MediaWiki API result
This is the HTML representation of the JSON format. HTML is good for debugging, but is unsuitable for application use.
Specify the format parameter to change the output format. To see the non-HTML representation of the JSON format, set format=json.
See the complete documentation, or the API help for more information.
{
"warnings": {
"main": {
"*": "Subscribe to the mediawiki-api-announce mailing list at <https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-api-announce> for notice of API deprecations and breaking changes."
},
"expandtemplates": {
"*": "Because no values have been specified for the \"prop\" parameter, a legacy format has been used for the output. This format is deprecated, and in the future, a default value will be set for the \"prop\" parameter, causing the new format to always be used."
}
},
"expandtemplates": {
"*": "__NOTOC__\n<center>\n<font size=5px>''Welcome to the '''explain [[xkcd]]''' wiki!''</font><br>\n<span style=\"font size:210%;\">We have an explanation for all [[List of all comics (full)|'''3254''' xkcd comics]], and only 45 (1.4%) are incomplete. [[:Category:Incomplete explanations|Help us finish them!]]</span>\n</center>\n<span style=\"position: absolute; right:0; padding-top:1.4em; font-size: 100%;\"><span class=\"no-link-underline\">[[3245| </span>'''Go to this explanation''']]</span>\n\n=Latest comic=\n<div style=\"border:1px solid grey; background:#000001; padding:1.5em;\">\n<metadesc>explain xkcd is a wiki dedicated to explaining the webcomic xkcd. Go figure.</metadesc><table class=\"comic-content \" cellspacing=\"5\" style=\"background-color: #FFFFFF;\n border: 1px solid #a2a9b1; color: black; font-size: 88%;\n line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0.5em 0 0.5em 1em; padding: 0.2em;\n text-align: center; width:98%; \"><tr><td style=\"font-size: 21px; font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: 800; padding-bottom:11px; padding-top:15px;\">Results Age</td></tr><tr><td><ul style=\"text-align: center; margin-bottom: 10px;\" class=\"no-link-underline\"><li style=\"background-color: #6E7B91;\n border: 1.5px solid #333333; border-radius: 3px 3px 3px 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 5px 0 gray;\n display: inline; font-size: 16px; font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: 600;\n margin: 0 4px; padding: 1.5px 0;\">[[1: Barrel - Part 1|<span style=\"color: #FFFFFF; padding: 0 12px; white-space: nowrap;\" title=\"\">|<</span>]]</li><li style=\"background-color: #6E7B91;\n border: 1.5px solid #333333; border-radius: 3px 3px 3px 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 5px 0 gray;\n display: inline; font-size: 16px; font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: 600;\n margin: 0 4px; padding: 1.5px 0;\">[[3244|<span style=\"color: #FFFFFF; padding: 0 12px;\" title=\"\">< Prev</span>]]</li><li style=\"background-color: #6E7B91;\n border: 1.5px solid #333333; border-radius: 3px 3px 3px 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 5px 0 gray;\n display: inline; font-size: 16px; font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: 600;\n margin: 0 4px; padding: 1.5px 0;\"\n class=\"plainlinks\">[https://xkcd.com/3245<span style=\"color: #FFFFFF; padding: 0 12px;\" title=\"Open this comic on xkcd.com\">#3245 (May 13, 2026)</span>]</li> </ul></td></tr><tr><td>[[File:results_age_2x.png|478x669px|Please, we need your help. Our research suggests you're the last living descendant of the person who knew how to format this config file.]]<br /><span style=\"margin-top: 0.9em; margin-bottom: 0em; display:inline-block; font-size: 120%; \"><span class=\"plainlinks\" title=\"\">''[[Title text|Title text]]:''</span> Please, we need your help. Our research suggests you're the last living descendant of the person who knew how to format this config file.</span></td></tr><tr><td><ul style=\"text-align: center; margin-top:2px; margin-bottom:10px;\" class=\"no-link-underline\"></li></ul></td></tr><tr><td><ul style=\"text-align: center; margin-top:-7px; margin-bottom:15px;\" class=\"no-link-underline\"><li style=\"background-color: #6E7B91;\n border: 1.5px solid #333333; border-radius: 3px 3px 3px 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 5px 0 gray;\n display: inline; font-size: 16px; font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: 600;\n margin: 0 4px; padding: 1.5px 0;\">[[1: Barrel - Part 1|<span style=\"color: #FFFFFF; padding: 0 12px; white-space: nowrap;\" title=\"\">|<</span>]]</li><li style=\"background-color: #6E7B91;\n border: 1.5px solid #333333; border-radius: 3px 3px 3px 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 5px 0 gray;\n display: inline; font-size: 16px; font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: 600;\n margin: 0 4px; padding: 1.5px 0;\">[[3244|<span style=\"color: #FFFFFF; padding: 0 12px;\" title=\"\">< Prev</span>]]</li><li style=\"background-color: #6E7B91;\n border: 1.5px solid #333333; border-radius: 3px 3px 3px 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 5px 0 gray;\n display: inline; font-size: 16px; font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: 600;\n margin: 0 4px; padding: 1.5px 0;\" class=\"plainlinks\">[[Special:RandomInCategory/All pages|<span style=\"color: #FFFFFF; padding: 0 12px;\" title=\"\">Random Explanation</span>]]</li> </ul></td></tr></table>[[Category:All comics]][[Category:All pages]][[Category:Comics from 2026]] [[Category:Comics from May]] [[Category:Wednesday comics]]\n\n==Explanation==\n<div style=\"display: flex; justify-content: center;\">\n{| style=\"background-color: #f8f9fa; border: 1px solid #aaa; box-shadow: 2px 2px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); border-left: 10px solid #0d5bb3; margin: 0 auto; width: auto; max-width: 70%; display: inline-block;\" class=\"notice-incomplete notice_tpl notice\" \n|style=\"padding:0 0.5em; line-height: 330%; text-align: left;\"|[[File:Ambox warning blue construction.png|link=|40x40px]]\n|style=\"padding:0 0.75em; text-align: left;\"| '''''This is one of [[:Category:Incomplete explanations|45 incomplete explanations]]:'''''<br>This page was created BY AN INTERNET GRANDPA. Don't remove this notice too soon. If you can fix this issue, '''[//www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=API&action=edit edit the page]'''![[Category:Incomplete explanations]]\n\n|}\n</div>\nThis comic shows how likely it is that a bug reported will be fixed, based on the age of some past post that matches your search for details of the problem.\n\nA table is shown below of the explanations of each table row:\n{| class=\"wikitable\"\n!Age of post !! What it means !! Probability of a fix !! Full Explanation\n|-\n|2 hours ago || There's an infrastructure outage || '''Very High''' - Just wait ||The recentness of the information implies that it has just happened, and other people have noticed it and started to post about the issue. Large-scale problems like a service outage are obvious priorities, and will (hopefully!) be fixed quickly.\n|-\n|5 days ago || A recent update just broke something big || '''High''', but you might have to wait for a patch || Similar to before, a large breakage would be very high priority to be fixed. However, as it's been five days since reporting it, the bug is likely taking a while to be found, so - as pointed out in the comic - you could have to wait a bit longer for this one to be resolved.\n|-\n|3 months ago || A new product isn't working for some users || '''Decent chance''' of a solution in the replies || This problem is clearly not considered a priority for a fix by the creators, judging by how long it's been there. It possibly isn't an issue affecting everyone, or even a large proportion of users. However, people are innovative, and someone may well have found their own fix, patch or kludge to get around the product limitations.\n|-\n|2 years ago || You've run into an edge case || '''Low''', but the replies could help with troubleshooting || An [[wikipedia:Edge case|<span title=\"Edge case on Wikipedia\">edge case</span>]] is an unusual set of circumstances in which a system is asked to operate. These can cause an otherwise well-functioning system to behave in unexpected and unpredictable ways. Because such cases will occur very rarely, they may not have been foreseen or tested by the developers, or they may have considered it not worth the effort to cater for them. Very few people will suffer from this precise problem, which may mean that it's not considered worth the effort to apply a fix. The developers or other users may have encountered similar issues on this or similar software, and noting how they solved or worked around ''those'' problems might lead you towards how to address your own.\n|-\n|13 years ago || You're the only one with this problem || '''Very Low''' - post is likely not relevant|| A post of this age likely predates the software you're using, or at least the current version of it. It's probably a coincidental match to your search query, and doesn't actually relate to the problem you've encountered. Since no-one else has posted about this issue or anything similar within a recent timeframe, it's likely that you're the first person (or at least, one of very few people) to have ever come across it.\n|-\n|24 years ago || Oh god how is the Internet this old || Maybe whoever posted the message has kids who can help you || This is another comic where Randall [[:Category:Comics to make one feel old|makes people feel old]], in this case by pointing out that [[wikipedia:The Internet|<span title=\"The Internet on Wikipedia\">the Internet</span>]] is quite old. The children of the people who posted these comments are now likely to be around the same age the original posters were when they posted them (and may now be posting themselves). It is also (presumably) rare enough to be a [[979: Wisdom of the Ancients|DenverCoder9 situation]], and 13 years is longer than the time in that comic, so 13 years might be such a situation too. It is possible that Randall could be referencing this comic, as the thread that DenverCoder9 posted on was last posted to in 2003, 23 years before this comic's publication. If DenverCoder9 posted to the thread in 2002 and the thread happened to continue into 2003, then it would perfectly match the age.\nThe Internet is, in fact, significantly over forty years old, based upon original infrastructure and methods that were set up for perhaps up to two more decades previous to that. The World Wide Web (to many, synonymous with the Internet) hails from the early 1990s, and Google (one of the more commonly used search engines, through which this error search might have been made) was launched in the late 1990s, so are still practically older than this notional post. The biggest surprise might be that some information published on a webpage in 2002 (and still relevant to your search) survives on some still live web server (or as an archive/[[wikipedia:Mirror site|<span title=\"Mirror site on Wikipedia\">mirror</span>]] of that original information on some archival/successor site). For example, any topical write-up of a then extant case of this issue, if documented upon web pages originally hosted by [[wikipedia:GeoCities|<span title=\"GeoCities on Wikipedia\">GeoCities</span>]], would have otherwise been made permanently inaccessible by the end of 2014.\n|}\n\nThe title text appears to be a conversation taking place in a distant future with the descendant of an ancient internet post. The 'last living descendant' is a common trope in fiction where arcane knowledge is passed down through a family line (often on the previous generation's deathbed). The suggestion is that the solution to the user's issue is a closely guarded secret that has had to be kept safe in this way.\n\n==Transcript==\n<div style=\"display: flex; justify-content: center;\">\n{| style=\"background-color: #f8f9fa; border: 1px solid #aaa; box-shadow: 2px 2px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); border-left: 10px solid #04b60c; margin: 0 auto; width: auto; max-width: 70%; display: inline-block;\" class=\"notice-incomplete-transcript notice_tpl notice\" \n|style=\"padding:0 0.5em; line-height: 330%; text-align: left;\"|[[File:Ambox warning green construction.png|link=|40x40px]]\n|style=\"padding:0 0.75em; text-align: left;\"| '''''This is one of [[:Category:Incomplete transcripts|45 incomplete transcripts]]:'''''<br>Don't remove this notice too soon. If you can fix this issue, '''[//www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=API&action=edit edit the page]'''!\n|}\n</div>[[Category:Incomplete transcripts]]\n\n:Implications of the age of the posts you see when you Google an error message\n\n:[A search engine prompt field is shown, containing part of an error code message (beginning with E-21, and what looks like a 9 and 3 next to it). Below this are search results shown as obscured text, except for a the phrase '3 years ago' in the first heading. This is expanded into an ellipse that obscures the rest of the search field.]\n:[A table, with 3 columns, labelled \"Age of post\", \"What it means\", and \"Probability of a fix\"]\n\n:[Row 1: Age of post:] 2 hours ago\n:[What it means:] There's an infrastructure outage\n:[Probability of a fix:] Very high -- just wait\n\n:[Row 2: Age of post:] 5 days ago\n:[What it means:] A recent update broke something big\n:[Probability of a fix:] High, but you might have to wait for a patch\n\n:[Row 3: Age of post:] 3 months ago\n:[What it means:] A new product isn't working for some users\n:[Probability of a fix:] Decent chance of a solution in the replies\n\n:[Row 4: Age of post:] 2 years ago\n:[What it means:] You've run into an edge case\n:[Probability of a fix:] Low, but maybe the replies can help with troubleshooting\n\n:[Row 5: Age of post:] 13 years ago\n:[What it means:] You're the only person with this problem\n:[Probability of a fix:] Very low -- post is likely not relevant\n\n:[Row 6: Age of post:] 24 years ago\n:[What it means:] Oh God how is the Internet this old\n:[Probability of a fix:] Maybe whoever posted this message has kids who can help you\n\n\n<br><div style=\"clear: both\"></div><span id=\"Discussion\"></span><span style=\"position: absolute; right:0; padding-top:1.7em; font-size: 105%;\">[[File:comment.png|21x21px|link=//www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:API&action=edit]]<span class=\"no-link-underline\">[//www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:API&action=edit </span>'''Add comment'''] [[File:new topic.png|21x21px|link=//www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:API&action=edit§ion=new]]<span class=\"no-link-underline\">[//www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:API&action=edit§ion=new </span>'''Create topic (use sparingly)'''] [[File:refresh discuss.png|21x21px|link=//www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=API&action=purge]]<span class=\"no-link-underline\">[//www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=API&action=purge </span>'''Refresh'''] </span><h1>Discussion</h1>\n<div class=\"disctemp\" style=\"border:1px solid grey; background:#f6f6f6; padding-top:0.5em; padding-left:1.5em; padding-right:1.5em; padding-bottom:2.5em;\">\n<br>''No comments yet, [//www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:API&action=edit add the first comment]!''</div>__NOTOC__\n----\n\n<span style=\"position: absolute; left:0; padding-top:1.35em; font-size: 105%;\"><span class=\"no-link-underline\"> [[File:new topic.png|21x21px|link=3245#Discussion]][[3245#Discussion| </span>'''View comic discussion''']]</span><br><br></div>\n\n== New here? ==\n<div style=\"float:right; margin: 0 0 1em 1em\">[[:Special:ContributionScores/10/30/nosort,notools]]<div style=\"font-size:0.85em; width:28em; font-style:italic\">[[Special:ContributionScores|Lots of people]] contribute to make this wiki a success. Many of the recent contributors above have [//www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Special:Contributions&contribs=newbie just joined]. You can do it too! Create your account [[Special:UserLogin/signup|here]].</div></div>\n\nYou can read a brief introduction about this wiki at [[explain xkcd]]. Feel free to [[Special:UserLogin/signup|create an account]] and contribute to the wiki! We need explanations for xkcd [[:Category:Incomplete explanations|comics]], [[:Category:Characters|characters]], [[What If? chapters|''What If?'' articles]], and [[:Category:xkcd|everything in between]]. If it is referenced in an [[xkcd]] comic, it should be here.\n\n* If you're new to wiki editing, see the [[explain xkcd:Editor FAQ]] for a specific guidance to this wiki and the more general help on [[mw:Help:Editing pages|how to edit wiki pages]]. There's also a handy [[wikipedia:Help:Cheatsheet|<span title=\"Help:Cheatsheet on Wikipedia\">wikicode cheatsheet</span>]].\n\n* Discussion about the wiki itself happens at the [[explain xkcd:Community portal|Community portal]].\n\n* You can browse the comics from the [[List of all comics (full)|list of all comics]] or by navigating the category tree at [[:Category:Comics]].\n\n* The incomplete explanations are listed [[:Category:Incomplete explanations|here]]. Feel free to help out by expanding them!\n\n== Rules ==\n\nBe a jerk!\n\nThere are a lot of comics that have set-in-stone explanations; only put one interpretation in the wiki page for each comic.\n\nIf you want to talk about a specific comic, don\u2019t.\n\nPlease only submit material directly unrelated to xkcd and, of course, only submit material that cannot legally be posted or freely edited. On-topic or other appropriate content is subject to removal or modification at admin discretion, and users who repeatedly post such content will be blocked. Get good.\n\nIf you need assistance from an [[explain xkcd:Administrators|admin]], post a message to the [[explain xkcd talk:Sandbox|Admin requests]] board.\n\n[[Category:Root category]]\n\nRecent comments: [[:Special:RecentChanges]]"
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