the latter of which it was rather influential in developing.<br />
* '''[http://technorati.com Technorati]''': A site for searching blogs.<br />
* '''Sulawesi''': As mentioned above, a real island that is part of the Indonesian archipelago.<br />
* '''{{w|Xu Jinglei}}''': Chinese actress. According to Wikipedia: "In mid-2006, her Chinese-language blog had the most incoming links of any blog in any language on the Internet, according to Technorati."<br />
* '''[http://postsecret.com/ PostSecret]''': A website which people send postcards to, describing their secrets. Some are little secrets (like swigging milk directly from the jug or carton); some are old, deep-seated traumas; and some are just things that they could never admit to anyone publicly. Worth a look.<br />
* '''The Wet Sea''': Perhaps a reference to a West Sea, but not sure what that would be. Maybe just a simple joke, as what else would a sea be but wet?<br />
* ''TWB'' or ''TMZ'': A very-hard-to-read label, south of Technorati.<br />
** '''TWB''' is short for "{{w|Translators Without Borders}}", a charitable project that tries to translate necessary texts into the languages of the people who need them for free. This ''might'' be it, if it's meant to relate to Wikipedia, to the east of it. On the other hand...<br />
** '''[http://TMZ.com TMZ]''' is a major celebrity gossip blog, rated #15 in the "[http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2008/mar/09/blogs World's 50 most powerful blogs]" by ''The Guardian'', and, at time of writing, rating #11 in the [http://technorati.com/blogs/top100/ Technorati top 100].<br />
<br />
===Sea of Culture (Central region) ===<br />
Sites for sharing and showing off music and images, most focusing on self-created content<br />
<br />
* '''Gulf of YouTube''': [http://youtube.com YouTube] is the definitive video website where people can upload videos with the purpose of public viewing, ranging from home movies through official music videos through Let's Plays of people playing video games to questionably-legal uploads of cartoons and films. Google has since purchased YouTube.<br />
* '''Piczo''': Teen-oriented website that allowed one to make a profile and put up pictures. The site has been dead since late 2012, due to the rise of Facebook. See {{w|Piczo}}.<br />
* '''Broadcaster''': Another dead site, almost lost to the web. Only a few scraps of information remain on the web. [http://www.seomastering.com/wiki/Broadcaster.com One of the rare scraps of remaining information] indicates it was a webcam broadcasting service that also allowed YouTube-like sharing of videos.<br />
* '''The Bit Torrent''' and the '''P2P Shoals''': Reference to file sharing (passing around often copyright-infringing files, such as movies, CDs, and the like), often done with the {{w|BitTorrent}} protocol. A "Torrent" can also be a flood of water, hence it being used to name a river. "P2P" stands for "{{w|Peer-to-peer}}", the basis for the BitTorrent protocol.<br />
* '''[http://flickr.com Flickr]''': a website where people can upload and share photographs they took.<br />
* '''[http://lastfm.com LastFM]''': a music website that is notable of its "scrobbling" feature.<br />
* '''[http://deviantart.com DeviantArt]''': the largest art website, where people can upload, sell, and buy not only art itself, but also video, audio, Flash-work, and even skins (the original purpose of deviantArt). While many big-name/professional people and organizations have their works in deviantArt, the site is more infamous for the large amount of people who upload low-quality fan-art and fan-characters, most notably of media from Japan. Another point of infamy is the large amount of drama that can happen in the website.<br />
<br />
'''Straits of Web 2.0''': A ''strait'' is a narrow passage between two outcroppings. Web 2.0 is a term used to describe new internet architectures, which these programs and Wikipedia (the other side of the strait) are examples of. '''Gays of Web 2.0''' is a pun: The opposite of a gay person (homosexual) is a straight person (heterosexual).<br />
<br />
===User-created content and discussions (Southeast)===<br />
Sites such as {{w|Wikipedia}} and chat programs such as IRC.<br />
* '''[http://en.wikipedia.org Wikipedia]''': The world's largest encyclopedia, collaboratively edited by its users. It's labelled as "The Wikipedia Project" (actually called ''{{w|Wikimedia}}''), since Wikipedia has generalised to cover a number of separate web sites, though, at the time of this comic, none near the size of Wikipedia (excepting, possibly, Wikimedia Commons, which is partly an image repository for Wikipedia), perhaps explaining the small size of all the other vertexes of the "web".<br />
* '''Usenet''': The predecessor of most modern forums. A set of discussion groups that dominated the early internet. It also predates the standard web architecture to some extent — there's no standard weblink for it, for instance. See {{w|Usenet}}.<br />
* '''IRC isles''': IRC stands for Internet Relay Chat, a simple, low-bandwidth program for chatting. Common uses include Dungeons and Dragons games and other geeky pursuits.<br />
* '''[http://sourceforge.net SourceForge]''': A code repository. Basically, a place for programmers to meet up and work together on a variety of free and open source projects. See {{w|sourceforge}}. Has become less respectable since this comic was created in 2007, due to [http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/11/08/gimp_dumps_sourceforge_over_dodgy_ads_and_installer/ allowing misleading advertisements intended to trick people into installing questionable software.]<br />
* '''[http://mit.edu MIT]''': The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, one of the most respected universities for Engineering, Robotics, and other such fields.<br />
* '''[http://www.engadget.com/ Engadget]''': A blog/online magazine, in multiple languages, reviewing tech products and commenting on technology news.<br />
* '''[http://gizmodo.com/ Gizmodo]''': A blog about technology and design.<br />
* '''[http://makezine.com/blog/ MakeBlog]''': A blog highlighting bizarre and interesting do-it-yourself projects, often with a geeky theme.<br />
* '''Google's Volcano Fortress''': A volcano fortress is one traditional dwelling place of evil geniuses in fiction, and Google has quietly taken over huge chunks of people's interaction with the web. Perhaps this provides some background for [[254: Comic Fragment]]?<br />
* '''Stallman's Airship''': A joke, perhaps in line with Cory Doctorow's Balloon ([[239: Blagofaire]], also referenced in this strip)<br />
<br />
===Ocean of Subculture and Sea of Memes (East)===<br />
:'''Need descriptions'''<br />
Sites related to smaller internet communities, a.k.a. "Subcultures". Also, a whole lot of internet memes, unsurprisingly. The "Viral Straits" references the idea of something "going viral", e.g. spreading quickly to huge numbers of people on the internet. These sites are often responsible for things going viral, and the memes listed are ones that went viral in the past.<br />
<br />
;Sites<br />
* '''[http://www.2ch.net/ 2Channel]''': a Japanese imageboard that was actually the original inspiration for...<br />
* '''[http://4chan.org 4Chan]''': an imageboard in which people can upload pictures while others comment on them. The website is infamous for its loose/often non-existent rules, incredibly vulgar userbase, source of new memes, and spawning of trolls. 4chan's random board, known internally as /b/, is almost constantly flooded with porn and image macros.<br />
* '''[http://reddit.com Reddit]''': the self-described "front page of the Internet" in which users submit stories, photos and videos and the best are "up-voted" to the top of the page.<br />
* '''[http://digg.com Digg]''': a former competitor to Reddit in the social-news sphere, but has been sold since this map was drawn and restarted as an aggregator of news stories.<br />
* '''[http://fark.com Fark]''': A website that writes humorous commentary on various news reports, especially the strange, bizarre, or things from the political far-left and far-right.<br />
* '''[http://somethingawful.com Something Awful]''': a website that is meant to showcase all things "awful". SomethingAwful also has a large trollbase, but they tend to be more honorable than the ones from ''Encyclopedia Dramatica'' and 4chan. One example is there being a spotty holding of the no-furries rule in the forums. The forums themselves are famous because of the holding of the "Let's Plays" of ''Dangan Ronpa'' and ''Super Dangan Ronpa 2'', which had cooked up public interest to the point of there being an English-language release of the games.<br />
* '''[http://slashdot.org /.]''': ''Slashdot'', a news site for technology-related news stories, which are submitted by its users. The "{{w|Slashdot effect}}" is named after this site.<br />
* '''[http://ytmnd.com YTMND]''': a community in which users can create meme-type nonsense by playing music over an image (either static or animated). Its name is an acronym for "You're The Man Now, Dog!"<br />
* '''[http://StumbleUpon.com Stumble Upon]''': A website that attempts to develop a profile for users in order to recommend which websites they might enjoy.<br />
* '''[http://delicious.com/ Del.icio.us]''': Another image and website aggregator, linking to various things of interest. It uses tags to let people find specific types of content. ('''Note''': Since this comic, this website was renamed as "Delicious".)<br />
<br />
;Memes and related<br />
* '''Isle of Slash''': "{{w|Slash fiction}}" is a type of {{w|fanfiction}} that takes two male characters from another work of fiction and puts them in a plot where they have lots of sex with each other. Named because of a common way of writing pairings in fanfiction, "X/Y", with the / being pronounced "slash". And "Isle of" sounds like "I love".<br />
* '''Numa''': A reference to the viral video "Numa Numa", consisting to a fat guy dancing and lip-syncing to the song "Dragostea din tei" (Romanian for "Love from the lindens").<br />
* '''Your Base''': A reference to the "{{w|All your base are belong to us}}" meme, a line from the game ''{{w|Zero Wing}}'', a game with a huge amount of hilariously badly translated {{w|Engrish}} dialogue. See [[286: All Your Base]] for more discussion of the meme.<br />
* '''Bay of Trolls''': {{w|Troll (Internet)|Trolls}} are people who attempt to stir up controversy by intentionally saying statements meant to annoy others into responding. "Bay" can refer to both a sheltered port, and to an animal's cry, so "Bay of Trolls" can be read as "Shelter for Trolls" or "Angry Shouting of Trolls". Given the communities surrounding it, both would make sense.<br />
* '''Soviet Russia''': {{w|Russian reversal|"In Soviet Russia" jokes}} are a style of joke commonly associated with -comedian {{w|Yakov Smirnoff}}, which has since become an internet meme. Example: "In America, you always find a party. In Russia, Party will always find ''you''." — playing off of the idea that "Party" can also refer to the Communist Party. The meme version usually isn't as clever as that, though. See "[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/in-soviet-russia in soviet russia]".<br />
* '''SPAAARTA''': As in, "THIS! IS! SPAAARTA!!!", A famously over-the-top line from the movie ''{{w|300 (film)|300}}''.<br />
<br />
===MMORPGs and related games (Northeast by East)===<br />
An area dedicated to MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games), large-scale games with huge numbers of players put into the same world. The label "Here there be anthromorphic dragons" references a common marking on old maps ("Here there be dragons") but updates it to joke about the more humanoid dragons seen in many games, or again, how dragons, especilally anthropomorphic dragons, are very-very popular in the furry community.<br />
<br />
* '''[http://games.yahoo.com Yahoo Games]''': A branch of Yahoo (see "The Icy North") dedicated to games (mainly boardgames).<br />
* '''[http://uo.com UO]''': ''Ultima Online'', one of the first MMORPGs, and the first to grow to any size. Based on the long-running ''Ultima'' RPG computer games. Started 1997.<br />
* '''[http://www.everquest.com/ EQ]''': ''EverQuest'', another important early MMORPG, started 1999. UO and EQ have declined significantly since then; for a while, they were each the iconic MMORPG, but that role has been taken over by...<br />
* '''[http://www.warcraft.com/ WoW]''': ''World of Warcraft'', an MMORPG launched in 2004, again based on a previously-existing RPG series, and by far the largest and most iconic at the time of this comic's creation. A few others have attempted to challenge it since.<br />
* '''[http://www.runescape.com/ Runescape]''': Free-to-play fantasy MMORPG; the largest in existence.<br />
* '''[http://www.finalfantasyxi.com/ FFXI]''': ''Final Fantasy XI'', the eleventh installment in the ''Final Fantasy'' series of video games, and the first to be a MMORPG. It didn't really take off until after this comic was made.<br />
* '''[http://www.lineage.com/ Lineage]''': 1998 MMORPG. Particularly popular in South Korea, a country with somewhat of a cultural obsession with video games.<br />
* '''[http://secondlife.com Second Life]''': A virtual world, noted for largely working from user-generated content, which can be sold by users for real money. See {{w|Second Life}}. ''Third Life'' is a joke based on Second Life — if it existed it would presumably be a game people play to escape Second Life, which they play to escape their first, real life.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[Hand-drawn fantasy style map with land and sea areas representing populations of online communities. Each area or item is labeled.]<br />
:Map of Online Communities and related points of interest<br />
:Geographic area represents estimated size of membership<br />
<br />
:[Land Area Labels:]<br />
:The Icy North (Yahoo, Windows Live),<br />
:AOL,<br />
::Chat Rooms<br />
:Reunion dot com,<br />
:Classmates dot com,<br />
:E-harmony,<br />
:Friendster,<br />
:Faceparty,<br />
:Chasm,<br />
:Qwghlm,<br />
:Yahoo Games,<br />
:Mountains of Web 1.0,<br />
:The Lonely Island,<br />
:MySpace,<br />
:Attractive MySpace Pages,<br />
:The Series of Tubes,<br />
:Myspace Bands,<br />
:WOW,<br />
:Lineage,<br />
:Second Life,<br />
:Third Life,<br />
:UO,<br />
:EQ,<br />
:FFXI,<br />
:2channel,<br />
:4chan,<br />
:LJ,<br />
:Xanga,<br />
:Orkut,<br />
:Cyworld,<br />
:Blurty,<br />
:OK Cupid,<br />
:Facebook,<br />
:Piczo,<br />
:The Compass-Rose-Shaped Island,<br />
::Practicals (Noob)<br />
::Focus on Real Life (IRL)<br />
::Focus on Web (.com)<br />
::Intellectuals (&pi;)<br />
:Broadcaster,<br />
:The Bit Torrent,<br />
:Flickr,<br />
:Last.fm,<br />
:DeviantArt,<br />
:Isle of Slash,<br />
:Numa,<br />
:Digg,<br />
:Fark,<br />
:Reddit,<br />
:Something Awful,<br />
:Your Base,<br />
:Soviet Russia,<br />
:/. [Slashdot],<br />
:Spaaarta (YTMND),<br />
:StumbleUpon,<br />
:Del.icio.us,<br />
:The Blogipelago,<br />
:Sulawesi,<br />
:Xu Jinglei,<br />
:Post Secret,<br />
:Technocrati,<br />
:[Hard to read label: Probably JWB, TWB, or TMZ]<br />
:BoingBoing,<br />
:Huffington Post,<br />
:Gays of Web 2.0,<br />
:The Wikipedia project,<br />
:MIT,<br />
:Engadget,<br />
:Gizmodo,<br />
:Usenet,<br />
:MAKE Blog,<br />
:IRC Isles,<br />
:Sourceforge.<br />
<br />
:[Sea Area Labels:]<br />
:NOOB Sea,<br />
:Gulf of YouTube,<br />
:Bay of Angst,<br />
:Sea of Culture,<br />
:Ocean of Subculture,<br />
:P2P Shoals,<br />
:Straits of Web 2.0,<br />
:Here Be Anthropomorphic Dragons,<br />
:Bay of Trolls,<br />
:Viral Straits,<br />
:Sea of Memes,<br />
:The Wet Sea<br />
:Item Labels: Shipwreck of the SS Howard Dean, Cory Doctrow's Balloon, Stallman's airship, Google's volcano fortress<br />
<br />
:(Not a complete survey. Sizes based on the best figures I could find but involved some guesswork. Do not use for navigation.)<br />
:Spring 2007<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Internet]]<br />
[[Category:Comics with color]]<br />
[[Category:Large drawings]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Richard Stallman]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]</div>Greysonhttps://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1274:_Open_Letter&diff=69681Talk:1274: Open Letter2014-06-17T02:28:56Z<p>Greyson: </p>
<hr />
<div>If you believe in a shadow government, it seems likely that you would actually see a goverment shutdown as part of the conspiracy. {{unsigned ip|108.13.108.44}}<br />
<br />
:Is this another shadow fact? http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1272 --[[User:MauroVan|MauroVan]] ([[User talk:MauroVan|talk]]) 09:33, 7 October 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:Actually, theoretically speaking, a government shutdown ''would'' be part of the conspiracy. Think about it. If there was a shadow government, then the only thing that can stop them is the people uniting against them. So, in order to keep the people from finding out, you would have to destroy their unity. And, unity in the US is at an all time low with people vehemently fighting amongst themselves. So, I don't think that the argument in this strip is valid. An orchestrated chaos would certainly be a tool of a shadow government. Theoretically speaking, of course. [[User:Kwyjibo|Kwyjibo]] ([[User talk:Kwyjibo|talk]]) 20:13, 9 October 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I guess Randal is only right as long there is only ONE group involved ;-). --[[User:DaB.|DaB.]] ([[User talk:DaB.|talk]]) 11:01, 7 October 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Randall knows ''exactly'' which group is in control, but has been forced by them to leave their name completely off of the aforementioned list. [[Special:Contributions/178.98.212.190|178.98.212.190]] 13:25, 7 October 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I removed the words 'Self-proclaimed' from the description of Scientology. It's so vague to be meaningless. Aren't most religions and churches self-proclaimed? Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, etc all started with somebody claiming secret knowledge. It should either be applied to all religions, or none.[[Special:Contributions/154.20.80.41|154.20.80.41]] 13:50, 7 October 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Is "Sincerely, A Concerned Citizen" really a Half-Life 2 reference? The phrase is generic enough that it actually appears before Half-Life 2 was released ([http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x372352 example]). --[[Special:Contributions/75.119.250.35|75.119.250.35]] 15:21, 7 October 2013 (UTC)<br />
:Agreed, people have been using the "Concerned Citizen" phrasing for years. [[User:Mattflaschen|Mattflaschen]] ([[User talk:Mattflaschen|talk]]) 17:41, 7 October 2013 (UTC)<br />
:It's not just the wording, but the context, so it does seem to be a reference. [[Special:Contributions/108.13.108.44|108.13.108.44]] 18:22, 7 October 2013 (UTC)<br />
::The context being that of somebody concerned about their government? That seems a wee bit broad to be a contextual reference.[[Special:Contributions/154.20.80.41|154.20.80.41]] 03:01, 8 October 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Wow! The actual group secretly running the government is so powerful they had themselves removed from the explanation table, apparently! (There's no Trilateral Commission entry right now.) [[User:Imperpay|Imperpay]] ([[User talk:Imperpay|talk]]) 16:29, 7 October 2013 (UTC)<br />
:Fixed. :) [[User:Mattflaschen|Mattflaschen]] ([[User talk:Mattflaschen|talk]]) 17:41, 7 October 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
No mention of what an open letter is? [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 04:08, 8 October 2013 (UTC)<br />
:I just added something. It got wordy. Probably could be improved (and/or wiki-link to at least their page on Open Letters). But it's there, FWIW. [[Special:Contributions/178.98.212.190|178.98.212.190]] 13:36, 9 October 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Seems he left off Monsanto (according to the hippie types I hang around for some reason, they're running the entire world). Who else was left off the list? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.53|108.162.221.53]] 19:49, 7 November 2013 (UTC)MR<br />
: ...the Mafia. [[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 02:28, 17 June 2014 (UTC)</div>Greysonhttps://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1372:_Smartwatches&diff=67921Talk:1372: Smartwatches2014-05-23T14:56:10Z<p>Greyson: </p>
<hr />
<div>I like how much detail Randall put into the damage of the smartphone and smartwatches.<small>[[User:MrGameZone|0100011101100001011011010110010101011010011011110110111001100101]] ([[User talk:MrGameZone|talk page]])</small> 09:44, 23 May 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
About the transcript, it seems that I added one at the same time someone else did. I like mine better, but I won't be offended if someone else changes it back to the first revision. Also, feel free to re-format.[[User:Jarod997|Jarod997]] ([[User talk:Jarod997|talk]]) 13:19, 23 May 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:I am reminded of this:<br />
:http://thedoghousediaries.com/4974<br />
:...even so, I still would like a Samsung SWatch Note III complete with a watch app (downloaded by the Play Store or F-Droid, of course)! [[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 14:55, 23 May 2014 (UTC)</div>Greysonhttps://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1372:_Smartwatches&diff=67920Talk:1372: Smartwatches2014-05-23T14:55:54Z<p>Greyson: </p>
<hr />
<div>I like how much detail Randall put into the damage of the smartphone and smartwatches.<small>[[User:MrGameZone|0100011101100001011011010110010101011010011011110110111001100101]] ([[User talk:MrGameZone|talk page]])</small> 09:44, 23 May 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
About the transcript, it seems that I added one at the same time someone else did. I like mine better, but I won't be offended if someone else changes it back to the first revision. Also, feel free to re-format.[[User:Jarod997|Jarod997]] ([[User talk:Jarod997|talk]]) 13:19, 23 May 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I am reminded of this:<br />
http://thedoghousediaries.com/4974<br />
...even so, I still would like a Samsung SWatch Note III complete with a watch app (downloaded by the Play Store or F-Droid, of course)! [[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 14:55, 23 May 2014 (UTC)</div>Greysonhttps://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1357:_Free_Speech&diff=65654Talk:1357: Free Speech2014-04-18T23:52:01Z<p>Greyson: </p>
<hr />
<div>It would be nice to mention how this applies only to the Federal government; discussions of how it is enforced on the states may be beyond the scope of this wiki. In addition, it might be amusing to note that freedom of association and other freedoms specified in the Bill of Rights have the same scope. That is, there are very few enumerated powers given to the Federal government, the Bill of Rights specifies some limitations on the Congress - but in general, the restriction on Congress was to the enumerated powers, a concept that made the Bill of Rights redundant - and the Bill of Rights does not apply (as written) to anyone but the Federal government. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.40|173.245.54.40]] 20:08, 18 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I've clarified the sentence about the Constitution being a legal document. Legal documents are not necessarily limited to government activity (for example, an apartment lease is a legal document but says nothing about what the government can or cannot do). I added the phrase "that defines the structure and powers of the government" to the end of the sentence. [[User:Elsbree|Elsbree]] ([[User talk:Elsbree|talk]]) 04:55, 18 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Another recent event (within the past couple of weeks) was a campaign against Stephen Colbert for an out-of-context quote taken from a bit on his show. It was hash-tagged under "CancelColbert". Interestingly, people from Fox News that had supported the Duck Dynasty guy were completely against Colbert. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.218|108.162.237.218]] 05:09, 18 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
That door in the last frame is a backdoor to fascism. --[[User:Mus|Mus]] ([[User talk:Mus|talk]]) 06:27, 18 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
: Are you [http://gawker.com/5951080/vp-debate-attendee-tells-chris-matthews-obama-is-a-communist-but-cant-explain-what-a-communist-is related to this woman?] LOL. <br />
: Nevertheless, I agree the comic would be stronger and more accurate if it didn't have that last panel. Disagreeing with someone's speech doesn't mean you get to throw them out. Places of public accommodation, such as most businesses, are required to be non-discriminatory. - [[User:Frankie|Frankie]] ([[User talk:Frankie|talk]]) 11:59, 18 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
:: Reading-comprehension fail. Read the '''entire''' bottom row; it is a complete sentence. Removing the last clause negates the first. &mdash; [[User:Fluffy Buzzard|Fluffy Buzzard]] ([[User talk:Fluffy Buzzard|talk]]) 14:38, 18 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
::Businesses are allowed to throw people out for almost any reason. The non-discriminatory clause has nothing to do with what people say, and isn't even tangential to the First Amendment. And yes. Disagreeing with someone in your domain <i>does</i> mean you get to throw them out. In fact, you can throw them out if you do agree with them. Or don't know them. Or if they're your brother. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.218|108.162.237.218]] 21:25, 18 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Can someone add something saying that other countries also have similar laws on free speech? I would do it myself, but I'm new to editing the wiki and I wouldn't know how to word it. [[User:Cheeselord99|Cheeselord99]] ([[User talk:Cheeselord99|talk]]) 07:19, 18 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
:I would if there was some sort of summary of them available. Though there's the {{w|Universal Declaration of Human Rights}} from the UN, I don't think it specifically requires any entity (such as a government body) to do (or not do) anything, just like I understand most anything U.N. related to be. I believe it's a guide/declaration/definition/resolution/statement of belief, and it would then be up to any soverienty to actually enforce or comply with it. [[User:Brettpeirce|Brettpeirce]] ([[User talk:Brettpeirce|talk]]) 12:08, 18 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
This is going to be one of those XKCDs everyone is linking to, to make a point.[[User:Jkrstrt|Jkrstrt]] ([[User talk:Jkrstrt|talk]]) 08:27, 18 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Though, I will say, I'm a bit concerned that the point people may be making is that "Argumentum ad Populum" is totally legit, as there is a suggestion one could infer that if a bunch of people are mad at you for something you say you deserve to be shown the door. And I'm not sure that's the intended message, and even if it is, I'm not sure it's a good one. Speaking an uncomfortable or undesired truth to a community (Which will almost certainly anger them, and make them think you're an asshole, let's say) doesn't mean the door is an appropriate response. On the other hand, when speaking such truths, one probably has a better justification than "Because Free Speech," just hopefully the disgruntled masses will actually listen to it.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.46|108.162.216.46]] 10:49, 18 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
: That's the point, if your only defense is "Free Speech" - you should be shown the door. --[[User:Jeff|<b><font color="orange">Jeff</font></b>]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 15:05, 18 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Both Jeff and 108.162.216.46 are accurate. 108.162.216.46's example of an uncomfortable or undesired truth causing anger is possible. It's up the the messenger to make sure that they frame the point properly and use appropriate supporting materials to justify their claims. A messenger with bad news won't say "free speech," they will say "this is the evidence" if they want to avoid being shown the door. {{unsigned ip|173.245.55.85}}<br />
: The issue, of course, is that a lot of people aren't willing to listen to evidence when told things they don't want to hear. Say, I dunno, if you're hanging out on a particularly conservative forum where people are taking turns bashing "Obamacare," even if you have a perfectly rational, backed up by numbers, etc. reason to say it may not be all bad, or may even be good, there's a decent chance that you could get shown the door simply because that's an unpopular opinion no matter how good your reasons are. And it's the sort of person who wants to punish someone simply for saying something unpopular on a forum, simply because it's unpopular (Or, in the case of some admins/mods, something they just don't personally like), who I'm concerned about using this comic as rhetorical backup. For the message of this comic to work, the community/etc. has to be willing to listen to rational evidence and they frequently aren't. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.46|108.162.216.46]] 22:55, 18 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Just happened to see this today, thought it was relevant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJMqYcRgf-A&t=51s [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.60|173.245.54.60]] 16:56, 18 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
This comic has it completely backwards! There are people who say "You're violating the First Amendment." when they're being censored by somebody who's not the government; they are mistaken, and this comic would be absolutely correct if it were addressing them. But it's not. In fact, it doesn't talk about the First Amendment (or similar provisions in other constitutions or other laws) at all; it talks only about freedom of speech. And if you're being censored on Facebook, or in the privately-owned shopping mall, or wherever, then yes, your freedom of speech is being violated.<br />
<br />
It's not illegal, and it may not even be wrong (why should my blog have to display your speech, after all?), but it's still a limitation on your freedom to speak. And if you want to argue that Facebook or the shopping mall (or even my blog) should not do that, then that's a perfectly legitimate position to take. As long as you say nothing about the First Amendment or the like, but instead complain about freedom of speech, then my only response (if I want to respond) is to explain why you shouldn't have free speech on that forum, not some irrelevant blather about the government. —[[User:TobyBartels|TobyBartels]] ([[User talk:TobyBartels|talk]]) 23:41, 18 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I see 2 ironies:<br />
1. Those from the BGLT+ side tend to use the 'Free Speech' argument, too.<br />
2. This was posted in Good Friday.<br />
[[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 23:52, 18 April 2014 (UTC)</div>Greysonhttps://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1350:_Lorenz&diff=64469Talk:1350: Lorenz2014-04-05T03:55:31Z<p>Greyson: </p>
<hr />
<div>I've had the story loop back to the first frame, so it wouldn't surprise me if this could go on infinitely if it had the available dialogue options.<br />
<br />
This is going to be a hell of a thing. Good luck... [[User:H|H]] ([[User talk:H|talk]]) 15:39, 1 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
:I think this is one of those times when the custom field might come in handy. Duplicating Randall's code seems like it might be difficult, and it might just be easier to link to the original page. Probably. '''[[User:Davidy22|<u>{{Color|#707|David}}<font color=#070 size=3>y</font></u><font color=#508 size=4>²²</font>]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 15:47, 1 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
::I think it should just show a screenshot of the initial image and options [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.61|173.245.50.61]] 02:49, 2 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
There's always new story lines, even when you think you've read them all, new ones appear to replace them. I don't think it'll ever be possible to record them all. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.212.192|108.162.212.192]] 15:55, 1 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
:The text changes, but there are recurring themes with the panels. The rocket, the big hole, the little hole, Dinosaurcomics, pokemon, waking up, stranded swimming.........[[User:H|H]] ([[User talk:H|talk]]) 18:03, 1 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
When I go to XKCD, all I see is the comic from Monday... weird. --[[User:Jeff|<b><font color="orange">Jeff</font></b>]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 16:45, 1 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
:Same here... and a lot of space below it. [[User:Z|Z]] ([[User talk:Z|talk]]) 17:43, 1 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
:: I think that happens when you have refreshed the page too many time -- kind of an anti spam for user submissions. I simply create an anonymous browser window and I got back to the real page once xkcd was not able to track me as a returning user. [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 17:59, 1 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Currently there appears to be a bug. Instead of the evolving, crowd-sourced comic, I just see an off-center copy of the previous comic, 1349: Shouldn't Be Hard. [http://i.imgur.com/pw2OfOL.png Screenshot here]. <br />
UPDATE: it appears to be a bug in the XSRF-blocking code. Chrome console shows me the error "XMLHttpRequest cannot load http://c1.xkcd.com/graph/1/. The 'Access-Control-Allow-Origin' header has a value 'http://xkcd.com' that is not equal to the supplied origin. Origin 'http://www.xkcd.com' is therefore not allowed access." <br />
FURTHER UPDATE: you can work around this bug by going to http://xkcd.com instead of http://www.xkcd.com!<br />
It also doesn't work if you have HTTPS Everywhere enabled.<br />
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.38|108.162.216.38]] 16:46, 1 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
** I can confirm this bug in Firefox. Weirdly, the work-around functioned one time for me, but now going to "xkcd.com" rather than "www.xkcd.com" just gives me a copy of 1349 as well. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.130.180|199.27.130.180]] 17:40, 1 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
:The workaround didn't work for me, I still got monday's comic on either URL. (Chromium 36.0.1919.0 (260611), Mac OS 10.9.2) [[User:Z|Z]] ([[User talk:Z|talk]]) 17:45, 1 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
:Same here. Used IE and Firefox. Removed the "www." and haven't. (Never used https:// at all.) Tried InPrivate (and FF equivalent) browsers. Gone into the code and can't even fudge it manually from ''<nowiki><div id="comic"><img src="http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/shouldnt_be_hard.png" title="Every choice, no matter how small, begins a new story." alt="Lorenz" /> <script type="text/javascript">Bernardo.comic({el: $('#comic')})<br />
</script></div></nowiki>'', and the rest, manually. (Indeed, that shows why I get 1349's "shouldn't be hard" image, by default.) Pity. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.89.224|141.101.89.224]] 02:25, 2 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
This comic introduced(?) a font of its own of Randalls comic type. I don't know if it has been sitting there for long, but I just noticed it: http://xkcd.com/fonts/xkcd-Regular.eot -- phiarc [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.12|108.162.219.12]] 17:20, 1 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
:Is it the same as was used in Externalities? [[User:H|H]] ([[User talk:H|talk]]) 18:00, 1 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Does everyone have these options in some order for the first tile?<br />
*Refresh... No New Email... Refresh .. No New Tweets... Refresh...<br />
*These Stupid Tiles... I'll Just Play One More Game<br />
*Oh. Hey. There's Some Kind Of Politicial Thing Going On.<br />
*Let's See If BSD Is Any Easier to Install Nowadays<br />
--[[User:Jeff|<b><font color="orange">Jeff</font></b>]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 17:54, 1 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:If so, we can begin to build a map of at least the first set of options before the crowd-sourced ones. --[[User:Jeff|<b><font color="orange">Jeff</font></b>]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 17:56, 1 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
::Yes, though the second-tier options have changed [[User:H|H]] ([[User talk:H|talk]]) 18:00, 1 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
:::The first level options may be constant (Im seeing the same as Jeff), but I suspect that the following options is based on some sort of ckick though statitics / machine learning -- which means that the will continue to change until Randall closes off the 'voting' -- if [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/1193:_Externalities 1193: Externalities] is anything to go by that should be within the next 24-48 hours, at which point automating the collection of story lines may be possible. [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 18:11, 1 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
:::: I'm going to transcript some of what I get at least through the first few levels and then we can start with a list of options for those who don't want to go through them all. --[[User:Jeff|<b><font color="orange">Jeff</font></b>]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 18:37, 1 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
::::: I have no idea how one would do this, but it would be cool to render the transcript as a tree of some sort; having one vertical list will be hard to follow for more than a few decisions. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.130.180|199.27.130.180]] 00:14, 2 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
::::::New initial option! I just got "Hurry! We're in talks with Facebook." In place of the "refresh" option. http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:2b330d48-bb01-11e3-8003-002590d77bdd --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.242.8|108.162.242.8]] 23:15, 3 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Ohh, this comic is buggy and the link here at the top gives just the page from Monday, showing errors on debuggers. But removing the WWW from URL helps. Further more I can't see that the result of the choices is dynamic. So let's prove this. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 19:33, 1 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
: Have a look at http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/2/2b/lorenz_combination1.png and http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/9/9a/lorenz_combination2.png and you can see the option orders are changing -- this is a typical artifact of A/B testing where randomization of options is needed to avoid selection bias. I have futher observed "your car is on fire" instead of the "dinosaur" option, hence not only the orders are channging but the content as well -- maybe somebody else can capture this. [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 22:08, 1 April 2014 (UTC) <br />
<br />
How are new dialogue suggestions approved? Are they random, by popular vote (unlikely, not very many people would suggest the same thing), or is Randall approving them one by one? [[User:Z|Z]] ([[User talk:Z|talk]]) 20:26, 1 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
: They may not need to be explicitly approved at all -- one of the beutiful things about click though measures is that the public '''votes''' for what is good by clicking -- this is also a factor in search ranking by your favorite search engine where statistics are driving the entire show -- in a search engine some input to the statistical process comes from the web pages, but other comes from what people are actually clicking [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 22:14, 1 April 2014 (UTC) <br />
<br />
What is this a screenshot of? It's zoomed out so far. http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:5b5bd04e-b9d6-11e3-8008-002590d77bdd [[User:Haithere|Haithere]] ([[User talk:Haithere|talk]]) 20:39, 1 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
: you mean this : http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/a1-2014/Rl92nFEWd9huvXABNkHKHg.png ? [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 22:20, 1 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
:: It appears to be a screen shot from a flight simulator program of some sort, however im not able to tell which, and since it is most likely an 'in-game' screen short we will never find out unless somebody else is playing this precises flight simulator program [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 22:37, 1 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
:: I am not certain, but I strongly suspect that is Kerbal Space Program {{unsigned ip|108.162.242.111}}<br />
::: it really is Kerbal Space Program, or KSP for short {{unsigned ip|108.162.219.65}}<br />
:::: found this image from KSP http://i.imgur.com/UofvQ.png [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 09:07, 2 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
A transcript is going to be futile. It appears as though the comic may go on indefinitely (I've definitely had some branches continue extending until I've seen frames that were present in other branches). I suspect what's happening here is that... options are "suggested", and those suggestions are displayed at random to people. The ones with the most clickthroughs begin to appear more often, until eventually the top 4 are "locked in" and no more suggestions can be made. Very creative! But I'm not convinced that Randall is making frames in near-real-time, nor am I even convinced he's part of the approval process at all. I suspect it's all automated. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.28|108.162.215.28]] 00:29, 2 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
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<br />
It seems it is possible to have the same option appear twice in the first panel. http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:be7a3304-b685-11e3-8001-94de80a03a29 --[[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.48|173.245.54.48]] 10:27, 2 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
: They are not the same options -- the text differes where one option has "I'll" with a captal I and the other option is 'i'll' with a lowercase I -- I guess some prankster submitted a very similar text and somehow that got included. The branching also differs for the two options. [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 17:12, 2 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
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Is it still supposed to work or was it turned off? All I see is Monday comics ... and no errors in firebug console. Oh, wait, there is javascript error:<br />
Timestamp: 04/02/14 12:56:21<br />
Error: TypeError: this.$lastPanel is null<br />
Source File: http://xkcd.com/1350/bernardo.min.js<br />
Line: 2 -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 11:03, 2 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
: It still works for me -- try to clear your cookies or use an anonymous window or go to xkcd.com (no www no https) or some of the other helpful suggestions on this page to overcome some of the buggy nature of this page. [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 17:12, 2 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
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tl;dr, but I applaud Randall's creativity. Added to the Colossal time sinks category. ''– [[User:Tbc|tbc]] ([[User talk:Tbc|talk]]) 13:15, 2 April 2014 (UTC)''<br />
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Has it restarted? It used to work just fine on my browser but now only the first panel is available, after clicking an option it said my suggestion has been submitted. Great when it works though, thanks Randal. Jet_proppeled_elephant[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.35|108.162.219.35]] 14:53, 2 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
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It feels like there are a bunch of "dead-end panels", that we never really get past. One example the "bright background" strip, in which we only see the shadows of the two characters. Nobody seems to care what happens after those. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.8|108.162.245.8]] 18:59, 2 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
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I found a Dinosaur Comics reference, permalink: http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:3d243960-b9b6-11e3-8001-002590d77bdd<br />
Has this been found before?<br />
[[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.73|173.245.55.73]] 20:08, 2 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
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I don't have time to do it myself, but most of the space images from this path are not in the images page. http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:6490cc4a-b9f0-11e3-8009-002590d77bdd<br />
[[User:Zweisteine|Zweisteine]] ([[User talk:Zweisteine|talk]]) 23:33, 2 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
:Ok, I'm gonna add those. [[User:Daniel Carrero|Daniel Carrero]] ([[User talk:Daniel Carrero|talk]]) 23:38, 2 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
Great! And now I found another: Pikachu uses Ethylene Dichloride. http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:6f59d766-ba95-11e3-8001-002590d77bdd<br />
I'll add it to the but about pikachu in the comic, but the pictures are up to someone else.[[User:Zweisteine|Zweisteine]] ([[User talk:Zweisteine|talk]]) 23:47, 2 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
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Slightly different space path, in which the rocket expodes: http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:dd99ea0e-ba04-11e3-8017-002590d77bdd [[User:Zweisteine|Zweisteine]] ([[User talk:Zweisteine|talk]]) 23:59, 2 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
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:Good. I've finished adding all images that you mentioned. Also, the two last images of the slightly different space path were not in the images page, now I added them too. [[User:Daniel Carrero|Daniel Carrero]] ([[User talk:Daniel Carrero|talk]]) 00:14, 3 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
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Pikachu died! Radicality failed -> Pikachu in shock! http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:5c565bf2-ba05-11e3-8017-002590d77bdd --eternia 7:33, 3 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
:Pikachu uses Graph Theory. How is that not effective?! http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:52f2389c-baaf-11e3-801f-002590d77bdd --eternia 7:47, 3 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
::Pikachu uses Ant Colony. Uwah... http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:2b707ed6-ba97-11e3-8006-002590d77bdd --eternia 8:02, 3 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
:::1 shark instead of 3. http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:9ba111ee-ba96-11e3-8004-002590d77bdd --eternia 8:14, 3 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
::::0 sharks. http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:e0e4d984-baaf-11e3-8026-002590d77bdd --eternia 8:17, 3 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
:::::I'm gonna add those too. [[User:Daniel Carrero|Daniel Carrero]] ([[User talk:Daniel Carrero|talk]]) 12:41, 3 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Are there any panels that have two speech bubbles that are not dead ends? It seems that there are never any options for the second bubble, and sometimes the first bubble has options that would fit in the second bubble after the other options for the first bubble. Maybe submissions for the second bubble accidentally end up in the first instead? Another bug? [[User:Zweisteine|Zweisteine]] ([[User talk:Zweisteine|talk]]) 23:56, 2 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
There's a change for us still-bugged people (well, me at least). The "show previous comic" part is gone. It shows a blank area (instead of Comic 1349 and a blank area of the same size) and the page-source shows that the ''<nowiki><img src="http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/shouldnt_be_hard.png" title="Every choice, no matter how small, begins a new story." alt="Lorenz" /></nowiki>'' part has now been excised from the page. That's on Javascript-enabled, cookie-enabled Firefox ''and'' IE browsers, and every valid URL configuration one can think of (including shift-refreshing to force redownloading, just in case it was page-cache issues as well). I'll update the Bugs section of the explanation page with a summary of that, if you don't mind. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.88.211|141.101.88.211]] 01:48, 4 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
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<br />
We need some place to discuss certain issues. I give it a shot below [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 21:10, 2 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
;Transcipt discussion<br />
;Design<br />
*What about four transcripts - one for each of the four first original choices? <br />
*Should these transcripts be on a separate page? It becomes tedious to scroll to the discussion page...[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 21:13, 2 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
*Could we use the hide option so you only see the options from the first panel. Then you unhide to see the next panel etc. This would be a little like the comic and would make it much easier to read and it would not be such a long page! [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:35, 3 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
*:I'm working on the hide option. [[User:Daniel Carrero|Daniel Carrero]] ([[User talk:Daniel Carrero|talk]]) 15:14, 3 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
*::I now implemented the hide option. It looks good! in my opinion. It should be easy to edit. It would be too much work to convert the whole thing to the collapsible version so, sorry but I just removed the whole thing and started from the very beginning. This[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1350:_Lorenz&oldid=64245] is the link to the old version, in case anyone wants to help converting it to the collapsible version. [[User:Daniel Carrero|Daniel Carrero]] ([[User talk:Daniel Carrero|talk]]) 16:46, 3 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
:I did the same for trivia with a separate page for the old version that can be expanded if anyone wishes. And all the work is not lost. I have linked to it from trivia but it is here: [[1350: Lorenz/Transcript]]. [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 22:19, 4 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
;Characters<br />
*Where does the name Dave come from for the hairy guy who comes in after the first panel? I can see it once in the transcript - but it is said by White hat the sales guy. I'm not sure it is his name and the chatagory for hairy is assigned to the comic! [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 21:16, 2 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
** Also he is called Dave here: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:3b1a226e-b9c6-11e3-8001-002590d77bdd [[User:Daniel Carrero|Daniel Carrero]] ([[User talk:Daniel Carrero|talk]]) 21:37, 2 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
*Hat guy? Is it a hat? Is there not a better English word for the type of "hat" worn by the main character from the first panel? It is not a hat like white or black hat! [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 21:18, 2 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
** I named him Hat Guy originally to make things easier. Feel free to change the name, I guess :) Knit Cap Guy, maybe? If a change is warranted, a simple search-and-replace should do it. Also, I'm not sure it's a guy or a girl... But the previous text was also treating him as male to begin with, anyway. [[User:Daniel Carrero|Daniel Carrero]] ([[User talk:Daniel Carrero|talk]]) 21:36, 2 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
*Is the right politician = Cueball?<br />
*Who is the left? [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 21:23, 2 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
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Isn't is likely that the characters only have names given to them by us readers in our suggestions? They don't necessarily have constant names. [[User:Zweisteine|Zweisteine]] ([[User talk:Zweisteine|talk]]) 23:33, 2 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Exactly my point. I think we should stick with hairy guy and maybe Knit Cap Guy! [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:28, 3 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
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:I see you already changed Hat Guy to Knit Cap Guy and Dave to Hairy. Knit Cap Guy is a nice name. Originally, I would disagree with you and insist we should stick to Dave because that's what the character is called in one storyline of the strip itself, but I see he is also called Frank in other timeline. Since he has multiple names, using just Hairy is better in my opinion, too. [[User:Daniel Carrero|Daniel Carrero]] ([[User talk:Daniel Carrero|talk]]) 12:40, 3 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
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Knit Cap Guy is probably a Girl. Just sayin'. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.28|173.245.52.28]] 12:22, 3 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
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:Probably! Originally I thought it was Megan with a knit cap on. [[User:Daniel Carrero|Daniel Carrero]] ([[User talk:Daniel Carrero|talk]]) 12:40, 3 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
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:It IS a girl! http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:1e4325a2-baaf-11e3-801f-002590d77bdd [[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.66|173.245.48.66]] 21:44, 3 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
::Well I think you are correct - that it is a girl. However you can NEVER use text in the comic to decide - because it is user created - I could have written the same line with guy instead of girl! Anyway - could someone change Knit Cap Guy to Knit Cap Girl? [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:04, 4 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
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:I always mentally called the guy 'Hikaru' because the guy's hat reminded me of the Nice Hat that Hikaru Azuma wore a lot in {{w|With the Light}}. [[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 03:55, 5 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
<br />
;Other<br />
*Seems like the permalink at the top of the transcript does not work for me anymore - then they will be useless! Else they are the best way to quote different lines of the comic. [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 21:31, 2 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
Oh, now they work again. ;) [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:31, 3 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
;Chategories not yet included<br />
Should they be?<br />
*I have seen the word Raptor mentioned - so should velociraptor be a chategory? [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 21:21, 2 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
*Cueball? I.e. the politician on the right? [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 21:28, 2 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
*I understand that many categories has been deleted as all text references can be user generated. But when there is a drawing with a dinosaur then this categories should be included etc. [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 19:14, 4 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
;Images<br />
I created [[1350: Lorenz/Images]] with all the images I could find in the comic. I'm not sure if I should have left them in the main page [[1350: Lorenz]], but feel free to decide what to do with them. Also, I tried using the tag <nowiki><gallery></nowiki>, but I couldn't make it work, so I used a lot of divs. [[User:Daniel Carrero|Daniel Carrero]] ([[User talk:Daniel Carrero|talk]]) 23:23, 2 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
:Great idea - just what I hoped someone would and could do. Thanks ;) Is it easy to add new images to the page if they show up? [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:32, 3 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
::You're welcome! :) It's pretty easy... I explained in the images page how exactly you would save a new image if they show up. [[User:Daniel Carrero|Daniel Carrero]] ([[User talk:Daniel Carrero|talk]]) 13:52, 3 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
:Can see there keep appearing new images from the text above. [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:39, 3 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
:New shark images here: http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:30f53d98-bbb3-11e3-801c-002590d77bdd {{unsigned ip|108.162.221.65}}<br />
:I have updated the page and made a talk page there to add comments like the above. Have already found d 3 new images cannot add them with this tablet [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 22:19, 4 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Thanks for this work, but nobody knows if this is complete. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 19:49, 3 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
;Many-worlds interpretation<br />
<br />
The title text "Every choice, no matter how small, begins a new story" might as well be a hint to Hugh Everett III 's "Many-worlds interpretation"<br />
of quantum theory. {{unsigned ip|108.162.219.74}}<br />
:Except that the title is Lorenz a direct reference to the guy with the butterfly effect... [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:37, 3 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
::Can't it be both? The Butterfly Effect can be seen as one consequence of the Many-Worlds interpretation. A choice as simple as whether (or where) a butterfly flaps its wings can send our entire universe down a different timeline, in which a hurricane occurs. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.49|108.162.216.49]] 19:46, 3 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
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<br />
;Most, maybe all pictures do correspond to an existing comic here<br />
I'm calling on you to not destroy a first simple explain, even the transcript. But nearly every picture belongs to a former comic — this has to be explained at the ''Themes'' section. We have some dinosaurs, but there is much more. Please help on this issue. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:56, 4 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
:What are you referring to? Has anyone deleted something important? Hope it wasn't me? [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 22:19, 4 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
::Well I can see it was me. We obviously disagree with what could be a trivia item and with which categories should be included even obvious ones. There has before been mention of missing pieces of hats etc and when there is one in hundreds of images with an error then it could make a fun trivia item in my opinion! I will stop editing and let you decide what to do with this comic? [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 22:30, 4 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:::You totally misunderstand me. I'm asking for an explain to every picture because it should belong to a former comic.<br />
:::Further more I'm just trying to keep the explain as simple as possible; individual error experiences should not be posted at the explain. I did remove that content in order to keep it simple as possible to an ordinary reader.<br />
:::Please improve the picture explains, but also please keep that explain simple as possible to readers are not interested on all that crap done by Randall.<br />
:::--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 22:38, 4 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
;Visual tree / map?<br />
How hard would it be to come up with a tree graphing out the different choices? The nodes could be panels and the lines could represent text choices. Has anyone tried it?<br />
--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.34|108.162.221.34]] 23:40, 4 April 2014 (UTC)</div>Greysonhttps://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1350:_Lorenz&diff=638521350: Lorenz2014-04-02T03:56:26Z<p>Greyson: /* Transcript */ Wait... the panels stay the same each route? ...never mind...</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1350<br />
| date = April 1, 2014<br />
| title = Lorenz<br />
| image = 1350_lorenz_loop.png<br />
| titletext = Every choice, no matter how small, begins a new story<br />
}}<br />
<br />
{{incomplete|All possible dialogues are not yet accounted for}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
This comic is a April fools comic with crowd sourced content. Since April 1st 2014 was a Tuesday, this comic is not in the normal sequence Monday, Wednesday and Friday.<br />
<br />
This comic is dynamic and needs interaction by the viewer. In the first time there was a bug when using the URL <nowiki>http://www.xkcd.com/</nowiki> or even <nowiki>https://xkcd.com/</nowiki> — only <nowiki>http://xkcd.com/</nowiki> did work at the first hours. <br />
<br />
{{w|HTTP cookie|Cookies}} are required to see this page properly.<br />
<br />
It appears that new panels may be generated by Randall in near real time as user suggestions to dialog is submitted. The dialogue options are likely based on click-through rates and hence will change over day based on which choices are clicked most using {{w|A/B_testing|A/B measurement techniques..}} This will mean that the most popular choices for dialogue line will prevail as the statistics builds up.<br />
<br />
Every panel has a "permalink" option which generates a unique URL for all the choices made by the reader -- so for example http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:26c8dcea-b9aa-11e3-8002-002590d77bdd will take you to a particular place in the selected choices.<br />
<br />
The title 'Lorenz' is referring to {{w|Edward Norton Lorenz}} who among other subjects was famous for {{w|Chaos theory}}. The title is a reference to that the story line of today's comic will include most (all?) of the user submitted dialogue and hence will in nature be chaotic. In addition, the title text, "Every choice, no matter how small", is a reference to the butterfly effect, a phrase coined by Edward Lorenz to describe how a small initial change can lead to wide variations in outcome in a chaotic system.<br />
<br />
This comic is an example of a {{w|Choose Your Own Adventure}} story.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript}}<br />
:[A transcript will be difficult to create due to the branching nature of the comic.]<br />
<br />
There are many options. Not everyone will see the same options. We are trying to capture as many options as possible in the Transcript below. -- '''the order and options has changed since the transcripter captured the dialogue'''....The dialogue is likely based on click-through rates and hence will change over time based on which choices are clicked most using {{w|A/B_testing|A/B measurement techniques..}}<br />
<br />
'''First Pane:'''([http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:be7a3304-b685-11e3-8001-94de80a03a29 permalink])<br />
* Refresh... No New Email... Refresh .. No New Tweets... Refresh...<br />
* These Stupid Tiles... I'll Just Play One More Game<br />
* Oh. Hey. There's Some Kind Of Political Thing Going On.<br />
* Let's See If BSD Is Any Easier to Install Nowadays<br />
<br />
'''Second Pane: Stupid Tiles Branch'''<br><br />
Option 1: ([http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:79f036ac-b9a0-11e3-9003-94de80a03a39 permalink])<br />
* There's something weird on the lawn<br />
* I heard Home Depot has 1024 bathroom tiles<br />
* There's a dinosaur at the door<br />
* I think I saw a "4096 tile outside somewhere.<br />
<br />
'''Second Pane: Refresh Branch'''<br><br />
Option 1: ([http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:6479d184-b9a0-11e3-b947-94de80a03a39 permalink])<br />
* So you're still refusing to use Facebook?<br />
* Wanna build a snowman?<br />
* Hey. I hear Godot is in town. Wanna try to meet him?<br />
* You know. Your car's on fire.<br />
<br />
'''Second Pane: Political Thing Branch'''<br><br />
The laptop says: "...and let's go live to the debate."<br />
* Continue<br />
<br />
'''Second Pane: BSD Branch'''<br><br />
The character has ?? next to his head to signify confusion.<br />
* Continue<br />
<br />
* Now I just need to look up what a "beard error" is...<br />
: The character has ??? next to his head to signify confusion. [[Hairy]] walks in. (continue)<br />
: Hairy is on the other side of the desk with his own laptop computer. Both the computers are connected through Ethernet cable. The two characters are typing on the computer. (continue)<br />
: The two stop typing. Hairy has ??? next to his head. (continue)<br />
: Hairy had stepped back while the character is checking on Hairy's laptop computer. The character is holding something rectangular. Hairy is speaking.<br />
:* The USB cable appears to be mono-directional.<br />
:* Kernel mites?<br />
:* I'm not sure rubbing butter on it will help<br />
:: Hairy and the character are handling their computers more aggressively. The Character says "ARGH"<br />
:: They both stop. The character walks away, his chair turned 180 degrees.<br />
:: Pushing aside the chair, the character returns with a fiery blowtorch while wearing goggles. Hairy, holding up a finger, says "Um."<br />
:: The character's computer was so burned, not only steam is coming out of the computer, but even the desk is noticeably burnt. The cable (apparently also burned) hangs from Hairy's laptop computer. The used blowtorch is clumsily laid sideways be the side of the desk. Both the character (whose goggles are pushed off his eye) and Hairy are looking at the calamity. The chair is almost out of view.<br />
:: The goggles are on the floor while the chair is nowhere to be seen. Hairy and the character are walking away from the scene. Hairy is speaking.<br />
:: * Are you all of a sudden in the mood for Thai food?<br />
:: * Let's try OpenBSD next time...<br />
::: The panel is of a panned view. Hairy and the character are walking on a path away from a house.<br />
::: The panel is back to a "normal camera view". Hairy and the character are speaking.<br />
::: * Guess not<br />
::: * Let's go exploring!<br />
::: * Okay then<br />
:: * Let's try Linux next time...<br />
:* Yep. It's haunted.<br />
* Why is Python importing Skynet?<br />
* Wait. What's on this other partition?<br />
: The character has ??? next to his head to signify confusion. [[Hairy]] walks in. (continue)<br />
: Hairy is on the other side of the desk with his own laptop computer. Both the computers are connected through Ethernet cable. The two characters are typing on the computer. (continue)<br />
: The two stop typing. Hairy has ??? next to his head. (continue)<br />
: Hairy had stepped back while the character is checking on Hairy's laptop computer. The character is holding something rectangular. Hairy is speaking.<br />
:* Maybe if you cross connect the serial port to video port you'll be able to send the video directly in as an input for the password<br />
:: The character and Hairy are at sea, both emitting ripples. A shark's fin can be seen close to Hairy.<br />
::* It worked fine for the shark<br />
::* We're definitely getting closer though<br />
::* That didn't work!<br />
:* What's a segfault?<br />
:* I think the cameras need to face each other.<br />
:* I'm not sure spaghetti works as a USB cable...<br />
<br />
* My keyboard has to support SSH over USB?<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Computers]]<br />
[[Category:Dynamic comics]]<br />
[[Category:April fool's comics]]</div>Greysonhttps://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1350:_Lorenz&diff=638511350: Lorenz2014-04-02T03:44:29Z<p>Greyson: /* Transcript */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1350<br />
| date = April 1, 2014<br />
| title = Lorenz<br />
| image = 1350_lorenz_loop.png<br />
| titletext = Every choice, no matter how small, begins a new story<br />
}}<br />
<br />
{{incomplete|All possible dialogues are not yet accounted for}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
This comic is a April fools comic with crowd sourced content. Since April 1st 2014 was a Tuesday, this comic is not in the normal sequence Monday, Wednesday and Friday.<br />
<br />
This comic is dynamic and needs interaction by the viewer. In the first time there was a bug when using the URL <nowiki>http://www.xkcd.com/</nowiki> or even <nowiki>https://xkcd.com/</nowiki> — only <nowiki>http://xkcd.com/</nowiki> did work at the first hours. <br />
<br />
{{w|HTTP cookie|Cookies}} are required to see this page properly.<br />
<br />
It appears that new panels may be generated by Randall in near real time as user suggestions to dialog is submitted. The dialogue options are likely based on click-through rates and hence will change over day based on which choices are clicked most using {{w|A/B_testing|A/B measurement techniques..}} This will mean that the most popular choices for dialogue line will prevail as the statistics builds up.<br />
<br />
Every panel has a "permalink" option which generates a unique URL for all the choices made by the reader -- so for example http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:26c8dcea-b9aa-11e3-8002-002590d77bdd will take you to a particular place in the selected choices.<br />
<br />
The title 'Lorenz' is referring to {{w|Edward Norton Lorenz}} who among other subjects was famous for {{w|Chaos theory}}. The title is a reference to that the story line of today's comic will include most (all?) of the user submitted dialogue and hence will in nature be chaotic. In addition, the title text, "Every choice, no matter how small", is a reference to the butterfly effect, a phrase coined by Edward Lorenz to describe how a small initial change can lead to wide variations in outcome in a chaotic system.<br />
<br />
This comic is an example of a {{w|Choose Your Own Adventure}} story.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript}}<br />
:[A transcript will be difficult to create due to the branching nature of the comic.]<br />
<br />
There are many options. Not everyone will see the same options. We are trying to capture as many options as possible in the Transcript below. -- '''the order and options has changed since the transcripter captured the dialogue'''....The dialogue is likely based on click-through rates and hence will change over time based on which choices are clicked most using {{w|A/B_testing|A/B measurement techniques..}}<br />
<br />
'''First Pane:'''([http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:be7a3304-b685-11e3-8001-94de80a03a29 permalink])<br />
* Refresh... No New Email... Refresh .. No New Tweets... Refresh...<br />
* These Stupid Tiles... I'll Just Play One More Game<br />
* Oh. Hey. There's Some Kind Of Political Thing Going On.<br />
* Let's See If BSD Is Any Easier to Install Nowadays<br />
<br />
'''Second Pane: Stupid Tiles Branch'''<br><br />
Option 1: ([http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:79f036ac-b9a0-11e3-9003-94de80a03a39 permalink])<br />
* There's something weird on the lawn<br />
* I heard Home Depot has 1024 bathroom tiles<br />
* There's a dinosaur at the door<br />
* I think I saw a "4096 tile outside somewhere.<br />
<br />
'''Second Pane: Refresh Branch'''<br><br />
Option 1: ([http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:6479d184-b9a0-11e3-b947-94de80a03a39 permalink])<br />
* So you're still refusing to use Facebook?<br />
* Wanna build a snowman?<br />
* Hey. I hear Godot is in town. Wanna try to meet him?<br />
* You know. Your car's on fire.<br />
<br />
'''Second Pane: Political Thing Branch'''<br><br />
The laptop says: "...and let's go live to the debate."<br />
* Continue<br />
<br />
'''Second Pane: BSD Branch'''<br><br />
The character has ?? next to his head to signify confusion.<br />
* Continue<br />
<br />
* Now I just need to look up what a "beard error" is...<br />
* Why is Python importing Skynet?<br />
* Wait. What's on this other partition?<br />
: The character has ??? next to his head to signify confusion. [[Hairy]] walks in. (continue)<br />
: Hairy is on the other side of the desk with his own laptop computer. Both the computers are connected through Ethernet cable. The two characters are typing on the computer. (continue)<br />
: The two stop typing. Hairy has ??? next to his head. (continue)<br />
: Hairy had stepped back while the character is checking on Hairy's laptop computer. The character is holding something rectangular.<br />
:* Maybe if you cross connect the serial port to video port you'll be able to send the video directly in as an input for the password<br />
:: The character and Hairy are at sea, both emitting ripples. A shark's fin can be seen close to Hairy.<br />
::* It worked fine for the shark<br />
::* We're definitely getting closer though<br />
::* That didn't work!<br />
:* What's a segfault?<br />
:* I think the cameras need to face each other.<br />
:* I'm not sure spaghetti works as a USB cable...<br />
<br />
* My keyboard has to support SSH over USB?<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Computers]]<br />
[[Category:Dynamic comics]]<br />
[[Category:April fool's comics]]</div>Greysonhttps://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1350:_Lorenz&diff=638501350: Lorenz2014-04-02T03:42:10Z<p>Greyson: This is the 1st time I had actually written a transcript! I hope that my nested lists do not make a mess...</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1350<br />
| date = April 1, 2014<br />
| title = Lorenz<br />
| image = 1350_lorenz_loop.png<br />
| titletext = Every choice, no matter how small, begins a new story<br />
}}<br />
<br />
{{incomplete|All possible dialogues are not yet accounted for}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
This comic is a April fools comic with crowd sourced content. Since April 1st 2014 was a Tuesday, this comic is not in the normal sequence Monday, Wednesday and Friday.<br />
<br />
This comic is dynamic and needs interaction by the viewer. In the first time there was a bug when using the URL <nowiki>http://www.xkcd.com/</nowiki> or even <nowiki>https://xkcd.com/</nowiki> — only <nowiki>http://xkcd.com/</nowiki> did work at the first hours. <br />
<br />
{{w|HTTP cookie|Cookies}} are required to see this page properly.<br />
<br />
It appears that new panels may be generated by Randall in near real time as user suggestions to dialog is submitted. The dialogue options are likely based on click-through rates and hence will change over day based on which choices are clicked most using {{w|A/B_testing|A/B measurement techniques..}} This will mean that the most popular choices for dialogue line will prevail as the statistics builds up.<br />
<br />
Every panel has a "permalink" option which generates a unique URL for all the choices made by the reader -- so for example http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:26c8dcea-b9aa-11e3-8002-002590d77bdd will take you to a particular place in the selected choices.<br />
<br />
The title 'Lorenz' is referring to {{w|Edward Norton Lorenz}} who among other subjects was famous for {{w|Chaos theory}}. The title is a reference to that the story line of today's comic will include most (all?) of the user submitted dialogue and hence will in nature be chaotic. In addition, the title text, "Every choice, no matter how small", is a reference to the butterfly effect, a phrase coined by Edward Lorenz to describe how a small initial change can lead to wide variations in outcome in a chaotic system.<br />
<br />
This comic is an example of a {{w|Choose Your Own Adventure}} story.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript}}<br />
:[A transcript will be difficult to create due to the branching nature of the comic.]<br />
<br />
There are many options. Not everyone will see the same options. We are trying to capture as many options as possible in the Transcript below. -- '''the order and options has changed since the transcripter captured the dialogue'''....The dialogue is likely based on click-through rates and hence will change over time based on which choices are clicked most using {{w|A/B_testing|A/B measurement techniques..}}<br />
<br />
'''First Pane:'''([http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:be7a3304-b685-11e3-8001-94de80a03a29 permalink])<br />
* Refresh... No New Email... Refresh .. No New Tweets... Refresh...<br />
* These Stupid Tiles... I'll Just Play One More Game<br />
* Oh. Hey. There's Some Kind Of Political Thing Going On.<br />
* Let's See If BSD Is Any Easier to Install Nowadays<br />
<br />
'''Second Pane: Stupid Tiles Branch'''<br><br />
Option 1: ([http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:79f036ac-b9a0-11e3-9003-94de80a03a39 permalink])<br />
* There's something weird on the lawn<br />
* I heard Home Depot has 1024 bathroom tiles<br />
* There's a dinosaur at the door<br />
* I think I saw a "4096 tile outside somewhere.<br />
<br />
'''Second Pane: Refresh Branch'''<br><br />
Option 1: ([http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:6479d184-b9a0-11e3-b947-94de80a03a39 permalink])<br />
* So you're still refusing to use Facebook?<br />
* Wanna build a snowman?<br />
* Hey. I hear Godot is in town. Wanna try to meet him?<br />
* You know. Your car's on fire.<br />
<br />
'''Second Pane: Political Thing Branch'''<br><br />
The laptop says: "...and let's go live to the debate."<br />
* Continue<br />
<br />
'''Second Pane: BSD Branch'''<br><br />
The character has ?? next to his head to signify confusion.<br />
* Continue<br />
<br />
* Now I just need to look up what a "beard error" is...<br />
* Why is Python importing Skynet?<br />
* Wait. What's on this other partition?<br />
: The character has ??? next to his head to signify confusion. [[Hairy]] walks in. (continue)<br />
: Hairy is on the other side of the desk with his own laptop computer. Both the computers are connected through Ethernet cable. The two characters are typing on the computer. (continue)<br />
: The two stop typing. Hairy has ??? next to his head. (continue)<br />
: Hairy had stepped back while the character is checking on Hairy's laptop computer. The character is holding something rectangular.<br />
:* Maybe if you cross connect the serial port to video port you'll be able to send the video directly in as an input for the password<br />
:* What's a segfault?<br />
:* I think the cameras need to face each other.<br />
:* I'm not sure spaghetti works as a USB cable...<br />
<br />
* My keyboard has to support SSH over USB?<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Computers]]<br />
[[Category:Dynamic comics]]<br />
[[Category:April fool's comics]]</div>Greysonhttps://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:757:_Toot&diff=61451Talk:757: Toot2014-03-01T06:34:43Z<p>Greyson: I should make that the SFW version of FurAffinity...</p>
<hr />
<div>The YouTube link in the explanation is a sarcastic video, that makes anyone who views it laugh out loud at how "seriously" the three men in tuxedos are acting as they blare out awful sounds with those horns. Calling the vuvuzela a "highly sophisticated" instrument based on that video is misleading at the least. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.11|173.245.54.11]] 16:00, 7 November 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:Use #2: http://www.sfw.furaffinity.net/view/4078940/<br />
:Use #3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kofsc-0aqK8<br />
[[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 06:34, 1 March 2014 (UTC)</div>Greysonhttps://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:757:_Toot&diff=61450Talk:757: Toot2014-03-01T06:34:11Z<p>Greyson: I added 2 more possible uses of a vuvuzela.</p>
<hr />
<div>The YouTube link in the explanation is a sarcastic video, that makes anyone who views it laugh out loud at how "seriously" the three men in tuxedos are acting as they blare out awful sounds with those horns. Calling the vuvuzela a "highly sophisticated" instrument based on that video is misleading at the least. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.11|173.245.54.11]] 16:00, 7 November 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:Use #2: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/4078940/<br />
:Use #3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kofsc-0aqK8<br />
[[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 06:34, 1 March 2014 (UTC)</div>Greysonhttps://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1330:_Kola_Borehole&diff=60026Talk:1330: Kola Borehole2014-02-14T14:51:26Z<p>Greyson: </p>
<hr />
<div>Reminds me of the title text in #[[1218]]: Doors of Durin. [[User:Whimsye|Whimsye]] ([[User talk:Whimsye|talk]]) 06:21, 14 February 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Surely this is a Dwarf Fortress reference. The Soviets breached the Happy Fun Stuff! [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.5|108.162.250.5]] 06:42, 14 February 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:Well, DF ''has'' that connotation, but both the [[wikipedia:Kola_Superdeep_Borehole|real thing]] and the [[wikipedia:Well_to_Hell_hoax|hoax]] are older than Toady's game, so perhaps not so much a reference to DF (although Black Hat does propose a typically DF-player solution... I hope he's prepared for [http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/FPS FPS Hell] from the flowing liquids). Randall ''[[1223|knows]]'' about DF, of course.<br />
:(BTW, from that (first, factual event) page: "In 1983, the drill passed 12,000 m (39,000 ft), and drilling was stopped for about a year to celebrate the event." ...Russians!) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.176|141.101.98.176]] 08:18, 14 February 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Lakes and Oceans #[[1040]] also mentions the Kola Borehole.[[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.70|199.27.128.70]] 09:03, 14 February 2014 (UTC)Nix<br />
<br />
If Hell would be a physical place, I don't think {{w|Lucifer}} would still be ruling there. In next war between Heaven and Hell, the winners will be anime and/or computer games nerds. Both Heaven and Hell will lose. :-) -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 11:06, 14 February 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
One may recall from the ''Divine Comedy'' that Dante's imagery of Hell is a negative-mountain-shaped abyss that starts widest at the surface of our allegorical planet and ends at a point far below the surface where Satan resides. The deeper you go, the narrower the abyss gets, like a cone, and the more heinous the sinners. On the other side of the planet there is a mountain made from all that earth God removed to dig the Inferno. The Saints (all those who are saved by faith from the other fate) progress up the mountain through Purgatory to reach Paradise. ''&mdash; [[User:Tbc|tbc]] ([[User talk:Tbc|talk]]) 14:01, 14 February 2014 (UTC)''<br />
<br />
I remember reading about this in Dial the Truth ministries: http://www.av1611.org/hell.html<br />
Either way, in the war between Earth and Hell, I shall be in Heaven. [[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 14:51, 14 February 2014 (UTC)</div>Greysonhttps://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:910:_Permanence&diff=59944Talk:910: Permanence2014-02-13T17:49:27Z<p>Greyson: </p>
<hr />
<div>I would marry a girl called epidural. '''[[User:Davidy22|<u>{{Color|#707|David}}<font color=#070 size=3>y</font></u><font color=#508 size=4>²²</font>]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 01:40, 17 April 2013 (UTC)<br />
Server or not, I know myself the feeling of wanting a super-duper high-school-level name. At least I have a system of naming my computers, gaming devices, and (future?) servers.[[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 17:49, 13 February 2014 (UTC)</div>Greysonhttps://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=910:_Permanence&diff=59942910: Permanence2014-02-13T17:48:32Z<p>Greyson: /* Explanation */ I expanded the explanation. (Also, the alternative 'epidural' explanation came from a commenter in the old explainxkcd site, back when the wiki was a blog.)</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 910<br />
| date = June 10, 2011<br />
| title = Permanence<br />
| image = permanence.png<br />
| titletext = This hostname is going in dozens of remote config files. Changing a kid's name is comparatively easy!<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
Here, given how complex a name change of a server (whose name would be placed in dozens of machines) can be, [[Cueball]] wants to make sure that there is a "be all to end all" name that he can give to the server he is running. When [[Megan]] quips on how quickly Cueball named his daughter (a living being, that is, the type of entity that would give the server purpose), Cueball mentions that he thinks that it is easier to change a person's name than to change the hostname of a server because of the number of changes that would need to be made to each of the machines that would have saved the old name of the server. However, it seems that Cueball has never had to wait in line at the Social Security Administration office or at the Department of Motor Vehicles. Those two name change processes make finding and changing dozens of hostfiles look like a piece of cake. Then again, Cueball was probably just panicking at the time of naming his daughter on account of Megan's drug high; Cueball references an "{{w|epidural}}" which is a process used during childbirth/labor that blocks both pain and sensation (by continuously injecting drugs directly into the spinal canal). Megan affirms it had her very much pleasantly euphoric (or "out of it", or "high as a kite"), as most painkillers do. Given the immensely painful process of childbirth, Megan was probably simply desperately begging epidural at the time, not actually wanting to name her daughter "Epidural."<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[A large panel the combined width of the four panels below it.]<br />
:[A blue Linux terminal installer screen with a grey box that is labeled "[!]CONFIGURE THE NETWORK" in red. Below, in black, it reads "Please enter the hostname for the system." Below is an empty blue entry box with a cursor and dashed underscore, and below this it says "<GO BACK>".]<br />
<br />
:[Cueball sits at his computer, Megan stands behind him.]<br />
:Megan: You've been staring at that screen a while.<br />
:Cueball: Picking a good server name is important.<br />
<br />
:[Megan stares at him.]<br />
<br />
:[She continues to stare.]<br />
<br />
:[Cueball pushes his chair back, puts one elbow on the back of the chair and points with his other hand at the screen.]<br />
:Megan: And yet you settled on "Caroline" for our daughter in like 15 seconds.<br />
:Cueball: But this is a ''server!''<br />
:Besides, I had to—you were trying to name her "epidural."<br />
:Megan: Those ''were'' good drugs.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics with color]]<br />
[[Category:Linux]]</div>Greysonhttps://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=908:_The_Cloud&diff=59940908: The Cloud2014-02-13T17:42:01Z<p>Greyson: /* Explanation */ I meant italics!</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 908<br />
| date = June 6, 2011<br />
| title = The Cloud<br />
| image = the cloud.png<br />
| titletext = There's planned downtime every night when we turn on the Roomba and it runs over the cord.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
This comic is a reference to all of the companies that rolled out "cloud" services like {{w|Google}}'s and {{w|Amazon}}'s music service and {{w|Apple}}'s aptly named {{w|iCloud}} online backup service around the time that the comic was released. Despite the mental image people using cloud services have of their data being placed literally in the sky, the reality is that all the data in the cloud has to be stored ''somewhere'', sometimes being merely a server.<br />
<br />
Also, in this comic is a reference to {{w|caching}} and the {{w|Roomba}}. Caching is the way that remote sites would locally store data from "The Cloud" to prevent from putting too much pressure on Black Hat's non-Enterprise class cable modem. The Roomba is a round vacuum that runs automatically around the house. The Roomba begins to learn the dimensions of rooms, however, apparently it has never learned not to run over the cord.<br />
<br />
The regular nightly downtime is a reference to an [http://www.snopes.com/horrors/freakish/cleaner.asp urban legend] in which some critical piece of equipment (often a server) is unplugged regularly so that a vacuum cleaner or similar janitorial tool can be temporarily plugged in. Although the Roomba vacuum does not require this computer's outlet, "running over the cord" apparently causes similar interruption in service.<br />
<br />
This comic is reminiscent of the British sitcom "The IT Crowd" in which they showcase a box that they make the rest of their non-Tech coworkers believe is "The Internet".<br />
<br />
The last panel showcases both Black Hat's stereotypical sadism and callousness. When Cueball asks about the hazard (namely, tripping) implicit in a cord stretching across a room, Black Hat responds by implying no one would want to do that, because it's unpleasant. Cueball responds with the fact that some people do things by accident, to which Black Hat says he doesn't know anyone like that. The only way Cueball can disprove this (at least quickly) is by admitting he's one of those people, opening him up to Black Hat's ridicule. Alternatively, this could be a hint towards how Black Hat, being the sadist he is, would "accidentally trip over" the cord, purposefully causing downtime and subsequent unpleasantness to those who rely on the cloud, a proposition supported by the title text.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[Cueball finds a computer tower with a wire leading away from it.]<br />
:Cueball: What's this?<br />
:Off-screen: The Cloud.<br />
<br />
:[Cueball looks behind him. The wire leads to an outlet in the wall next to where Black Hat sits at a desk with a computer. Another wire leads from that outlet to Black Hat's computer.]<br />
:Cueball: Huh? I always thought "The Cloud" was a huge, amorphous network of servers somewhere.<br />
:Black Hat: Yeah, but everyone buys server time from everyone else. In the end, they're all getting it here.<br />
<br />
:[A close-up of Black Hat.]<br />
:Cueball: How? You're on a ''cable'' modem.<br />
:Black Hat: There's a lot of caching.<br />
<br />
:[A close-up of Cueball, looking down at the tower at his feet.]<br />
:Cueball: Should the cord be stretched across the room like this?<br />
:Black Hat: Of course. It has to reach the server, and the server is over there.<br />
<br />
:[Cueball turns back to the Black Hat, still sitting at the computer.]<br />
:Cueball: What if someone trips on it?<br />
:Black Hat: Who would want to do that? It sounds unpleasant.<br />
:Cueball: Uh. Sometimes people do stuff by accident.<br />
:Black Hat: I don't think I know anybody like that.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]</div>Greysonhttps://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=908:_The_Cloud&diff=59939908: The Cloud2014-02-13T17:41:41Z<p>Greyson: /* Explanation */ Another look requires a bit of explaining the 'cloud.'</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 908<br />
| date = June 6, 2011<br />
| title = The Cloud<br />
| image = the cloud.png<br />
| titletext = There's planned downtime every night when we turn on the Roomba and it runs over the cord.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
This comic is a reference to all of the companies that rolled out "cloud" services like {{w|Google}}'s and {{w|Amazon}}'s music service and {{w|Apple}}'s aptly named {{w|iCloud}} online backup service around the time that the comic was released. Despite the mental image people using cloud services have of their data being placed literally in the sky, the reality is that all the data in the cloud has to be stored '''somewhere''', sometimes being merely a server.<br />
<br />
Also, in this comic is a reference to {{w|caching}} and the {{w|Roomba}}. Caching is the way that remote sites would locally store data from "The Cloud" to prevent from putting too much pressure on Black Hat's non-Enterprise class cable modem. The Roomba is a round vacuum that runs automatically around the house. The Roomba begins to learn the dimensions of rooms, however, apparently it has never learned not to run over the cord.<br />
<br />
The regular nightly downtime is a reference to an [http://www.snopes.com/horrors/freakish/cleaner.asp urban legend] in which some critical piece of equipment (often a server) is unplugged regularly so that a vacuum cleaner or similar janitorial tool can be temporarily plugged in. Although the Roomba vacuum does not require this computer's outlet, "running over the cord" apparently causes similar interruption in service.<br />
<br />
This comic is reminiscent of the British sitcom "The IT Crowd" in which they showcase a box that they make the rest of their non-Tech coworkers believe is "The Internet".<br />
<br />
The last panel showcases both Black Hat's stereotypical sadism and callousness. When Cueball asks about the hazard (namely, tripping) implicit in a cord stretching across a room, Black Hat responds by implying no one would want to do that, because it's unpleasant. Cueball responds with the fact that some people do things by accident, to which Black Hat says he doesn't know anyone like that. The only way Cueball can disprove this (at least quickly) is by admitting he's one of those people, opening him up to Black Hat's ridicule. Alternatively, this could be a hint towards how Black Hat, being the sadist he is, would "accidentally trip over" the cord, purposefully causing downtime and subsequent unpleasantness to those who rely on the cloud, a proposition supported by the title text.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[Cueball finds a computer tower with a wire leading away from it.]<br />
:Cueball: What's this?<br />
:Off-screen: The Cloud.<br />
<br />
:[Cueball looks behind him. The wire leads to an outlet in the wall next to where Black Hat sits at a desk with a computer. Another wire leads from that outlet to Black Hat's computer.]<br />
:Cueball: Huh? I always thought "The Cloud" was a huge, amorphous network of servers somewhere.<br />
:Black Hat: Yeah, but everyone buys server time from everyone else. In the end, they're all getting it here.<br />
<br />
:[A close-up of Black Hat.]<br />
:Cueball: How? You're on a ''cable'' modem.<br />
:Black Hat: There's a lot of caching.<br />
<br />
:[A close-up of Cueball, looking down at the tower at his feet.]<br />
:Cueball: Should the cord be stretched across the room like this?<br />
:Black Hat: Of course. It has to reach the server, and the server is over there.<br />
<br />
:[Cueball turns back to the Black Hat, still sitting at the computer.]<br />
:Cueball: What if someone trips on it?<br />
:Black Hat: Who would want to do that? It sounds unpleasant.<br />
:Cueball: Uh. Sometimes people do stuff by accident.<br />
:Black Hat: I don't think I know anybody like that.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]</div>Greysonhttps://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=908:_The_Cloud&diff=59938908: The Cloud2014-02-13T17:39:17Z<p>Greyson: /* Explanation */ I found Black Hat's accusations to be more hinting.</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 908<br />
| date = June 6, 2011<br />
| title = The Cloud<br />
| image = the cloud.png<br />
| titletext = There's planned downtime every night when we turn on the Roomba and it runs over the cord.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
This comic is a reference to all of the companies that rolled out "cloud" services like {{w|Google}}'s and {{w|Amazon}}'s music service and {{w|Apple}}'s aptly named {{w|iCloud}} online backup service around the time that the comic was released.<br />
<br />
Also, in this comic is a reference to {{w|caching}} and the {{w|Roomba}}. Caching is the way that remote sites would locally store data from "The Cloud" to prevent from putting too much pressure on Black Hat's non-Enterprise class cable modem. The Roomba is a round vacuum that runs automatically around the house. The Roomba begins to learn the dimensions of rooms, however, apparently it has never learned not to run over the cord.<br />
<br />
The regular nightly downtime is a reference to an [http://www.snopes.com/horrors/freakish/cleaner.asp urban legend] in which some critical piece of equipment (often a server) is unplugged regularly so that a vacuum cleaner or similar janitorial tool can be temporarily plugged in. Although the Roomba vacuum does not require this computer's outlet, "running over the cord" apparently causes similar interruption in service.<br />
<br />
This comic is reminiscent of the British sitcom "The IT Crowd" in which they showcase a box that they make the rest of their non-Tech coworkers believe is "The Internet".<br />
<br />
The last panel showcases both Black Hat's stereotypical sadism and callousness. When Cueball asks about the hazard (namely, tripping) implicit in a cord stretching across a room, Black Hat responds by implying no one would want to do that, because it's unpleasant. Cueball responds with the fact that some people do things by accident, to which Black Hat says he doesn't know anyone like that. The only way Cueball can disprove this (at least quickly) is by admitting he's one of those people, opening him up to Black Hat's ridicule. Alternatively, this could be a hint towards how Black Hat, being the sadist he is, would "accidentally trip over" the cord, purposefully causing downtime and subsequent unpleasantness to those who rely on the cloud, a proposition supported by the title text.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[Cueball finds a computer tower with a wire leading away from it.]<br />
:Cueball: What's this?<br />
:Off-screen: The Cloud.<br />
<br />
:[Cueball looks behind him. The wire leads to an outlet in the wall next to where Black Hat sits at a desk with a computer. Another wire leads from that outlet to Black Hat's computer.]<br />
:Cueball: Huh? I always thought "The Cloud" was a huge, amorphous network of servers somewhere.<br />
:Black Hat: Yeah, but everyone buys server time from everyone else. In the end, they're all getting it here.<br />
<br />
:[A close-up of Black Hat.]<br />
:Cueball: How? You're on a ''cable'' modem.<br />
:Black Hat: There's a lot of caching.<br />
<br />
:[A close-up of Cueball, looking down at the tower at his feet.]<br />
:Cueball: Should the cord be stretched across the room like this?<br />
:Black Hat: Of course. It has to reach the server, and the server is over there.<br />
<br />
:[Cueball turns back to the Black Hat, still sitting at the computer.]<br />
:Cueball: What if someone trips on it?<br />
:Black Hat: Who would want to do that? It sounds unpleasant.<br />
:Cueball: Uh. Sometimes people do stuff by accident.<br />
:Black Hat: I don't think I know anybody like that.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]</div>Greysonhttps://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:233:_A_New_CAPTCHA_Approach&diff=58539Talk:233: A New CAPTCHA Approach2014-01-24T17:49:06Z<p>Greyson: Created page with "Both of those fail against autistic people (and people who have diseases similar to autism, one example being FG syndrome). ~~~~"</p>
<hr />
<div>Both of those fail against autistic people (and people who have diseases similar to autism, one example being FG syndrome). [[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 17:49, 24 January 2014 (UTC)</div>Greysonhttps://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1319:_Automation&diff=58346Talk:1319: Automation2014-01-22T00:21:54Z<p>Greyson: </p>
<hr />
<div>Why is this administrator protected? Did an admin lock it just to make sure they'd be the first person to explain it? --[[User:Mynotoar|Mynotoar]] ([[User talk:Mynotoar|talk]]) 07:12, 20 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
It is not protected. Check the logs. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.117|108.162.246.117]] 07:39, 20 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Alright, done the preliminary explanation. I think I got the joke right, and I'm a programmer myself so I can relate to the graphs. However, laymen may not understand the circumstances of programming world, so maybe simpler words could be used, or a real-life example given. That and I'm not a native English speaker, so someone else should do some grammar check. Also, I posted that from my mobile, it's not really convenient (editing the post itself is already a bit hard) so I'll do some fact checking and citation-linking once I got home. I did check on the screwing definition with TheFreeDictionary, don't have time to do better search now. [[User:Raestloz|Raestloz]] ([[User talk:Raestloz|talk]]) 08:55, 20 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Note that in reality, many tasks can be automated successfully: while the programming takes longer that expected, may not simplify the task as much as expected and the program feels unfinished, outside circumstances can force the programmer to abandon ongoing development and use the program for partial automation instead. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 09:54, 20 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
The title text reminds me of the old joke about the definition of politics -- "poli-" meaning "many" and "tics" meaning "blood sucking creatures". --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.202|108.162.219.202]] 12:31, 20 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Or the definition of polygon; "poly" = parrot and "gon" = gone (i.e., deceased). Therefore,<br />
"dead parrot" [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.236|141.101.99.236]] 09:55, 21 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Why do the lines on the "Theory" graph converge shortly after automation takes over? Surely, the idea behind writing a code in this example is to save time. Therefore, the original task line should remain relatively constant and the coding line should plunge below it, no? {{unsigned|Jevicci}}<br />
<br />
: Once the automation takes over, the programmer will no longer have to do anything, the program will take care of it [[User:Raestloz|Raestloz]] ([[User talk:Raestloz|talk]]) 00:22, 21 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
::Yes, but I agree with Jevicci's comment and that's what I was going to post. The point of the automation is (in theory) to save effort. After an initial input of lots of work coding, the "automation" line drops to near-zero. That makes sense, but the "regular way" line should continue horizontal like it does in the 2nd graph because if you don't automate, it should continue to take effort. The first chart suggests that even in theory, automation takes more work and the same amount of time as the old fashioned way.<br />
<br />
::I think what Randall is trying to say is EITHER that a) programmers will automate for the sake of the challenge or it being less tedious than the basic way even if it doesn't save time. b) programmers will automate even if it doesn't save time because they can use the code next time the problem arises. But I agree, I think the first graph's "regular way" line should have either continued horizontal, or tappered off somewhere after the "automation" line does. [[User:TheHYPO|TheHYPO]] ([[User talk:TheHYPO|talk]]) 14:56, 21 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:::As far as I can tell, the line labelled "work on original task" is not meant to represent the amount of work you'd be doing without any automation (which would indeed remain a straight horizontal line), as the "theory" graph doesn't compare two separate scenarios. Rather, it's just there to be a baseline amount of work (programming work being done on top), which diminishes to near-zero as soon as automation takes over. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.231.221|108.162.231.221]] 18:28, 21 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
::::Yea, in the theory you would continue performing the task while also coding the automation. Once the automation is done, you work on neither the original nor the coding so both drop to zero. In practice, you keep doing the work and never finish the automation, so the coding goes up and the original stays the same. --[[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.29|173.245.48.29]] 22:20, 21 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
In other words, when automating, NEVER rethink. [[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 00:21, 22 January 2014 (UTC)</div>Greysonhttps://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1315:_Questions_for_God&diff=57198Talk:1315: Questions for God2014-01-10T13:51:05Z<p>Greyson: Created page with "Hey, Arnold! ~~~~"</p>
<hr />
<div>Hey, Arnold! [[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 13:51, 10 January 2014 (UTC)</div>Greysonhttps://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=322:_Pix_Plz&diff=56966322: Pix Plz2014-01-08T16:33:01Z<p>Greyson: /* Explanation */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 322<br />
| date = September 28, 2007<br />
| title = Pix Plz<br />
| image = pix_plz.png<br />
| titletext = But one of the regulars in the channel is a girl!<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
Though this comic predates it, there is an [http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/there-are-no-girls-on-the-internet Internet meme] best stated as "there are no girls on the Internet." (It is also known as [http://rules-of-the-internet.urbanup.com/2799580 Rule 16] or [http://rulesoftheinternet.com Rule 30] [http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/rules-of-the-internet of the Internet], not to be confused with Wolfram's cellular automata.) This comes partly from a supposition that girls aren't smart enough to go on the Internet or even use technology, or again, that they are afraid of interacting in such a male-dominated subculture. The {{Wiktionary|puerile}} nature of the Internet creates a repulsive force because of exactly what [[Cueball]] is doing. As soon as anyone claims to be a female online there will invariably be a slew of "[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/tits-or-gtfo tits or gtfo]" replies.<br />
<br />
Randall projects this stereotypical Internet douchebaggery onto [[Cueball]], who behaves this way out of {{w|misogyny}} thinly disguised as a joke. This barely-a-joke, found in certain areas of the internet (especially IRC and 4chan), holds the view that women are only "good for" sex and porn. By making such a huge deal out of her being a girl, he directs unwanted sexual attention at any female who joins.<br />
<br />
[[Black Hat]], while usually a destructive force, and self-proclaimed [[Classhole|classhole]], stands up for women everywhere. (This makes sense when you consider that Black Hat tends to pursue Randall's thoughts in a more controversial way (see [[86: Digital Rights Management]]). He enlists the help of a [[Ponytail]] character named Joanna to [http://banhammer.urbanup.com/1921346 ban] Cueball from the Internet.<br />
<br />
{{w|IRC}} is the acronym for Internet Relay Chat. It is a protocol that eventually evolved into the {{w|instant messenger}}s, {{w|chat room}}s, and {{w|XMPP|XMPP (formerly Jabber)}} servers around today. With the advent of live-streaming video online, IRC channels are making a come-back as a way for hosts and audiences to communicate with each other in real-time.<br />
<br />
An {{w|Electromagnetic pulse|EMP}} is an electromagnetic pulse that will disrupt electronics from functioning normally. An EMP is an unusual spike in voltage. Small EMPs will disrupt electricity momentarily, larger EMPs are capable of burning out circuitry.<br />
<br />
At the title text Cueball tries to defend his misogyny by claiming one of his IRc chat system acquaintances is a female, as if to imply that makes his words no longer misogynist (this is similar to the defense "I'm not racist because I have a black friend!").<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[Black Hat stands in the entrance to a room. The door has been broken down. A surprised Cueball has turned away from his computer to face the remains of the door.]<br />
:Black Hat: Hi. I'm here about the girl who visited your IRC channel last night looking for Java help.<br />
:Cueball: What did you do to my door?<br />
<br />
:Black Hat: When someone with a feminine username joins your community and you say "OMG a woman on the Internet" and 'jokingly' ask for naked pics, you are being an asshole. You are not being ironic. You are not cracking everybody up. You are the number one reason women are so rare on the Internet.<br />
:Black Hat: At least, the parts of it <u>you</u> frequent.<br />
<br />
:[Ponytail enters the room, holding some sort of device.]<br />
:Black Hat: As someone who likes nerdy girls, I do not appreciate this. I'm here to ban you from the Internet. The gal behind me with the EMP cannon is Joanna - she'll be assigned to you for the next year. Try to go online and she'll melt your PC.<br />
:Cueball: Dude, she's hot. Is she single?<br />
:Black Hat: Joanna, fire.<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]</div>Greysonhttps://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1314:_Photos&diff=56965Talk:1314: Photos2014-01-08T16:28:46Z<p>Greyson: </p>
<hr />
<div>This seems to be a reference to this video or one of many of the same ilk. <br />
http://www.artthesystem.com/2013/12/after-i-saw-this-i-put-down-my-phone.html?m=1<br />
<br />
Which is doing the rounds on social media sites at the moment {{unsigned|Gernant}}<br />
<br />
<br />
Heard on a french radio show (Les grosses têtes) : A study made on student split in two group in an exposition : one group would photograph what they like, another one would photograph a certain set of pictures.<br />
The study found that the ones who could photograph pictures they like, wasn't able to remember the pictures they liked.<br />
The ones who wasn't able to photograph picture they liked, remembered it better.<br />
I don't have link, sry, but white hat is proven right in this case. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.189|173.245.53.189]] 09:21, 8 January 2014 (UTC) Juluan<br />
<br />
:I think BOTH have point here. Trying to document your life IS distracting, especially if you overdo it (and make a lot of selfies), on the other hand it IS possible to enjoy your life and still take pictures. Except if something happens only once and quick: in that case, if you try to take picture, you won't be able to enjoy it ... and you might fail to take the picture in correct moment anyway. I recommend video in such case :-). -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 11:04, 8 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:PS: The title text seems like obvious irony to me. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 11:06, 8 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I remember taking a few photographs of food that is WAY too fabulous in presentation. [[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 16:28, 8 January 2014 (UTC)</div>Greysonhttps://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:461:_Google_Maps&diff=56518Talk:461: Google Maps2014-01-03T13:41:45Z<p>Greyson: </p>
<hr />
<div><br />
By the end, it's really starting to sound like a text-based fantasy adventure game, or possibly a game of D&D. This adds an additional level of humour: using Google Maps to navigate around virtual worlds.<br />
<br />
I particularly liked the "Go pi miles", and the "Careful" instructions in the Google Maps "Action" column on the right. ''--[[User:MisterSpike|MisterSpike]] ([[User talk:MisterSpike|talk]]) 18:58, 26 June 2013 (UTC)''<br />
<br />
:Yes it is very much like old text games. [[Special:Contributions/184.66.160.91|184.66.160.91]] 04:18, 7 July 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:To me, it actually looks like a '''walkthrough''' for an adventure game of some sort. Or possibly a hint book considering the "official-sounding" last part. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.231.234|108.162.231.234]] 06:38, 25 December 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
The Spectral Wolf plays a role in World of Warcraft, but as I am not a WoW player, I don't feel qualified to update the explanation. Any WoWians want to add a paragraph on the Spectral Wolf?[[User:Nsimonetti|NikoNarf]] ([[User talk:Nsimonetti|talk]]) 19:17, 14 November 2013 (UTC)<br />
:I am one, but the Reins of the Spectral Wolf were not released until the Cataclysm expansion (December 2010). Thus a WoW-related explanation for the wolf would be anachronistic. [[User:Amurfalcon|Amurfalcon]] ([[User talk:Amurfalcon|talk]]) 21:07, 10 December 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I'm not sure what is meant by the use of the term "Straw Man" instead of scarecrow or some other spooky or Halloween-themed equivalent. Perhaps it is a reference to the fallacy, but the fallacy is unassociated with "waking" unless maybe it's loosely related to the aggression that generally accompanies the attack of a straw man. {{unsigned ip|173.245.56.66}}<br />
<br />
:"They also apparently woke the Straw Man."<br />
I don't think there's more implied than that they lost time getting past, or detouring around, 'the Straw Man'. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.203|108.162.219.203]] 14:13, 25 December 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Looks like "Zork" to me. Anyone remember Zork? {{unsigned ip|108.162.216.229}}<br />
<br />
The Spectral Wolf would make all of this work so worthwhile. I mean... you would be getting a SPECTRAL WOLF! I wish I had a real one. [[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 13:41, 3 January 2014 (UTC)</div>Greysonhttps://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=explain_xkcd_talk:Translation&diff=56515explain xkcd talk:Translation2014-01-03T13:38:20Z<p>Greyson: </p>
<hr />
<div>When I first did read this idea I thought this would be a massive project. But more and more users sign in here so maybe it could be possible. So here my first thoughts (I don't want to edit the project page):<br />
*URL: <nowiki>www.tld.explainxkcd.com and tld.explainxkcd.com</nowiki> should be possible on the domain ''explainxkcd.com''. An other idea is <nowiki>www.explainxkcd.com/tldwiki</nowiki>. So this would be www.explainxkcd.com/dewiki for Germany.<br />
*Direct translations are often not easy or just impossible. The pages should show the original content and explain the original text without a simple translation. Jokes not common to non US citizen must be be explained in more detail than in English.<br />
*It's a project for 2014, not this year.<br />
*I will do some attempts for the German language, The Doctor has to be explained, what the hell is Firefly, what is NSFW, ... Most Germans need an explanation for this, they just don't know. So I will focus on some more complex comics, but not now.<br />
*The comic itself should be the original because it helps people with a smaller knowledge on the English language.<br />
Nice idea, but still a hard job.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 23:17, 21 November 2013 (UTC)<br />
:It's totally fine to edit the page, it's still a work in progress and I hadn't fully fleshed out exactly what the parameters of the project would be when I wrote it. I was planning on discussing it with other editors until we reached consensus on how we were going to handle everything. The only thing that I had set-in-stone decided was that I would only make the alternate language wikis live after we had completed every English explanation, so that translators would have a correct base to work from. I'm inclined to go for the subdomain solution, because less typing. If we could figure out automagic region redirects from explainxkcd.com, that would be sweet. I was already intending to nominate you and Slashme for adminship on the German wiki, and our German audience is sizeable enough that I think we should be fine on edit volume. I was actually thinking about doing translation on the comics and transcripts, because I figured that's what we're here to do; make the comics as accessible to visitors as possible. If we gave them xkcd in their native language, all the better. I also started this thing because I wanted to reach people who didn't know any English at all. The image translation would be a colossal effort though, and I was thinking of contacting and inviting guys like [http://xkcde.dapete.net/], [http://xkcdde.tumblr.com/] and [http://xkcd.lapin.org/] to come help us for that. I wasn't expecting translating the entire wiki into a different language to be an easy task at all, but it's going to be completely worth it. I'm considering Chinese next, just for the massive audience boost. '''[[User:Davidy22|<u>{{Color|#707|David}}<font color=#070 size=3>y</font></u><font color=#508 size=4>²²</font>]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 02:48, 22 November 2013 (UTC)<br />
:I am a little worried about French though. They're our third biggest language, but there's no real viable French candidate for adminship currently. It'll be fine for the next year or so when we're working on German, but we'll need a French speaking admin eventually. I don't know how we're gonna look for that. '''[[User:Davidy22|<u>{{Color|#707|David}}<font color=#070 size=3>y</font></u><font color=#508 size=4>²²</font>]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 05:38, 22 November 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Because of this new page the main page should be changed from "PAGESINCAT:Comics|R}}-13" to "PAGESINCAT:Comics|R}}-14".--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 22:11, 22 November 2013 (UTC)<br />
:Huh. I don't see the category on this page, but the main page counter seems to back you up. Fix'd. '''[[User:Davidy22|<u>{{Color|#707|David}}<font color=#070 size=3>y</font></u><font color=#508 size=4>²²</font>]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 23:11, 22 November 2013 (UTC)<br />
::Ohh, sometimes my eagle eyes struggle about something, and the next time I do not recognize other errors here. Are we humans or bots? I am a humaan, and my BOT('s) are instructed by me, NOT vice versa. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 01:03, 23 November 2013 (UTC)<br />
I volunteer towards Spanish translation! I am a Puerto Rican who translates stuff out of fun. Also, [http://www.es.xkcd.com/ there is a (partial) Spanish xkcd...] [[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 13:38, 3 January 2014 (UTC)</div>Greysonhttps://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=189:_Exercise&diff=55967189: Exercise2013-12-26T13:30:58Z<p>Greyson: /* Explanation */ I played tons of RPGs. Then again, they were on video game systems.</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 189<br />
| date = November 27, 2006<br />
| title = Exercise<br />
| image = exercise.png<br />
| titletext = I haven't had the patience for RPGs in a long time.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{w|Role-playing_game|Role-playing games}} (RPGs) are a pastime commonly associated with {{w|Geek|geeks}} in which players assume the role of a fictional character in a fantasy world. In many RPGs, character evolution and advancement is represented by "leveling up". Through winning battles and, less frequently, completing of tasks or missions, characters are awarded experience points (XP), which can be spent on increasing their ratings in attributes (such as strength or speed) or skills (such as bow-hunting or computer hacking). The number of XP awarded is generally proportional to the difficulty of the task completed.<br />
<br />
[[Cueball]] is doing {{w|Chin-up|chin-ups}}, a strength-training exercise that targets the latissimus dorsi and biceps. Repeating this exercise over time will improve his ability to do more chin-ups in one go - in other words, he will become stronger. In doing so, he is effectively leveling up his STR (strength) attribute in real life. While doing his chin-ups, he comments that he will soon switch to running - an aerobic exercise that improves endurance - in order to build up his CON (constitution) attribute. Cueball is treating his gym session like an RPG, and observes that, as a self-confessed geek, he would not be as interested in exercising without that link.<br />
<br />
The title text implies that [[Randall]] has not had the patience for RPGs, and therefore has not had the patience to exercise.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:Like many geeks, I got a lot more interested in exercise once I made the connection to leveling up.<br />
:[Cueball is doing pull-ups on a bar.]<br />
:Cueball: One more point to str, then I'll run to work on con.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Video games]]</div>Greysonhttps://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=191:_Lojban&diff=55966191: Lojban2013-12-26T13:28:14Z<p>Greyson: /* Explanation */ I added an obvious alternate explanation.</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 191<br />
| date = December 1, 2006<br />
| title = Lojban<br />
| image = lojban.png<br />
| titletext = zo'o ta jitfa .i .e'o xu do pendo mi<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{w|Lojban}} is a constructed language designed to be logical, unambiguous, and culturally neutral. The authors originally designed it as an experiment, but a few people have picked it up and tried to learn it. However, anyone actually willing to learn Lojban is someone [[Black Hat]] would rather avoid. Alternately, only people who speak Lojban (an admittedly microscopic section of the general population) could benefit from the logic of the language, making the benefits of Lojban mostly pointless.<br />
<br />
Clicking on the original comic brings you to [[:File:lojban translated.png|a Lojban translation of the comic]].<br />
<br />
The title-text is also written in Lojban. It translates roughly as: "That was a joke. Really. Wanna be friends with me?"<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:;English<br />
:Cueball: If you learned to speak Lojban, your communication would be completely unambiguous and logical.<br />
:Black Hat: Yeah, but it would all be with the kind of people who learn Lojban.<br />
<br />
:;Lojban<br />
:Cueball: da'i ganai do crebi'o la lojban gi le se cusku be do cu mulno pavysmu je logji<br />
:Black Hat: .i .ie ku'i cusku fi le prenu klesi poi certu la lojban<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Language]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]</div>Greysonhttps://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:568:_Well_2&diff=55875Talk:568: Well 22013-12-24T20:41:52Z<p>Greyson: Created page with "...1,372 people??? ~~~~"</p>
<hr />
<div>...1,372 people??? [[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 20:41, 24 December 2013 (UTC)</div>Greysonhttps://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:561:_Well&diff=55874Talk:561: Well2013-12-24T20:37:14Z<p>Greyson: </p>
<hr />
<div>Shouldn't we elaborate on the questioned superiority of DVORAK? --[[Special:Contributions/129.206.196.49|129.206.196.49]] 20:45, 11 October 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
The final two frames appear to be foreshadowed by the title text within Connected (http://xkcd.com/807/) [[User:Lakeside|Lakeside]] ([[User talk:Lakeside|talk]]) 19:02, 4 November 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I like how the 'uncomfortable truth' for the man is that he never meant it when he said 'I love you', but for the woman, it's that she always did! [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.223|108.162.219.223]] 23:47, 23 December 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
What is ironic is that I am setting up a keyboard based on [https://github.com/michaeldickens/Typing Michael Dicken's optimizer]. Also, while I prefer vim (light weight!), I also have Xemacs out of my own choice. [[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 20:37, 24 December 2013 (UTC)</div>Greysonhttps://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=561:_Well&diff=55873561: Well2013-12-24T20:36:05Z<p>Greyson: /* Explanation */ I expanded the Dvorak and text editor sections.</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 561<br />
| date = March 27, 2009<br />
| title = Well<br />
| image = well.png<br />
| titletext = I'll concede ergonomics anecdotally, but none of the studies of Dvorak were at all rigorous (the most-cited Navy study was overseen by Dvorak himself). And the 'slow typists down' thing is a myth. Also EMACS RULES VI DROOLS WOOOOOOO!<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
Uncomfortable truths are truths that exist, but no one wants to have to think about them.<br />
<br />
The first is about ''{{w|Firefly (TV Series)|Firefly}}'' the TV series created by {{w|Joss Whedon}} and canceled by {{w|FOX}}, due to poor ratings performance, after airing the first 13 episodes out-of-order. In Firefly, the main languages spoken are English and Chinese (in equal measure), because China was the only other world power besides America to go to space (Joss Whedon's own explanation on the DVDs). However, there are [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HumansAreWhite very few actual Asians] on-screen.<br />
<br />
Back then, typewriter keys had levers that stroke the paper when the key was hit but lowered slowly by gravity, which posed the risk of jamming the key mechanisms if one pressed a key that was adjacent to another key whose mechanism was still lowering. With that in mind, the "Qwerty" layout, named after the first six keys of consecutive letters, was designed with the purpose of separating common letter combinations, thus greatly avoiding the problem. Even so, once the typewriter mechanism was improved, Qwerty had such a holding of the populace; no one was willing to change. Dr. {{w|August Dvorak}} introduced the Dvorak keyboard layout in 1936 with the hopes of making a better keyboard. Dvorak is designed with better form in mind, what with rearranging the letters with the purpose of having the keys positioned in a way that is relevant to their position. (In other words, the most frequently used keys would be placed at the most easily-accessible places.) This reduced typing effort and strain while increasing typing speed and accuracy. Despite this, Dr. Dvorak had to fight against the Qwerty layout that was even more entrenched in the United States mind. Even today, Qwerty is still the standard. More complete information can be found [http://www.dvzine.org/zine/index.html here].<br />
<br />
The title text perpetuates the Emacs vs. vi {{w|Editor war|debate}}. Both Emacs and vim are text editors that frequently serve the purpose of general-langauge editors of source code. The issue is that, while Emacs is more user-friendly and customizable, vim is more lightweight while needing few keystrokes in text editing. Because of this balance, fans of Emacs and fans of vim end up fighting each other.<br />
<br />
All comics in the [[:Category:Well|Well]] series:<br />
*[[561: Well]]<br />
*[[568: Well 2]]<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[A sign sits by a well.]<br />
:The Uncomfortable Truths Well<br />
<br />
:[A guy and Ponytail are lined up for the well; the guy throws a coin in.]<br />
:Well: For a universe that's supposed to be half Chinese, Firefly sure doesn't have any Asians.<br />
<br />
:[The guy is gone, a couple arrives behind Ponytail; Ponytail throws a coin in.]<br />
:Well: There's no solid evidence DVORAK's better than QWERTY. The standard histories are urban legends.<br />
<br />
:[Just the couple remain; Cueball throws another coin in.]<br />
:Well: You've never said "I love you" and meant it. It was always just words.<br />
<br />
:[Megan now throws in a coin.]<br />
:Well: You meant it every time.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]<br />
[[Category:Sarcasm]]<br />
[[Category:Romance]]<br />
[[Category:Firefly]]<br />
[[Category:Well]]</div>Greysonhttps://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=971:_Alternative_Literature&diff=55655971: Alternative Literature2013-12-20T14:50:58Z<p>Greyson: /* Explanation */ That is the way I understood homoeopathy in Natural News.</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 971<br />
| date = October 31, 2011<br />
| title = Alternative Literature<br />
| image = alternative_literature.png<br />
| imagesize = <br />
| titletext = I just noticed CVS has started stocking homeopathic pills on the same shelves with--and labeled similarly to--their actual medicine. Telling someone who trusts you that you're giving them medicine, when you know you’re not, because you want their money, isn’t just lying--it’s like an example you’d make up if you had to illustrate for a child why lying is wrong.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
While the comic is funny on its own in a "[[:Category:Sheeple|Wake Up, Sheeple]]" kind of way, the full joke requires the title text, so make sure you read it. The comic title is a play on {{w|Alternative medicine}}.<br />
<br />
{{w|Homeopathy}} is based on the idea that a substance that causes the symptoms of a disease in healthy people will cure that disease in sick people. This axiom is known as "the law of similars" or "like cures like". Think on how a student takes a test. If the students was given a test immediately, the student would most likely fail. However, if the student is given the material piecemeal that the test would test the student would adapt itself, that is, would acquire the material, slowly and surely. After all the material is given, the student would most likely pass the test. Similarly, the body is given a material that has an energy reading that is similar to the ailment. The body would become used to the material, slowing adapting itself. Eventually, with enough material, the body is now sufficiently strong in fighting off the ailment.<br />
<br />
In practice, this is more akin to in every lie there is a grain of truth, because there is sometimes a smallest trace of something helpful, but it has been so watered down it is considered mostly a placebo. In theory this is exactly what you want, if the problem is not truly a medical problem, you simply need to trick the mind into believing it is better and it will make itself better. The problem becomes visible when proponents of homeopathy believe that drinking tea with special herbs in it helps to fix a broken bone and other rubbish and what-not.<br />
<br />
In this comic, the problem is homeopathic books. Someone has sold Person Two a bunch of blank books, convincing him that these are better than real books. Despite what he says in the last panel, he is in fact a sucker because you cannot enrich your mind without reading real books, and even if he didn't want to read, he wouldn't need empty books to do so.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[Cueball and a friend stand in front of Cueball's bookcase. His friend flips through a number of them.]<br />
:Friend: All your books are full of blank pages.<br />
:Cueball: Not true. That one has some ink on page 78.<br />
:[The Friend looks at page 78.]<br />
:Friend: A smudge.<br />
:Cueball: So?<br />
<br />
:Friend: There are no words. You're not reading. There's no ''story'' there.<br />
:Cueball: Maybe not for you. When I look at those books, I think about all ''kinds'' of stories.<br />
<br />
:Cueball: Reading is about more than what's on the page. Holding a book prompts my mind to enrich itself. Frankly, I suspect the book isn't even necessary.<br />
<br />
:Cueball: The whole industry is evil. Greedy publishers and rich authors try to convince us our brains ''need'' their words. But I refuse to be a sucker.<br />
:Friend: Who sold you all these blank books?<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}} <br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]</div>Greysonhttps://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=244:_Tabletop_Roleplaying&diff=55654244: Tabletop Roleplaying2013-12-20T14:40:59Z<p>Greyson: /* Explanation */ I explained recursion a bit.</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 244<br />
| date = April 4, 2007<br />
| title = Tabletop Roleplaying<br />
| image = tabletop roleplaying.png<br />
| titletext = I may have also tossed one of a pair of teleportation rings into the ocean, with interesting results.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
<br />
Four people are playing a role-playing game. Megan is the game master (GM), describing the adventure and what happens. The other people control imaginary characters in the game. Cueball attempts to have his character lead other characters in the imaginary construction of dice and gaming sheets. This would allow his character to become the GM of a new game inside the game they're currently playing. "Recursing" refers to "recursion," a concept of computer programming where a piece of code calls itself, essentially making the code run miltiple times. Looping is a rudimentary form of recursion. Recursion is also a big theme in Scheme, a dialect of Lisp.<br />
<br />
The title text refers to a pair of linked rings, each about two feet in diameter. Anything passing through one gets teleported instantly to the other, as if the two rings were next to each other. There's an old gamer theory that, if you drop one of the rings in the ocean, water will naturally pass through it and out the other ring, potentially draining the entire ocean, or at least creating a perpetual seawater fountain out of the other ring.<br />
<br />
And if you teleported one ring directly to the bottom of the ocean, the amount of pressure pushing the water through would cause a gigantic, never-ending torrent, obliterating anything placed in its path.<br />
<br />
That idea is drawn out in [[969: Delta-P]].<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[Four people sit around a table.]<br />
:Megan: Your party enters the tavern.<br />
:Cueball: I gather everyone around a table. I have the elves start whittling dice and get out some parchment for character sheets.<br />
:Megan: Hey, no recursing.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]<br />
[[Category:Recursion]]</div>Greysonhttps://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:251:_CD_Tray_Fight&diff=55653Talk:251: CD Tray Fight2013-12-20T14:27:58Z<p>Greyson: </p>
<hr />
<div>This may be a reference to a bug in certain old versions of FUSE that causes the CD tray to load almost immediately after being ejected. [[Special:Contributions/162.72.40.137|162.72.40.137]] 13:18, 4 May 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Incomplete because there is a missing Terminator reference or something???--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:46, 22 August 2013 (UTC)<br />
:Reference to Skynet? I don't know enough about Terminator to be sure. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.211|173.245.52.211]] 20:15, 10 December 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
<br />
The opposite of this kept happening to me, when I tried to burn Ubuntu to a disc Windows kept opening the disc drive whenever I clicked on Burn, then informed me that the disc drive was open. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.246|141.101.98.246]] 19:12, 8 November 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Also, it must be noted that this may damage the device. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.212.199|108.162.212.199]] 23:05, 18 November 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I do the reverse with dollar bills in vending machines. [[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 14:27, 20 December 2013 (UTC)</div>Greysonhttps://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=802:_Online_Communities_2&diff=55362802: Online Communities 22013-12-16T19:35:54Z<p>Greyson: /* Geotagged Bay */ I never used Yelp, though...</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 802<br />
| date = October 6, 2010<br />
| title = Online Communities 2<br />
| image = online_communities_2.png<br />
| titletext = Best trivia I learned while working on this: 'Man, Farmville is so huge! Do you realize it's the second-biggest browser-based social-networking-centered farming game in the WORLD?' Then you wait for the listener to do a double-take.<br />
}}<br />
A larger version of this picture can be found here: [http://xkcd.com/802_large/ http://xkcd.com/802_large/].<br />
<div class="toclimit-3" style="float:right; margin-left: 10px;"> __TOC__ </div><br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Not all of the regions are fully explained.}}<br />
This comic shows a map of internet communities where the size of each region roughly corresponds to its size, and its proximity to other regions indicates similarities.<br />
<br />
This is the successor of [[256: Online Communities]]. It differs in that it is updated, and furthermore, instead of using the ''membership'' of whichever service to determine its size on the map, it uses its "daily social activity."<br />
<br />
The map actually has two super−maps: the online community map is surrounded by the "countries" of E−Mail and SMS ("Instant Messaging"). These, in turn, are surrounded by the "Spoken Language" country (which is odd, considering that e−mail, SMS, and the Internet in general are based on ''written'' language) with its own sub−country, "cell phones" (which ''do'' involve e−mail and the Internet while being the mean medium of SMS's).<br />
<br />
At the title text [[Randall]] explains that, using his definition of "most activity per day", Farmville is actually the ''second'' most popular "Facebook farming game". This will strike many as odd, because Farmville is by far the most famous, leading one to wonder how the most famous could not be the most played. The phrase "browser-based social-networking-centered farming game" is an example of [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OverlyNarrowSuperlative an overly-narrow superlative]. <br />
<br />
==Facebook Region==<br />
The Facebook region deals with social networks, that is, websites oriented towards having people meet.<br />
<br />
'''{{w|Facebook}}''' is a social networking site that allows people to meet old real−life friends and make new friends that share similar interests. One of its most notable features is that a member can update a "status" or make normal posts about the happenings of the member's life, complete with pictures, other members "liking" these posts. The size of the Facebook region is not exaggerated; most websites seem to allow "liking" their content or allow/require logging in the website with a Facebook account. There even are cell phones with a "Facebook" button!<br />
<br />
'''Farmville''', '''Happy Farm''', and '''Farm Town''' are all Facebook games. The "Unethical Bay" refers to how these games tend to addict players into constantly buying virtual items of questionable value.<br />
<br />
The '''People You Can't Unfriend''' refer to people whom, due to real-life expectations and relationships, unfriending them is difficult, no matter how you really feel about them.<br />
<br />
The '''Data Mines''' refer to the data mining that Facebook does with the interests of its members. This fuels the profitable advertising business at the expense of customer trust.<br />
<br />
The '''Plains of Awkwardly Public Family Interactions''' refer to how interactions with family members on Facebook suddenly become more awkward because everyone on Facebook (and sometimes ''off'' Facebook, given that you do not necessarily need to log in if you want to see someone's Facebook account) if you are discussing with your family through post comments.<br />
<br />
'''"Old Facebook" Resistance''' refers to Facebook's earlier users, who have often resisted (and resented) changes made to Facebook as it became more popular. <br />
<br />
'''Privacy Controls''' is located on the map surrounded by a Lava Pool, which is a reference to how difficult it is to find the privacy controls within Facebook.<br />
<br />
While Facebook is the largest "country" of the Facebook Region, there are a lot of smaller "countries" that represent smaller social networks.<br />
<br />
*Below Facebook (and "'Old Facebook' Resistance") is '''{{w|Diaspora (social network)|Diaspora}}''', a fully open-source, decentralized, privacy-respecting-and-expecting alternative to Facebook. From what this map tells, Diaspora is little-known, even if Facebook is taken out of the context.<br />
*'''{{w|Taringa!}}''' is a Spanish-speaking social network that is based on a forums. Copyrighted material is frequently found there.<br />
*'''{{w|Classmates.com}}''' is a services in which the user can meet fellow classmates that came from the same high school. The website is probably best-known by its memetic advertisement that said [http://dudemanphat.blogspot.com/2005/10/how-am-i-supposed-to-care-about-nick.html "She married him??!! And they've got 7 kids??"] (Incidentally, [http://seattletimes.com/html/businesstechnology/2003325519_adcouple27.html there is more to the coupled picture than what the advertisement says.])<br />
*'''{{w|MySpace}}''' is a social networking website that is a kind of proto-Facebook: users could customize their one-page websites with whatever they wanted, make their interests and daily lives public, and interact with other users. Back in the mid 2000's, MySpace was the largest social network, many people using the website; however, the surprisingly-less-customizable Facebook ended up taking the place of MySpace. The "bands" country of MySpace refers to how a lot of bands in the day advertised and interacted using the website. Indeed, the latest incarnation of MySpace (in terms of 2013) is more oriented towards band members.<br />
*'''{{w|LinkedIn}}''' is a social network aimed towards people in the workplace.<br />
*'''{{w|Orkut}}''' is one of Google's first social networks before Google made [https://plus.google.com/ Google+].<br />
*'''{{w|Hi5}}''' is a social network that is very popular among people in Latin America.<br />
*'''{{w|Renren}}''' ('''「人人」''', "people" in Chinese) is "a Chinese copy of Facebook."<br />
<br />
Other areas of note are the '''Niche Market Mountains''', where social networks aimed towards more niche markets are located. Similar to how mountains tend to be isolated from mainland, niche social networks tend to be just that: niche, without much interaction with the general populace. Above the Niche Market Mountains are the '''Charred Wasteland of Abandoned Social Networks'''. Given the popularity of MySpace and Facebook, there would be no doubt tons of websites wanting to take advantage of the success of these websites or even wanting to compete or even overpower with them. Even so, these websites tend to not have the userbase or even the expertise towards the long-term, hence they become wastelands: environments devoid of life, except the few life forms that are from these wastelands (in this case, the ones who are loyal to the website or which are sadly few). Within the '''Charred Wasteland of Abandoned Social Networks''' stands [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozymandias Ozymandias], the titular broken statue of Shelley's poem. In the poem, only "two vast and trunkless legs of stone" and a "shattered visage" are all that remain of the once-great statue and both of these features are present in the comic.<br />
<br />
Also visible are the '''Duckface Mountains''', the '''Red Cup Mountains''', and '''Buzzword Bay'''. "Duckface" refers to [http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/duck-face this incredibly obnoxious facial expression], and "red cup pictures" are any pictures containing party-goers holding disposable red plastic beverage cups. Facebook is absolutely flooded with both types of pictures. {{w|Buzzword}}s are words and phrases that make you sound a lot more topical than you actually are, used to garner attention; again, Facebook status updates are commonly filled with buzzwords.<br />
<br />
==MMO Isle==<br />
MMO's (short form of "MMORPG", short form of "Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Player Game") are websites that host online games where multiple people take the role of a character and play in a setting hosted by the website. These types of games tend to be fantastical in setting. Frequently, missions are added to the game, giving current player more incentive towards playing more.<br />
<br />
*'''[https://www.habbo.com/ Habbo Hotel]''' is a website where someone creates a human avatar an interacts in a virtual world that is not that different from the one in real life.<br />
*'''[http://www.clubpenguin.com/ Club Penguin]''' is [http://disney.com/ Disney's] MMO where someone creates a penguin avatar and interacts with other in a more polar, cartoony setting. Club Penguin is aimed towards children.<br />
*'''[http://maplestory.nexon.net/ Maple Story]''' is an MMO that has a more natural setting. The most distinguishing feature of Maple Story is its cartoony pixel art.<br />
*'''[http://www.gamefaqs.com/ GameFAQs]''', while not an MMO, is a website that has the largest repository of walkthoughs, that is, guides that help someone beat a game. GameFAQs is notable for not only its large repository of walkthroughs of games that are across an extreme variety of consoles, handhelds, and even computers (not all of them MMOs), but also the drama that is rumoured to happen in the GameFAQs forums.<br />
*'''[http://www.ign.com/ IGN]''' (full: '''Imagine Games Network'''), while also not an MMO, is the largest website that gives news on video games in general, not just MMOs. Each of the games mentioned in the site have pages that have summaries, reviews, screenshots, other art, videos, and links to news related to its games.<br />
*'''[http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/index.shtml FFXI]''' (full: '''Final Fantasy XI''') is an MMO from SquareEnix, being the first MMO of the popular ''Final Fantasy'' series.<br />
*'''[http://www.runescape.com/community Runescape]''' is an older MMO.<br />
*'''[http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/ Starcraft II]''' is a realtime strategy game with a science fiction setting that heavily involves space travel. While technically not an MMO, it has a significant online multiplayer component.<br />
*'''[http://us.battle.net/wow/en/ WoW]''' (full: '''World of Warcraft''') is the definitive MMO, being not only the most popular and one of the longest-running but also the most expansive (having its own spinoff games, comic books, novels, and even figurines), WOW giving the idea of how an MMO should be. A player can choose from a variety of races, each with its own heavy history.<br />
*'''[http://secondlife.com/ Second Life]''' is similar to Habbo, albeit with a bigger suspension of disbelief (one example being that the player does not need to be a human) and in a 3D setting. <br />
*'''[http://www.nationstates.net/ NationStates]''' is a text-based political simulation game. Notably, some of its traffic comes not from the actual game (which is optional), but the extensive set of political, roleplaying, and general forums attached.<br />
*'''[http://www.eveonline.com/ Eve Online]''' is a science fiction MMO which is notable because of its virtual economy.<br />
*'''[http://www.gaiaonline.com/ Gaia]''' (full: '''Gaia Online'''), while not an MMO, is a forums oriented towards pop culture, including video games and Japanese media. Its most notable feature is the heavy customization possible of a member's pixel-art avatar. Its members tend to roleplay a lot, albeit in a more written, story-based form. Gaia has gained a revaination of its members stealing art and causing drama.<br />
<br />
Other notable regions include:<br />
*The '''Mountains of Steam''', referring to the game distribution service [http://store.steampowered.com/ Steam] where people could buy and download video games in general, not just MMOs.<br />
*'''River Grind''' refers to "grinding." In most MMOs, the character is a fighter of some sorts, yet starts at a level 1, signifying the character's aptitude level in combat. The character can level up and gain more aptitude levels through earning experience, of which the most reliable and otherwise common way is the process of "grinding," that is, repeatedly fighting opposing monsters (sometimes of a level notably lower that your character's), gaining experience points from winning these battles until your character gains a level, that is, "levels up". While a practical necessity in strengthening the character, this process can be tiresome, hence the expression "grinding."<br />
*'''Spawn Camp''' refers to "spawn points", the places in combat-oriented MMO's tend to produce ("spawn") random AI-powered creatures, and the act of "spawn camping", in which the player character simply stands behind or around the spawn points to fight the enemy creatures as soon as they appear.<br />
*'''Gulf of Lag''' refers to how the MMO can be slowed down a considerable amount due to the large amount of players simultaneously using the same server, this congestion bogging down the server and frustrating the users.<br />
*'''[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/final-boss-of-the-internet End Guy for the Internet]''' refers to "end bosses", the last -- and usually hardest to defeat -- "bad guy" in a game (or a section of a game).<br />
<br />
==YouTube Region==<br />
The YouTube region refers to websites that are based on user-created content.<br />
<br />
'''[https://www.youtube.com/ YouTube]''' is the definitive video website where people can upload videos with the purpose of public viewing, ranging from home movies through official music videos through Let's Plays of people playing video games to questionably-legal uploads of cartoons and films. Google had purchased YouTube.<br />
<br />
Many of the sites on the map are just references to {{w|viral video}}s at {{w|YouTube}}:<br />
*'''Viral Shores''' refers to how viral videos (whether they be viral marketing or simply memes) tend to proliferate on YouTube.<br />
*'''Britney''' likely refers to pop singer {{w|Britney Spears}} and the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHmvkRoEowc "Leave Britney Alone" guy].<br />
*'''Maru Gulf''' refers to Maru the Cat, a YouTube celebrity [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/676:_Abstraction also mentioned in xkcd].<br />
*'''Prairie Dog Habitat''' likely refers to the viral video [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1Y73sPHKxw Dramatic Chipmunk] (which is actually a Prairie Dog).<br />
*'''Rick Rolling Hills''' references, well, {{w|Rickrolling}}. More information [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ here]. The "deserted" note likely refers to how Rick Astley himself is tired of the meme, or again, how people tend to leave the video upon getting "Rick Roll'd," never actually going to the video with the express purpose of viewing the video.<br />
*'''Lunar Landing Soundstage''' is, of course, a reference to the {{w|Moon landing conspiracy theories}}, which Randall has railed on before.<br />
*'''{{w|OK Go}} Bay''' refers to the band "OK Go" who have multiple viral music videos on YouTube, most famously [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTAAsCNK7RA "Here it goes again"] featuring treadmills.<br />
<br />
The '''HTML5 swamp''' refers to the spotty support of HTML 5 (an update on HTML that is frequently touting its media capabilities, making HTML 5 a viable alternative to Flash) YouTube has. Of course, by the time the comic was written, HTML 5 was still in its infancy. The Music Video Bay refers to the amount of music videos (official or otherwise) are present in YouTube.<br />
<br />
Other counties of the YouTube region include:<br />
*'''[https://secure.flickr.com/ Flickr]''', a website where people can upload and share photographs they took.<br />
*'''[http://fotolog.com Fotolog]''', a photo website very popular in South America in 2004-2008, which was used as a social network.<br />
*'''[https://vimeo.com/ vimeo]''', a website where people tend to showcase artistic content that they made on their own, notably independent studios.<br />
*'''[http://www.last.fm/ Last.fm]''', a music website that is notable of its "scrobbling" feature.<br />
*'''[https://www.newgrounds.com/ Newgrounds]''', a website that hosts art, (Flash-based) videos, audio, and (Flash-based) games to which other users can comment and rate. Even so, content from Newgrounds tends to be obscene, though there is a filtering system if a viewer does not wish to see obscene content.<br />
*'''[http://www.deviantart.com/ deviantArt]''', the largest art website, where people can upload, sell, and buy not only art itself, but also video, audio, Flash-work, and even skins (the original purpose of deviantArt). While many big-name/professional people and organizations have their works in deviantArt, the site is more infamous for the large amount of people who upload low-quality fan-art and fan-characters, most notably of media from Japan. Another point of infamy is the large amount of drama that can happen in the website.<br />
*'''[http://www.chatroulette.com/ Chatroulette]''' is a website where people are randomly paired up with each other and video/text chat.<br />
*'''[https://tumblr.com/ Tumblr]''', where people could make a blog and post text, pictures, video, audio, quotes, and links. The most distinguishing feature is the ability to "reblog" these posts from other's people's blogs into the user's own blog. Notable features of Tumblr include sketchblogs (where people upload their sketches), Ask blogs (where people answer questions other users ask, the moderators of these blogs usually pretending to be a character from a form of media), and the large amount of "social justice" (where people fight against racism, sexism, and other forms of negative discrimination). (See also [[1043: Ablogalypse]].)<br />
<br />
The '''Isle of teenagers who just discovered macroeconomics''' is a joke about how teenagers tend to think that the world and the economy are a lot simpler than they actually are. Combined with the typical internet mindset, this leads to a lot of teenagers posting blogs and videos and comments on blogs and videos describing how idiotic the government and other red-tape-related adults are.<br />
The '''Snob Sound''' could refer to the large amount of people who look down on others in the surrounding websites (one example being an original artist looking down on people who draw mainly fan-art).<br />
<br />
==Twitter Region==<br />
*'''Bieber Bay''' is a reference to {{w|Justin Bieber}} a pop singer whose singing sprouted on YouTube and became very popular on Twitter and other social media. He is very much vilified because of his rather feminine appearance and his hordes of fans (called "Beliebers") that seem to support him to ridiculous extents. Lately, though, Justin Beiber has taken a "bad boy" attitude because of all the Beliebers who are willing to defend him no matter what, him partaking in a lot of questionable activities that include tattoos, questionably-legal substances, and buying prostitution, thus lowering his popularity in the general populace.<br />
*'''{{w|Google Buzz}}''' is a former social network attempted by Google. It has since been shut down.<br />
*'''Bit.Ly Mountains''' is a reference to the URL shortening service {{w|bit.ly}}.<br />
*'''Kayne's Isle of Sadness''' is a reference to the musician {{w|Kayne West}}.<br />
*'''Sarah Palin USA''' is the Twitter handle of former politician {{w|Sarah Palin}}.<br />
*'''Clueless Politician Coast''' is a reference to the number of politicians on Twitter and other social networks who repeatedly share clueless updates that more often create an uproar than help their election chances.<br />
*'''Desert of Food Updates''' is a reference to the number of pictures of food that are shared on social media (especially Twitter). There has even been some controversy on posting such pictures.<br />
*'''Journalists Trying to Find the Cutting Edge''' is referencing journalists on Twitter trying to keep up with the way that news is gathered and delivered now, despite usually working for a newspaper that publishes once a day.<br />
*'''{{w|SHAQ}}''' is a reference to the former NBA basketball player, {{w|Shaq}}.<br />
*'''{{w|identi.ca}}''' is an open source social networking and micro-blogging service, being an alternative to Twitter.<br />
*''' Breaking! Waves''' is a pun on the fact that so many people used the word "Breaking" at the beginning of tweets that do not warrant that tag that the word has lost most of its meaning and become a joke. It is a pun because waves "break" on the shore.<br />
*'''Web 3.0''' refers to the unofficial term {{w|Web 2.0}}. In this case, "Web 1.0" refers to accessing the Internet using Web Browsers, e-mail, and chatting, mainly through the use of computers. "Web 2.0" refers to accessing the Internet through new means (for example, RSS Feeds that read the news) through more devices (for example: tablets and cell phones). As such, "Web 3.0" means either what the Internet is like now in its current state of development, or what it will soon develop into; either way, it is still very much Under Construction.<br />
<br />
==Geotagged Bay==<br />
*'''{{w|Yelp}}''' is a website where people post reviews of real-life public locations (one example being restaurants).<br />
*'''{{w|Geocaching}}'''<br />
*'''{{w|Foursquare}}''' is a location-based social network.<br />
*'''Latitude''' refers to {{w|Google Latitude}}<br />
<br />
==Troll Bay and the Sea of Memes==<br />
*'''Reddit''' - {{w|Reddit}} is the self-described "front page of the Internet" in which users submit stories, photos and videos and the best are "up-voted" to the top of the page.<br />
*'''Wikipedia talk pages'''<br />
*'''{{w|Wikia}}''' is a 3rd party wiki software.<br />
*'''StumbleUpon'''<br />
*'''Delicious'''<br />
*'''{{w|Digg}}''' is a former competitor to Reddit in the social-news sphere, but now has been sold and restarted as a aggregator of news stories.<br />
*'''Slashdot''', labeled "/." on the map,<br />
*'''Fark'''<br />
*'''YTMND''' is an acronym for "You're The Man Now, Dog!"<br />
*'''IRC isles'''<br />
<br />
==Skype Region==<br />
The Skype Region refers to different IM, or Instant Messaging services, that enable almost-real-time text chatting between multiple people. These often allow services like voice chat and even video calls.<br />
<br />
*'''[http://xkcd.com/ xkcd]''' is "a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language." The comics are stick figures that talk about technological things, bigger philosophies, or simply events in the author's life. More information about the webcomic can be found [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/xkcd here].<br />
*'''{{w|Skype}}''' is, according to Randall, the most popular of these among the internet. It has many features to allow peer-to-peer voice chats, as well as allowing calls to be made at a price to actual phones.<br />
<br />
==Blogosphere==<br />
<br />
==Blogosphere (Core Region)==<br />
Gossip Blogs:<br />
*Jezebel<br />
*Deadline<br />
*TMZ<br />
*Gawker<br />
*LJ Oh No They Didn't<br />
*Doucheblog<br />
*Isle of Mockery<br />
<br />
Liberal Blogs:<br />
*Huffington Post<br />
*Paul Krugman<br />
*Daily Beast<br />
*TPM<br />
*Ezra Klein<br />
*Think Progress<br />
*Kos<br />
<br />
Bay of Flame:<br />
*Politics Daily<br />
*CNN Political Ticker<br />
*Mediaite<br />
*NY Times<br />
*The Talk<br />
*Libertarian Isle<br />
<br />
Conservative Blogs:<br />
*Pajamas Media<br />
*Michelle Malkin<br />
*Hot Air<br />
*Red State<br />
*American Thinker<br />
*John Mall(?)<br />
<br />
Tech Blogs:<br />
*Boy Genius Report<br />
*Gizmodo<br />
*Engadget<br />
*Crunchgear<br />
*Techcrunch<br />
*Joystiq<br />
*Kotaku<br />
<br />
Assorted:<br />
*BoingBoing<br />
*Lifehacker<br />
*Deadspin<br />
*Meatorama<br />
<br />
==QQ Region==<br />
*'''Baidu Baike''' (「百度百科」, "Baidu Encyclopedia") is a Chinese search engine.<br />
* The '''Ma Le Ge Bi''' and the '''Grass Mud Horse Bay''' could refer to the {{w|Baidu 10 Mythical Creatures}}.<br />
*'''{{w|Tencent QQ}}''' is a Chinese instant messaging program.<br />
*In English communities "QQ" has several more common definitions:<br />
**An {{w|emoticon}}, representing a face with two large, crying eyes.<br />
**A synonym for "rage quit", in which a video game player quits the game out of sheer frustration. It originated in ''Warcraft II'' multiplayer, where pressing Ctrl+Q+Q would quit the game, and became more widely known in ''World of Warcraft''.<br />
**These definitions are commonly combined, usually to mock the "rage quitter".<br />
*The Gulf of China refers to how sites in the region are based in People's Republic of China ("Red China"). The '''Great Firewall''' refers to {{w|The Great Firewall of China}}, a pun on {{w|The Great Wall of China}}. Similar to how The Great Wall of China was meant to keep intruding nations out of the then-capital of the city, The Great Firewall of China is meant to keep visitors from visiting censored websites. However, either a VPN or remote access to a computer in a "freer" country can circumvent the Firewall.<br />
<br />
==Forums Islands==<br />
Forums are websites where one person post a topic to which other people can discuss.<br />
<br />
While the map has a zoomed in version, this article shall discuss the two bigger islands, first.<br />
<br />
*'''[http://www.2ch.net 2channel]''' is a Japanese imageboard that was actually the original inspiration for 4chan.<br />
*'''[http://www.craigslist.org/about/sites Craigslist]''' is a classified advertisement website with sections devoted to just about everything... which formerly included prostitution services, hence the '''The Former Site of Adult Services'''.<br />
<br />
In the zoomed-in map, there is...<br />
*'''420chan''' and '''7chan''', other imageboards in the style of 4chan (see below). Their relative lack of popularity and derivative nature leads a lot of 4chan users to mock them; hence, their position on Randall's map suggests that they're mere wads of semen.<br />
*'''[http://ohinternet.com/ Encyclopedia Dramatica]''', labeled '''ED''' on the map , is a wiki site dedicated to chronicling internet memes and other noteworthy sites, events, people, and anything else that catches their attention in an incredibly arbitrary and vulgar manner. The site is ''heavily'' steeped in the attitude of veteran, vulgar 4chan users. People who have articles in the website tend to react with despair, given not only the cruelty in which the articles talk about the person in question, but the presence of the article means that the person is now an eternal target from the trolls. The user can not retaliate, since the userbase of Encyclopedia Dramatica and 4chan tends to overpower the victim easily...<br />
:...usually. Due to the founder's talk against the Australian Aborignals (the founder is Australian), legal action has gone against the founder to the point of the founder having to shut down Encyclopedia Dramatica, founding the far tamer Oh, Internet! website, instead. Trolls responded by not only uploading their own mirror of the website but also vilifying the former founder forever.<br />
:(Please note that, due to the malicious nature of the pop-up advertisements of Encyclopedia Dramatica, the link above points to its safe-for-work successor, Oh, Internet!)<br />
*'''[https://www.4chan.org/ 4chan.org]''' is an {{w|imageboard}} in which people can upload pictures while others comment on them. The website is infamous for its loose/often non-existent rules, incredibly vulgar userbase, source of new memes, and spawning of trolls. 4chan's random board, known internally as '''/b/''', is almost constantly flooded with porn and image macros. This is why Randall's incarnation of 4chan is shaped like a penis.<br />
*'''Tunnel to Habbo''' is a reference to [http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/pools-closed the 2006 Habbo Hotel Raids], in which hundreds of 4chan Anons simultaneously logged onto Habbo Hotel and proceeded to be as obnoxious as possible, standing in formations of swastikas and penises or body-blocking the swimming pools.<br />
*'''{{w|Catbus}} Route''' is likely a reference to {{w|Lolcat}}s in general.<br />
*'''[http://www.ebaumsworld.com/ eBaum's World]''' is a media-hosting website founded by Eric Bauman. The site has lost a lot of traffic after (quite valid) accusations of stolen content.<br />
*The gulf labelled '''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anonymous_(group) Anonymous]''' is a reference to the trolls that label themselves "Anonymous" who recently had gained national acknowledgement because of the group's real-life tirades, including cracking attacks against the Church of Scientology and the founding of WikiLeaks (a website that leaks confidential material related to governments).<br />
*[http://www.somethingawful.com/ SomethingAwful] is a website that is meant to showcase all things "awful". SomethingAwful also has a large trollbase, but they tend to be more honorable than the ones from Encyclopedia Dramatica and 4chan. One example is there being a spotty holding of the no-furries rule in the forums. The forums themselves are famous because of the holding of the Let's Plays of [http://lparchive.org/Dangan-Ronpa/ Dangan Ronpa] and [http://danganronpa2mirror.tumblr.com/ Super Dangan Ronpa 2], which had cooked up public interest to the point of there being an English-language release of the games.<br />
Please note that, due to these Let's Plays being in a forums that frequently hides behind a "paywall" that requires a paid account before accessing, the links provided go to their mirrors.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:'''Map of Online Communities'''<br />
:Size on map represents volume of Daily Social activity (posts, chat, etc). Based on data gathered over the Spring and Summer of 2010.<br />
<br />
:[Two insets on the upper left-hand corner shows that this map is a tiny portion of the huge continent of Spoken Language, encompassing portions of the Internet, Email, and Cell Phones (SMS).]<br />
<br />
:[The largest landmass on the map by far, which takes up nearly the entire northern half of the map is "Facebook" - with large states in the south-east of the country labeled 'Farmville' and 'Happy Farm'. There is a much smaller state to the west of these called 'Farm Town'. To the north of these states is a large swath of unremarkable land entitled 'Northern Wasteland of Unread Updates.' This is directly north of the large Dopamine Sea.<br />
<br />
:A peninsula on the south-west, just below the Plains of Awkwardly Public Family Interactions, houses many tiny states, such as MySpace, Orkut, LinkedIn, Bebo, & Hi5. It is bordered on the south by Buzzword Bay, which contains several islands of varying sizes. Among these are YouTube and Twitter (the largest), which are separated by the Social Media Consultant Channel. To the south-east of Twitter, across the Sea of Protocol Confusion, is another, equally large island. Most of it is Skype, with the north having two largish states called AIM and Windows Live Messenger. On the south-west part of the island are two smaller states called GG and Yahoo Messenger.<br />
<br />
:The Island of Skype is extremely close to, but separated by the Great Firewall (a dashed line), the large landmass of QQ. It's north shore is the Gulf of China and Grass Mud Horse Bay. Outside of these bays, over the Great Firewall are two islands called Craigslist and 2Channel.<br />
<br />
:In the Dopamine Sea, off the southern shores of Farmville and Happy Farm, is MMO Isle. Its largest state is WoW, with Runescape, Lineage, Maple Story, Habbo, and the Mountains of Steam among its notable landmarks. To the southeast of the island is the Gulf of Lag, in which sits the CDC Games island, with Eve Online.<br />
<br />
:To the east of Twitter is Troll Bay, with such islands as Reddit and Reddit, Digg, Stumbleupon, Delicio.us, and Wikipedia Talk Pages. To their south are the IRC isles, of which one is the tiny island of #xkcd.<br />
<br />
:East of these islands, and north of Skype island, is the Sea of Memes. In this sea, to the north of Craigslist and 2Channel, is an archipelago of tiny islands. There is an inset, labeled 'Forums.' (See below.)<br />
<br />
:To the southwest if Twitter island, in the Sea of Opinions, are the blog islands. These lie south of the islands in Buzzword Bay, as well. The northernmost islands in this group are centered around the Bay of Drama, on which can be found Diary Blogs, Gossip Blogs, and Livejournal. Gossip Blogs share an island with Political, Music, and Tech Blogs. To the north of this island is a smaller island called Photo Blogs. South of Diary Blogs, and off the southwest coast of Music blogs is a smaller island called Fandom Blogs. South of Tech Blogs, off of which sprouts the small peninsula of Business Blogs, is the Spamblog Straits. On the other side of the straits is a large island made up of Miscellaneous Blogs, with two states demarcated as Religious Blogs and Blog Blogs. Southwest of the Blog Islands is the Sea of Zero (0) Comments.]<br />
<br />
:[An inset of a group of islands in the sea of memes located on the lower right corner of the map, labeled 'Forums'. The largest by far is 4chan and /b/. Also found here are D2JSP, JLA Frums, Fan Forum, Something Awful, and many smaller ones, too numerous to list here.]<br />
<br />
:[The northeastern third of Gossip/Political/Tech Blogs island is another inset labeled 'Blogosphere (Core)'. This can be found on the lower left corner of the map. Two peninsulas in Political Blogs bookend the Bay of Flame -- these are Liberal Blogs and Conservative Blogs. Between them lie several tiny islands such as Politics Daily, CNN Politcal Ticker, and Mediaite. Off the coast of Liberal Blogs lies the island of NYTimes, off the coast of Conservative Blogs is Libertarian Isle. Between the two lies The Talk. The northern peninsula of Tech Blogs contains places such as Gizmodo, Engadget, Joystiq, and Kotaku.] <br />
<br />
:[Text found between the two insets, which are directly below the main map.]<br />
:ABOUT THIS MAP<br />
:Communities rise and fall, and total membership numbers are no longer a good measure of a community's current size and health. This updated map uses size to represent total social activity in a community -- that is, how much talking, playing, sharing, or other socializing happens there. This meant some comparing of apples and oranges, but I did my best and tried to be consistent.<br />
<br />
:Estimates are based on the numbers I could find, but involved a great deal of guesswork, statistical inference, random sampling, nonrandom sampling, a 20,000-cell spreadsheet, emailing, cajoling, tea-leaf reading, goat sacrifices, and gut instinct (i.e. making things up).<br />
<br />
:Sources of data include Google and Bing, Wikipedia, Alexa, Big-Boards.com, StumbleUpon, Wordpress, Akismet, every website statistics page I could find, press releases, news articles, and individual site employees. Thanks in particular to folks at Last.fm, LiveJournal, Reddit, and the New York Times, as well as sysadmins at a number of sites who shared statistics on condition of anonymity.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics with color]]<br />
[[Category:Large drawings]]<br />
[[Category:Internet]]</div>Greysonhttps://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=802:_Online_Communities_2&diff=55361802: Online Communities 22013-12-16T19:35:03Z<p>Greyson: /* Twitter Region */ I expanded this region partially. I might come back here later.</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 802<br />
| date = October 6, 2010<br />
| title = Online Communities 2<br />
| image = online_communities_2.png<br />
| titletext = Best trivia I learned while working on this: 'Man, Farmville is so huge! Do you realize it's the second-biggest browser-based social-networking-centered farming game in the WORLD?' Then you wait for the listener to do a double-take.<br />
}}<br />
A larger version of this picture can be found here: [http://xkcd.com/802_large/ http://xkcd.com/802_large/].<br />
<div class="toclimit-3" style="float:right; margin-left: 10px;"> __TOC__ </div><br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Not all of the regions are fully explained.}}<br />
This comic shows a map of internet communities where the size of each region roughly corresponds to its size, and its proximity to other regions indicates similarities.<br />
<br />
This is the successor of [[256: Online Communities]]. It differs in that it is updated, and furthermore, instead of using the ''membership'' of whichever service to determine its size on the map, it uses its "daily social activity."<br />
<br />
The map actually has two super−maps: the online community map is surrounded by the "countries" of E−Mail and SMS ("Instant Messaging"). These, in turn, are surrounded by the "Spoken Language" country (which is odd, considering that e−mail, SMS, and the Internet in general are based on ''written'' language) with its own sub−country, "cell phones" (which ''do'' involve e−mail and the Internet while being the mean medium of SMS's).<br />
<br />
At the title text [[Randall]] explains that, using his definition of "most activity per day", Farmville is actually the ''second'' most popular "Facebook farming game". This will strike many as odd, because Farmville is by far the most famous, leading one to wonder how the most famous could not be the most played. The phrase "browser-based social-networking-centered farming game" is an example of [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OverlyNarrowSuperlative an overly-narrow superlative]. <br />
<br />
==Facebook Region==<br />
The Facebook region deals with social networks, that is, websites oriented towards having people meet.<br />
<br />
'''{{w|Facebook}}''' is a social networking site that allows people to meet old real−life friends and make new friends that share similar interests. One of its most notable features is that a member can update a "status" or make normal posts about the happenings of the member's life, complete with pictures, other members "liking" these posts. The size of the Facebook region is not exaggerated; most websites seem to allow "liking" their content or allow/require logging in the website with a Facebook account. There even are cell phones with a "Facebook" button!<br />
<br />
'''Farmville''', '''Happy Farm''', and '''Farm Town''' are all Facebook games. The "Unethical Bay" refers to how these games tend to addict players into constantly buying virtual items of questionable value.<br />
<br />
The '''People You Can't Unfriend''' refer to people whom, due to real-life expectations and relationships, unfriending them is difficult, no matter how you really feel about them.<br />
<br />
The '''Data Mines''' refer to the data mining that Facebook does with the interests of its members. This fuels the profitable advertising business at the expense of customer trust.<br />
<br />
The '''Plains of Awkwardly Public Family Interactions''' refer to how interactions with family members on Facebook suddenly become more awkward because everyone on Facebook (and sometimes ''off'' Facebook, given that you do not necessarily need to log in if you want to see someone's Facebook account) if you are discussing with your family through post comments.<br />
<br />
'''"Old Facebook" Resistance''' refers to Facebook's earlier users, who have often resisted (and resented) changes made to Facebook as it became more popular. <br />
<br />
'''Privacy Controls''' is located on the map surrounded by a Lava Pool, which is a reference to how difficult it is to find the privacy controls within Facebook.<br />
<br />
While Facebook is the largest "country" of the Facebook Region, there are a lot of smaller "countries" that represent smaller social networks.<br />
<br />
*Below Facebook (and "'Old Facebook' Resistance") is '''{{w|Diaspora (social network)|Diaspora}}''', a fully open-source, decentralized, privacy-respecting-and-expecting alternative to Facebook. From what this map tells, Diaspora is little-known, even if Facebook is taken out of the context.<br />
*'''{{w|Taringa!}}''' is a Spanish-speaking social network that is based on a forums. Copyrighted material is frequently found there.<br />
*'''{{w|Classmates.com}}''' is a services in which the user can meet fellow classmates that came from the same high school. The website is probably best-known by its memetic advertisement that said [http://dudemanphat.blogspot.com/2005/10/how-am-i-supposed-to-care-about-nick.html "She married him??!! And they've got 7 kids??"] (Incidentally, [http://seattletimes.com/html/businesstechnology/2003325519_adcouple27.html there is more to the coupled picture than what the advertisement says.])<br />
*'''{{w|MySpace}}''' is a social networking website that is a kind of proto-Facebook: users could customize their one-page websites with whatever they wanted, make their interests and daily lives public, and interact with other users. Back in the mid 2000's, MySpace was the largest social network, many people using the website; however, the surprisingly-less-customizable Facebook ended up taking the place of MySpace. The "bands" country of MySpace refers to how a lot of bands in the day advertised and interacted using the website. Indeed, the latest incarnation of MySpace (in terms of 2013) is more oriented towards band members.<br />
*'''{{w|LinkedIn}}''' is a social network aimed towards people in the workplace.<br />
*'''{{w|Orkut}}''' is one of Google's first social networks before Google made [https://plus.google.com/ Google+].<br />
*'''{{w|Hi5}}''' is a social network that is very popular among people in Latin America.<br />
*'''{{w|Renren}}''' ('''「人人」''', "people" in Chinese) is "a Chinese copy of Facebook."<br />
<br />
Other areas of note are the '''Niche Market Mountains''', where social networks aimed towards more niche markets are located. Similar to how mountains tend to be isolated from mainland, niche social networks tend to be just that: niche, without much interaction with the general populace. Above the Niche Market Mountains are the '''Charred Wasteland of Abandoned Social Networks'''. Given the popularity of MySpace and Facebook, there would be no doubt tons of websites wanting to take advantage of the success of these websites or even wanting to compete or even overpower with them. Even so, these websites tend to not have the userbase or even the expertise towards the long-term, hence they become wastelands: environments devoid of life, except the few life forms that are from these wastelands (in this case, the ones who are loyal to the website or which are sadly few). Within the '''Charred Wasteland of Abandoned Social Networks''' stands [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozymandias Ozymandias], the titular broken statue of Shelley's poem. In the poem, only "two vast and trunkless legs of stone" and a "shattered visage" are all that remain of the once-great statue and both of these features are present in the comic.<br />
<br />
Also visible are the '''Duckface Mountains''', the '''Red Cup Mountains''', and '''Buzzword Bay'''. "Duckface" refers to [http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/duck-face this incredibly obnoxious facial expression], and "red cup pictures" are any pictures containing party-goers holding disposable red plastic beverage cups. Facebook is absolutely flooded with both types of pictures. {{w|Buzzword}}s are words and phrases that make you sound a lot more topical than you actually are, used to garner attention; again, Facebook status updates are commonly filled with buzzwords.<br />
<br />
==MMO Isle==<br />
MMO's (short form of "MMORPG", short form of "Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Player Game") are websites that host online games where multiple people take the role of a character and play in a setting hosted by the website. These types of games tend to be fantastical in setting. Frequently, missions are added to the game, giving current player more incentive towards playing more.<br />
<br />
*'''[https://www.habbo.com/ Habbo Hotel]''' is a website where someone creates a human avatar an interacts in a virtual world that is not that different from the one in real life.<br />
*'''[http://www.clubpenguin.com/ Club Penguin]''' is [http://disney.com/ Disney's] MMO where someone creates a penguin avatar and interacts with other in a more polar, cartoony setting. Club Penguin is aimed towards children.<br />
*'''[http://maplestory.nexon.net/ Maple Story]''' is an MMO that has a more natural setting. The most distinguishing feature of Maple Story is its cartoony pixel art.<br />
*'''[http://www.gamefaqs.com/ GameFAQs]''', while not an MMO, is a website that has the largest repository of walkthoughs, that is, guides that help someone beat a game. GameFAQs is notable for not only its large repository of walkthroughs of games that are across an extreme variety of consoles, handhelds, and even computers (not all of them MMOs), but also the drama that is rumoured to happen in the GameFAQs forums.<br />
*'''[http://www.ign.com/ IGN]''' (full: '''Imagine Games Network'''), while also not an MMO, is the largest website that gives news on video games in general, not just MMOs. Each of the games mentioned in the site have pages that have summaries, reviews, screenshots, other art, videos, and links to news related to its games.<br />
*'''[http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/index.shtml FFXI]''' (full: '''Final Fantasy XI''') is an MMO from SquareEnix, being the first MMO of the popular ''Final Fantasy'' series.<br />
*'''[http://www.runescape.com/community Runescape]''' is an older MMO.<br />
*'''[http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/ Starcraft II]''' is a realtime strategy game with a science fiction setting that heavily involves space travel. While technically not an MMO, it has a significant online multiplayer component.<br />
*'''[http://us.battle.net/wow/en/ WoW]''' (full: '''World of Warcraft''') is the definitive MMO, being not only the most popular and one of the longest-running but also the most expansive (having its own spinoff games, comic books, novels, and even figurines), WOW giving the idea of how an MMO should be. A player can choose from a variety of races, each with its own heavy history.<br />
*'''[http://secondlife.com/ Second Life]''' is similar to Habbo, albeit with a bigger suspension of disbelief (one example being that the player does not need to be a human) and in a 3D setting. <br />
*'''[http://www.nationstates.net/ NationStates]''' is a text-based political simulation game. Notably, some of its traffic comes not from the actual game (which is optional), but the extensive set of political, roleplaying, and general forums attached.<br />
*'''[http://www.eveonline.com/ Eve Online]''' is a science fiction MMO which is notable because of its virtual economy.<br />
*'''[http://www.gaiaonline.com/ Gaia]''' (full: '''Gaia Online'''), while not an MMO, is a forums oriented towards pop culture, including video games and Japanese media. Its most notable feature is the heavy customization possible of a member's pixel-art avatar. Its members tend to roleplay a lot, albeit in a more written, story-based form. Gaia has gained a revaination of its members stealing art and causing drama.<br />
<br />
Other notable regions include:<br />
*The '''Mountains of Steam''', referring to the game distribution service [http://store.steampowered.com/ Steam] where people could buy and download video games in general, not just MMOs.<br />
*'''River Grind''' refers to "grinding." In most MMOs, the character is a fighter of some sorts, yet starts at a level 1, signifying the character's aptitude level in combat. The character can level up and gain more aptitude levels through earning experience, of which the most reliable and otherwise common way is the process of "grinding," that is, repeatedly fighting opposing monsters (sometimes of a level notably lower that your character's), gaining experience points from winning these battles until your character gains a level, that is, "levels up". While a practical necessity in strengthening the character, this process can be tiresome, hence the expression "grinding."<br />
*'''Spawn Camp''' refers to "spawn points", the places in combat-oriented MMO's tend to produce ("spawn") random AI-powered creatures, and the act of "spawn camping", in which the player character simply stands behind or around the spawn points to fight the enemy creatures as soon as they appear.<br />
*'''Gulf of Lag''' refers to how the MMO can be slowed down a considerable amount due to the large amount of players simultaneously using the same server, this congestion bogging down the server and frustrating the users.<br />
*'''[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/final-boss-of-the-internet End Guy for the Internet]''' refers to "end bosses", the last -- and usually hardest to defeat -- "bad guy" in a game (or a section of a game).<br />
<br />
==YouTube Region==<br />
The YouTube region refers to websites that are based on user-created content.<br />
<br />
'''[https://www.youtube.com/ YouTube]''' is the definitive video website where people can upload videos with the purpose of public viewing, ranging from home movies through official music videos through Let's Plays of people playing video games to questionably-legal uploads of cartoons and films. Google had purchased YouTube.<br />
<br />
Many of the sites on the map are just references to {{w|viral video}}s at {{w|YouTube}}:<br />
*'''Viral Shores''' refers to how viral videos (whether they be viral marketing or simply memes) tend to proliferate on YouTube.<br />
*'''Britney''' likely refers to pop singer {{w|Britney Spears}} and the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHmvkRoEowc "Leave Britney Alone" guy].<br />
*'''Maru Gulf''' refers to Maru the Cat, a YouTube celebrity [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/676:_Abstraction also mentioned in xkcd].<br />
*'''Prairie Dog Habitat''' likely refers to the viral video [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1Y73sPHKxw Dramatic Chipmunk] (which is actually a Prairie Dog).<br />
*'''Rick Rolling Hills''' references, well, {{w|Rickrolling}}. More information [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ here]. The "deserted" note likely refers to how Rick Astley himself is tired of the meme, or again, how people tend to leave the video upon getting "Rick Roll'd," never actually going to the video with the express purpose of viewing the video.<br />
*'''Lunar Landing Soundstage''' is, of course, a reference to the {{w|Moon landing conspiracy theories}}, which Randall has railed on before.<br />
*'''{{w|OK Go}} Bay''' refers to the band "OK Go" who have multiple viral music videos on YouTube, most famously [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTAAsCNK7RA "Here it goes again"] featuring treadmills.<br />
<br />
The '''HTML5 swamp''' refers to the spotty support of HTML 5 (an update on HTML that is frequently touting its media capabilities, making HTML 5 a viable alternative to Flash) YouTube has. Of course, by the time the comic was written, HTML 5 was still in its infancy. The Music Video Bay refers to the amount of music videos (official or otherwise) are present in YouTube.<br />
<br />
Other counties of the YouTube region include:<br />
*'''[https://secure.flickr.com/ Flickr]''', a website where people can upload and share photographs they took.<br />
*'''[http://fotolog.com Fotolog]''', a photo website very popular in South America in 2004-2008, which was used as a social network.<br />
*'''[https://vimeo.com/ vimeo]''', a website where people tend to showcase artistic content that they made on their own, notably independent studios.<br />
*'''[http://www.last.fm/ Last.fm]''', a music website that is notable of its "scrobbling" feature.<br />
*'''[https://www.newgrounds.com/ Newgrounds]''', a website that hosts art, (Flash-based) videos, audio, and (Flash-based) games to which other users can comment and rate. Even so, content from Newgrounds tends to be obscene, though there is a filtering system if a viewer does not wish to see obscene content.<br />
*'''[http://www.deviantart.com/ deviantArt]''', the largest art website, where people can upload, sell, and buy not only art itself, but also video, audio, Flash-work, and even skins (the original purpose of deviantArt). While many big-name/professional people and organizations have their works in deviantArt, the site is more infamous for the large amount of people who upload low-quality fan-art and fan-characters, most notably of media from Japan. Another point of infamy is the large amount of drama that can happen in the website.<br />
*'''[http://www.chatroulette.com/ Chatroulette]''' is a website where people are randomly paired up with each other and video/text chat.<br />
*'''[https://tumblr.com/ Tumblr]''', where people could make a blog and post text, pictures, video, audio, quotes, and links. The most distinguishing feature is the ability to "reblog" these posts from other's people's blogs into the user's own blog. Notable features of Tumblr include sketchblogs (where people upload their sketches), Ask blogs (where people answer questions other users ask, the moderators of these blogs usually pretending to be a character from a form of media), and the large amount of "social justice" (where people fight against racism, sexism, and other forms of negative discrimination). (See also [[1043: Ablogalypse]].)<br />
<br />
The '''Isle of teenagers who just discovered macroeconomics''' is a joke about how teenagers tend to think that the world and the economy are a lot simpler than they actually are. Combined with the typical internet mindset, this leads to a lot of teenagers posting blogs and videos and comments on blogs and videos describing how idiotic the government and other red-tape-related adults are.<br />
The '''Snob Sound''' could refer to the large amount of people who look down on others in the surrounding websites (one example being an original artist looking down on people who draw mainly fan-art).<br />
<br />
==Twitter Region==<br />
*'''Bieber Bay''' is a reference to {{w|Justin Bieber}} a pop singer whose singing sprouted on YouTube and became very popular on Twitter and other social media. He is very much vilified because of his rather feminine appearance and his hordes of fans (called "Beliebers") that seem to support him to ridiculous extents. Lately, though, Justin Beiber has taken a "bad boy" attitude because of all the Beliebers who are willing to defend him no matter what, him partaking in a lot of questionable activities that include tattoos, questionably-legal substances, and buying prostitution, thus lowering his popularity in the general populace.<br />
*'''{{w|Google Buzz}}''' is a former social network attempted by Google. It has since been shut down.<br />
*'''Bit.Ly Mountains''' is a reference to the URL shortening service {{w|bit.ly}}.<br />
*'''Kayne's Isle of Sadness''' is a reference to the musician {{w|Kayne West}}.<br />
*'''Sarah Palin USA''' is the Twitter handle of former politician {{w|Sarah Palin}}.<br />
*'''Clueless Politician Coast''' is a reference to the number of politicians on Twitter and other social networks who repeatedly share clueless updates that more often create an uproar than help their election chances.<br />
*'''Desert of Food Updates''' is a reference to the number of pictures of food that are shared on social media (especially Twitter). There has even been some controversy on posting such pictures.<br />
*'''Journalists Trying to Find the Cutting Edge''' is referencing journalists on Twitter trying to keep up with the way that news is gathered and delivered now, despite usually working for a newspaper that publishes once a day.<br />
*'''{{w|SHAQ}}''' is a reference to the former NBA basketball player, {{w|Shaq}}.<br />
*'''{{w|identi.ca}}''' is an open source social networking and micro-blogging service, being an alternative to Twitter.<br />
*''' Breaking! Waves''' is a pun on the fact that so many people used the word "Breaking" at the beginning of tweets that do not warrant that tag that the word has lost most of its meaning and become a joke. It is a pun because waves "break" on the shore.<br />
*'''Web 3.0''' refers to the unofficial term {{w|Web 2.0}}. In this case, "Web 1.0" refers to accessing the Internet using Web Browsers, e-mail, and chatting, mainly through the use of computers. "Web 2.0" refers to accessing the Internet through new means (for example, RSS Feeds that read the news) through more devices (for example: tablets and cell phones). As such, "Web 3.0" means either what the Internet is like now in its current state of development, or what it will soon develop into; either way, it is still very much Under Construction.<br />
<br />
==Geotagged Bay==<br />
*'''{{w|Yelp}}'''<br />
*'''{{w|Geocaching}}'''<br />
*'''{{w|Foursquare}}''' is a location-based social network.<br />
*'''Latitude''' refers to {{w|Google Latitude}}<br />
<br />
==Troll Bay and the Sea of Memes==<br />
*'''Reddit''' - {{w|Reddit}} is the self-described "front page of the Internet" in which users submit stories, photos and videos and the best are "up-voted" to the top of the page.<br />
*'''Wikipedia talk pages'''<br />
*'''{{w|Wikia}}''' is a 3rd party wiki software.<br />
*'''StumbleUpon'''<br />
*'''Delicious'''<br />
*'''{{w|Digg}}''' is a former competitor to Reddit in the social-news sphere, but now has been sold and restarted as a aggregator of news stories.<br />
*'''Slashdot''', labeled "/." on the map,<br />
*'''Fark'''<br />
*'''YTMND''' is an acronym for "You're The Man Now, Dog!"<br />
*'''IRC isles'''<br />
<br />
==Skype Region==<br />
The Skype Region refers to different IM, or Instant Messaging services, that enable almost-real-time text chatting between multiple people. These often allow services like voice chat and even video calls.<br />
<br />
*'''[http://xkcd.com/ xkcd]''' is "a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language." The comics are stick figures that talk about technological things, bigger philosophies, or simply events in the author's life. More information about the webcomic can be found [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/xkcd here].<br />
*'''{{w|Skype}}''' is, according to Randall, the most popular of these among the internet. It has many features to allow peer-to-peer voice chats, as well as allowing calls to be made at a price to actual phones.<br />
<br />
==Blogosphere==<br />
<br />
==Blogosphere (Core Region)==<br />
Gossip Blogs:<br />
*Jezebel<br />
*Deadline<br />
*TMZ<br />
*Gawker<br />
*LJ Oh No They Didn't<br />
*Doucheblog<br />
*Isle of Mockery<br />
<br />
Liberal Blogs:<br />
*Huffington Post<br />
*Paul Krugman<br />
*Daily Beast<br />
*TPM<br />
*Ezra Klein<br />
*Think Progress<br />
*Kos<br />
<br />
Bay of Flame:<br />
*Politics Daily<br />
*CNN Political Ticker<br />
*Mediaite<br />
*NY Times<br />
*The Talk<br />
*Libertarian Isle<br />
<br />
Conservative Blogs:<br />
*Pajamas Media<br />
*Michelle Malkin<br />
*Hot Air<br />
*Red State<br />
*American Thinker<br />
*John Mall(?)<br />
<br />
Tech Blogs:<br />
*Boy Genius Report<br />
*Gizmodo<br />
*Engadget<br />
*Crunchgear<br />
*Techcrunch<br />
*Joystiq<br />
*Kotaku<br />
<br />
Assorted:<br />
*BoingBoing<br />
*Lifehacker<br />
*Deadspin<br />
*Meatorama<br />
<br />
==QQ Region==<br />
*'''Baidu Baike''' (「百度百科」, "Baidu Encyclopedia") is a Chinese search engine.<br />
* The '''Ma Le Ge Bi''' and the '''Grass Mud Horse Bay''' could refer to the {{w|Baidu 10 Mythical Creatures}}.<br />
*'''{{w|Tencent QQ}}''' is a Chinese instant messaging program.<br />
*In English communities "QQ" has several more common definitions:<br />
**An {{w|emoticon}}, representing a face with two large, crying eyes.<br />
**A synonym for "rage quit", in which a video game player quits the game out of sheer frustration. It originated in ''Warcraft II'' multiplayer, where pressing Ctrl+Q+Q would quit the game, and became more widely known in ''World of Warcraft''.<br />
**These definitions are commonly combined, usually to mock the "rage quitter".<br />
*The Gulf of China refers to how sites in the region are based in People's Republic of China ("Red China"). The '''Great Firewall''' refers to {{w|The Great Firewall of China}}, a pun on {{w|The Great Wall of China}}. Similar to how The Great Wall of China was meant to keep intruding nations out of the then-capital of the city, The Great Firewall of China is meant to keep visitors from visiting censored websites. However, either a VPN or remote access to a computer in a "freer" country can circumvent the Firewall.<br />
<br />
==Forums Islands==<br />
Forums are websites where one person post a topic to which other people can discuss.<br />
<br />
While the map has a zoomed in version, this article shall discuss the two bigger islands, first.<br />
<br />
*'''[http://www.2ch.net 2channel]''' is a Japanese imageboard that was actually the original inspiration for 4chan.<br />
*'''[http://www.craigslist.org/about/sites Craigslist]''' is a classified advertisement website with sections devoted to just about everything... which formerly included prostitution services, hence the '''The Former Site of Adult Services'''.<br />
<br />
In the zoomed-in map, there is...<br />
*'''420chan''' and '''7chan''', other imageboards in the style of 4chan (see below). Their relative lack of popularity and derivative nature leads a lot of 4chan users to mock them; hence, their position on Randall's map suggests that they're mere wads of semen.<br />
*'''[http://ohinternet.com/ Encyclopedia Dramatica]''', labeled '''ED''' on the map , is a wiki site dedicated to chronicling internet memes and other noteworthy sites, events, people, and anything else that catches their attention in an incredibly arbitrary and vulgar manner. The site is ''heavily'' steeped in the attitude of veteran, vulgar 4chan users. People who have articles in the website tend to react with despair, given not only the cruelty in which the articles talk about the person in question, but the presence of the article means that the person is now an eternal target from the trolls. The user can not retaliate, since the userbase of Encyclopedia Dramatica and 4chan tends to overpower the victim easily...<br />
:...usually. Due to the founder's talk against the Australian Aborignals (the founder is Australian), legal action has gone against the founder to the point of the founder having to shut down Encyclopedia Dramatica, founding the far tamer Oh, Internet! website, instead. Trolls responded by not only uploading their own mirror of the website but also vilifying the former founder forever.<br />
:(Please note that, due to the malicious nature of the pop-up advertisements of Encyclopedia Dramatica, the link above points to its safe-for-work successor, Oh, Internet!)<br />
*'''[https://www.4chan.org/ 4chan.org]''' is an {{w|imageboard}} in which people can upload pictures while others comment on them. The website is infamous for its loose/often non-existent rules, incredibly vulgar userbase, source of new memes, and spawning of trolls. 4chan's random board, known internally as '''/b/''', is almost constantly flooded with porn and image macros. This is why Randall's incarnation of 4chan is shaped like a penis.<br />
*'''Tunnel to Habbo''' is a reference to [http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/pools-closed the 2006 Habbo Hotel Raids], in which hundreds of 4chan Anons simultaneously logged onto Habbo Hotel and proceeded to be as obnoxious as possible, standing in formations of swastikas and penises or body-blocking the swimming pools.<br />
*'''{{w|Catbus}} Route''' is likely a reference to {{w|Lolcat}}s in general.<br />
*'''[http://www.ebaumsworld.com/ eBaum's World]''' is a media-hosting website founded by Eric Bauman. The site has lost a lot of traffic after (quite valid) accusations of stolen content.<br />
*The gulf labelled '''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anonymous_(group) Anonymous]''' is a reference to the trolls that label themselves "Anonymous" who recently had gained national acknowledgement because of the group's real-life tirades, including cracking attacks against the Church of Scientology and the founding of WikiLeaks (a website that leaks confidential material related to governments).<br />
*[http://www.somethingawful.com/ SomethingAwful] is a website that is meant to showcase all things "awful". SomethingAwful also has a large trollbase, but they tend to be more honorable than the ones from Encyclopedia Dramatica and 4chan. One example is there being a spotty holding of the no-furries rule in the forums. The forums themselves are famous because of the holding of the Let's Plays of [http://lparchive.org/Dangan-Ronpa/ Dangan Ronpa] and [http://danganronpa2mirror.tumblr.com/ Super Dangan Ronpa 2], which had cooked up public interest to the point of there being an English-language release of the games.<br />
Please note that, due to these Let's Plays being in a forums that frequently hides behind a "paywall" that requires a paid account before accessing, the links provided go to their mirrors.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:'''Map of Online Communities'''<br />
:Size on map represents volume of Daily Social activity (posts, chat, etc). Based on data gathered over the Spring and Summer of 2010.<br />
<br />
:[Two insets on the upper left-hand corner shows that this map is a tiny portion of the huge continent of Spoken Language, encompassing portions of the Internet, Email, and Cell Phones (SMS).]<br />
<br />
:[The largest landmass on the map by far, which takes up nearly the entire northern half of the map is "Facebook" - with large states in the south-east of the country labeled 'Farmville' and 'Happy Farm'. There is a much smaller state to the west of these called 'Farm Town'. To the north of these states is a large swath of unremarkable land entitled 'Northern Wasteland of Unread Updates.' This is directly north of the large Dopamine Sea.<br />
<br />
:A peninsula on the south-west, just below the Plains of Awkwardly Public Family Interactions, houses many tiny states, such as MySpace, Orkut, LinkedIn, Bebo, & Hi5. It is bordered on the south by Buzzword Bay, which contains several islands of varying sizes. Among these are YouTube and Twitter (the largest), which are separated by the Social Media Consultant Channel. To the south-east of Twitter, across the Sea of Protocol Confusion, is another, equally large island. Most of it is Skype, with the north having two largish states called AIM and Windows Live Messenger. On the south-west part of the island are two smaller states called GG and Yahoo Messenger.<br />
<br />
:The Island of Skype is extremely close to, but separated by the Great Firewall (a dashed line), the large landmass of QQ. It's north shore is the Gulf of China and Grass Mud Horse Bay. Outside of these bays, over the Great Firewall are two islands called Craigslist and 2Channel.<br />
<br />
:In the Dopamine Sea, off the southern shores of Farmville and Happy Farm, is MMO Isle. Its largest state is WoW, with Runescape, Lineage, Maple Story, Habbo, and the Mountains of Steam among its notable landmarks. To the southeast of the island is the Gulf of Lag, in which sits the CDC Games island, with Eve Online.<br />
<br />
:To the east of Twitter is Troll Bay, with such islands as Reddit and Reddit, Digg, Stumbleupon, Delicio.us, and Wikipedia Talk Pages. To their south are the IRC isles, of which one is the tiny island of #xkcd.<br />
<br />
:East of these islands, and north of Skype island, is the Sea of Memes. In this sea, to the north of Craigslist and 2Channel, is an archipelago of tiny islands. There is an inset, labeled 'Forums.' (See below.)<br />
<br />
:To the southwest if Twitter island, in the Sea of Opinions, are the blog islands. These lie south of the islands in Buzzword Bay, as well. The northernmost islands in this group are centered around the Bay of Drama, on which can be found Diary Blogs, Gossip Blogs, and Livejournal. Gossip Blogs share an island with Political, Music, and Tech Blogs. To the north of this island is a smaller island called Photo Blogs. South of Diary Blogs, and off the southwest coast of Music blogs is a smaller island called Fandom Blogs. South of Tech Blogs, off of which sprouts the small peninsula of Business Blogs, is the Spamblog Straits. On the other side of the straits is a large island made up of Miscellaneous Blogs, with two states demarcated as Religious Blogs and Blog Blogs. Southwest of the Blog Islands is the Sea of Zero (0) Comments.]<br />
<br />
:[An inset of a group of islands in the sea of memes located on the lower right corner of the map, labeled 'Forums'. The largest by far is 4chan and /b/. Also found here are D2JSP, JLA Frums, Fan Forum, Something Awful, and many smaller ones, too numerous to list here.]<br />
<br />
:[The northeastern third of Gossip/Political/Tech Blogs island is another inset labeled 'Blogosphere (Core)'. This can be found on the lower left corner of the map. Two peninsulas in Political Blogs bookend the Bay of Flame -- these are Liberal Blogs and Conservative Blogs. Between them lie several tiny islands such as Politics Daily, CNN Politcal Ticker, and Mediaite. Off the coast of Liberal Blogs lies the island of NYTimes, off the coast of Conservative Blogs is Libertarian Isle. Between the two lies The Talk. The northern peninsula of Tech Blogs contains places such as Gizmodo, Engadget, Joystiq, and Kotaku.] <br />
<br />
:[Text found between the two insets, which are directly below the main map.]<br />
:ABOUT THIS MAP<br />
:Communities rise and fall, and total membership numbers are no longer a good measure of a community's current size and health. This updated map uses size to represent total social activity in a community -- that is, how much talking, playing, sharing, or other socializing happens there. This meant some comparing of apples and oranges, but I did my best and tried to be consistent.<br />
<br />
:Estimates are based on the numbers I could find, but involved a great deal of guesswork, statistical inference, random sampling, nonrandom sampling, a 20,000-cell spreadsheet, emailing, cajoling, tea-leaf reading, goat sacrifices, and gut instinct (i.e. making things up).<br />
<br />
:Sources of data include Google and Bing, Wikipedia, Alexa, Big-Boards.com, StumbleUpon, Wordpress, Akismet, every website statistics page I could find, press releases, news articles, and individual site employees. Thanks in particular to folks at Last.fm, LiveJournal, Reddit, and the New York Times, as well as sysadmins at a number of sites who shared statistics on condition of anonymity.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics with color]]<br />
[[Category:Large drawings]]<br />
[[Category:Internet]]</div>Greysonhttps://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:297:_Lisp_Cycles&diff=55354Talk:297: Lisp Cycles2013-12-16T16:10:21Z<p>Greyson: Created page with "Soon, I shall be one of those new coders. I shall be learning (Racket) Scheme, actually. ~~~~"</p>
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<div>Soon, I shall be one of those new coders. I shall be learning (Racket) Scheme, actually. [[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 16:10, 16 December 2013 (UTC)</div>Greyson