explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

User talk:Jeff

2014-05-06T19:36:28Z

LadyMondegreen: /* /r/xkcd sitenotice */

{{notice|This is the talk page of Jeff, the creator of Explain XKCD. If you have a comment about the wiki, please use the [[Explain XKCD:Community portal]]. Use this page only for personal messages to Jeff, of for requests that require server access.}} 

== ParserFunctions ==

Hi Jeff,

Just thought I'd run this up the flagpole... any thought about installing the ParserFunctions extension? I think this site could benefit from a few templates that would aid in indexing/categorizing the entries as content is migrated, and ParserFunctions would make some really impressive things possible... but installing any extension or not would be up to you.

Also, do you have any feelings about us users creating templates in the Template namespace, which we could use to maintain the content? Just wanted to get your thumbs-up before/if I did something like that. Just want to play nice. Love the site, and the new wiki format.

- PT [[User:IronyChef|IronyChef]] ([[User talk:IronyChef|talk]]) 03:05, 1 August 2012 (EDT)
:ParserFunctions are awesome, yup! --''[[User:Philosopher|Philosopher]]'' [[User talk:Philosopher|Let us reason together.]] 06:56, 1 August 2012 (EDT)
::{{done}} Yes to both. I have enabled ParserFunctions and Templates sound like a great idea. IronyChef, please send me an email at the address on the blog and I'll make you an admin if necessary to edit templates. --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 08:03, 1 August 2012 (EDT)

== Extension:Variable ==
Just wondering what you thought about adding the [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Variables Variables extension]. I'm toying with revising {{tl|LATESTCOMIC}} to not be so expensive (both in terms of template expansion, and ongoing maintenance.) I could do that now, but the wiki would have to re-expand and re-evaluate the same expression about six times, being slightly counter-productive. -- [[User:IronyChef|IronyChef]] ([[User talk:IronyChef|talk]]) 14:54, 25 August 2012 (UTC)
:: any thoughts ... up, down, sideways? Thanks! -- [[User:IronyChef|IronyChef]] ([[User talk:IronyChef|talk]]) 15:34, 1 September 2012 (UTC)
::: I'm up for it... Let me get it installed on the wiki side when I get a chance. --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 23:13, 3 September 2012 (UTC)

== Bugging you again.... ==

Could you take a look at [//www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?limit=10000&tagfilter=&title=Special%3AContributions&contribs=user&target=Philosopher&namespace=8&year=&month=-1] and tell me if I'm thinking in about the same way as you are here? Also, I've brought up [[MediaWiki:Tagline]] and [[Explain XKCD:Community portal]], as it'd be cool to have a tagline. --''[[User:Philosopher|Philosopher]]'' [[User talk:Philosopher|Let us reason together.]] 10:46, 1 August 2012 (EDT)
:With you 100% on the File Delete reasons. Thanks. I agree also about having a tagline. What do you think it should be? --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 11:13, 1 August 2012 (EDT)
::Nothing's coming to mind right now. Perhaps someone else will think of something. --''[[User:Philosopher|Philosopher]]'' [[User talk:Philosopher|Let us reason together.]] 17:54, 2 August 2012 (EDT)
Discussion continued at [[Explain XKCD:Community portal/Proposals#Tagline]].

== Automatic Import ==
Moved to [[Explain XKCD:Community portal/Proposals#Automatic Import]]. (Header left to avoid breaking links.) --''[[User:Philosopher|Philosopher]]'' [[User talk:Philosopher|Let us reason together.]] 00:30, 4 August 2012 (EDT)

== Please watch [[Explain XKCD:Community portal/Administrators' noticeboard]] ==

I'd like to ask that the admins consider adding [[Explain XKCD:Community portal/Administrators' noticeboard]] to their [[wikipedia:Help:Watching pages|watchlists]]. On a similar note, I've just started a discussion there about spammers. -''[[User:Philosopher|Philosopher]]'' [[User talk:Philosopher|Let us reason together.]] 02:02, 4 August 2012 (EDT)

== Images from Wikimedia Commons and SVG ==
Please set <code>$wgUseInstantCommons = true;</code> in the wiki's LocalSettings.php, so we can use images from Wikimedia Commons without having to reupload them here.
Also, I'd be neat if you could [[mw:Manual:Image Administration#SVG|enable svg images]]. Thanks! --[[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 04:20, 4 August 2012 (EDT)
: {{done}}, Instant Commons is on. Will need a little more work to get SVG images to work. What renderer to do you suggest I use? --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 12:05, 6 August 2012 (UTC)
:: That'll depend on what you have available in your server. They say there that ImageMagick seems to be an acceptable choice, but rsvg seems to be the best one if the dependencies can be sorted out. --[[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 13:20, 6 August 2012 (UTC)

== Search suggestions ==

Hi,

could you please set $wgEnableMWSuggest [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:$wgEnableMWSuggest] to true? This enables search suggestions for the search field, and often this helps you to skip the search results. --[[User:SlashMe|SlashMe]] ([[User talk:SlashMe|talk]]) 09:10, 4 August 2012 (EDT)
:{{done}} OK, this is has been added to the LocalSettings. --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 12:06, 6 August 2012 (UTC)

== Time zone ==

Please set the wiki to UTC (<tt>$wgLocaltimezone = "UTC";</tt> in LocalSettings.php), as it's the most neutral option for our international community. In any case, each user can choose their time zone in their preferences.
:{{done}} Ok, set. --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 12:07, 6 August 2012 (UTC)

== Short urls, site logo, lowercase xkcd ==

Hi,
I'm not sure if you tried it but http://shorturls.redwerks.org is a great (and simple :D) tool to implement clean urls with mediawiki. That would make urls much nicer around here.

Also, if you could, please take a look at [[Explain XKCD:Community portal/Proposals#Naming conventions]], where your assistance is needed for some server changes. --[[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 15:31, 6 August 2012 (UTC)

:Hi again :) just to remind you about the short urls thing. I think it would be great if we could have wiki links in the form "explainxkcd.com/wiki/link_title". It might be necessary to move the wiki into a different folder name than "wiki", but that's just a matter of renaming the folder and changing <code>$wgScriptPath</code> in LocalSettings.php accordingly. The link above makes things really straighforward, it should really only take you a few minutes to set everything up.
:Another cool thing that could be done is set up a server redirect so that links in the form of explainxkcd.com/number would point to the comics in the wiki instead of returning a 404 error (for instance, http://explainxkcd.com/123 would point to http://explainxkcd.com/wiki/123). That way, we could replicate xkcd's own url system for comics and people could simply type explainxkcd.com/123 and get the explanation for the corresponding comic. This redirect can probably be set up in the hosting company's web interface, but in case it can't, let me know if you need any help. --[[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 22:03, 11 August 2012 (UTC)
::Hi Waldir - I'll work on the short URL thing. I want that to work for sure. With regards to the redirect, I have been working on it for a while and I have a few .htaccess files and etc that don't work. I'll be grateful for the help on it. Please send me an email if you know how to get it done. This would also allow anyone from xkcd.com/435 to just add explain and go to the comic explanation. Very helpful. Been working on it unsuccessfully for a while. --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 01:41, 12 August 2012 (UTC)
:::Ugh, it must be my hosting because I did all of the shorturls correctly it just sent it to a 404 page for the site over and over again. The url seemed to be the right one, but didn't send it to the right location. It should NOT be this difficult. --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 02:25, 12 August 2012 (UTC)

== wgCapitalLinks ==

Hi Jeff! When you have a few spare minutes, please add the following to LocalSettings.php:
$wgCapitalLinks = false;
This allows page titles not to be automatically capitalized by the software, which is important for filenames and for some comic titles such as [[s/keyboard/leopard/]]. Cheers, [[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 21:34, 11 August 2012 (UTC)
:{{done}} --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 01:37, 12 August 2012 (UTC)
::...and this broke our templates (and maybe [[Special:RecentChanges]]?). See [[explain xkcd:Community portal/Admin requests]]. Can't we just style the page titles so they appear as though they aren't capitalized when they really are? (As done at [[wikipedia:Xkcd]], using the DISPLAYTITLE magic word (called through [[wikipedia:Template:DISPLAYTITLE]]).) --''[[User:Philosopher|Philosopher]]'' [[User talk:Philosopher|Let us reason together.]] 04:42, 12 August 2012 (UTC)
:::Looks like transition pains would be inevitable. I think everything is sorted out for now. See the Admin requests thread for details. As for using DISPLAYTITLE, I understand the rationale, but this is xkcd and attention to capitalization is necessary in several pages, and I believe we'd rather use a complete solution (so that pages actually have the correct title) rather than hacking what is shown to viewers. In any case, we shouldn't have many problems in the future because of this; People will only capitalize the first letter of a title when it's actually necessary; otherwise, lazyness/convenience makes us all use lowercase everywhere (besides, redirects can be used just in case, such as {{tl|yesno}} → {{tl|YesNo}}. --[[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 09:06, 12 August 2012 (UTC)

== External Images ==

Has there actually been a decision on external images? Or is it just to be decided later?  [[User:Grep|grep]][[User_talk:Grep|talk]] 
: No decision yet. What do you think? --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 21:16, 28 August 2012 (UTC)
::Well, the whitelisting seems an OK idea. This would help you save space on the servers that you are hosting on, so that's a plus. I say go for whitelisting.  [[User:Grep|grep]][[User_talk:Grep|talk]]  Mostly I am wondering because I created a PHP script that creates an image to display the results of a poll (like on the Moving the Wiki topic in Proposals). For my situation any method of something external being placed on this site will work.
::'''I just''' got an idea... what if there was a group of moderators that check external images and approve them. The more approvals a person gets, the more "reliable" they are considered to be... ?  [[User:Grep|grep]][[User_talk:Grep|talk]] 

== Short Link Problem Fix? ==

Is <code>mod_rewrite</code> installed and enabled? 
[https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Short_URL/Apache MW ShortURL] 
Are all of the config files (including the wiki one) set up?

 [[User:Grep|grep]][[User_talk:Grep|talk]] 

== New admin please? ==

This is a bit forthright of me, but nothing appears to be being done about it. Would you read this [[explain xkcd:Community portal/Proposals#Spampage Rampage]] and comment on it? Thanks, [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]] and the community 17:47, 13 November 2012 (UTC)

== Small change ==

Hi Jeff! Long time no see. Look, could you add
:<code>$wgGroupPermissions['autoconfirmed']['autopatrol'] = true;</code>
to LocalSettings.php? That will allow edits by [[mw:auto-confirmed|auto-confirmed]] users not to be marked with a red exclamation mark in recent changes so we can more quickly spot edits that might need reviewing. --[[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 02:16, 22 November 2012 (UTC)

:Btw while you're at it, please also add
::<code>$wgAllowUserJs = true;</code>
::<code>$wgAllowUserCss = true;</code>
:So users can make their own scripts and styles to enhance the wiki (I need that, for instance, to test stuff without affecting anyone else, before integrating them on site-wide javascript/css pages) --[[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 16:52, 22 November 2012 (UTC)

{{done}} and {{done}} --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 19:55, 25 November 2012 (UTC)

:Thanks! --[[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 19:57, 25 November 2012 (UTC)

:: Sorry, I forgot a small detail: it is necessary to set up the following so that "auto-confirmed" doesn't mean "any registered user":
:: <code>$wgAutoConfirmAge = 60*60*24*3 // accounts become auto-confirmed after 3 days</code>
:: <code>$wgAutoConfirmCount = 10 // ...and 10 edits</code>
:: Cheers, [[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 21:32, 25 November 2012 (UTC)

::: {{done}} --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 21:49, 25 November 2012 (UTC)

:::: Thanks, again. Also, since the wiki didn't break, I take it that you noticed the missing semicolons which I stupidly forgot to include at the end of the lines, and added them. Sorry for the slip-up. --[[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 17:31, 26 November 2012 (UTC)
::::: No worries, I know that much at least! :) --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 17:36, 26 November 2012 (UTC)

Did you by any chance write "auto patrol" instead of "autopatrol"? [[Special:ListGroupRights]] suggests so, and if that's the case, that explains why the changes don't seem to have had the effects I expected from them (edits by auto-patrolled users still marked with the red exclamation mark in Special:RecentChanges). Could you check that the line reads exactly <code>$wgGroupPermissions['autoconfirmed']['autopatrol'] = true;</code>? --[[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 17:54, 26 November 2012 (UTC)
: That's what I thought I put even though autocorrect wanted to change it. Can't look now, will have a look when I get home. ---[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 17:55, 26 November 2012 (UTC)
:: Any news? No pressure, I'm just curious :) --[[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 15:34, 30 November 2012 (UTC)
::: Bah - I keep forgetting when I get home. I'll try to get it done this weekend. --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 17:35, 30 November 2012 (UTC)
:::: Much delayed, but {{done}} --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 02:50, 4 December 2012 (UTC)
::::: Thanks, Jeff. I'll let you know if there's any further issues, but I believe everything should be working now. --[[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 03:34, 4 December 2012 (UTC)

== Links to category pages ==

I couldn't help but notice the number of your edits to your page. You can link to category pages by putting a colon in front of "Category". <code><nowiki>[[:Category:Pages to delete]]</nowiki></code> produces [[:Category:Pages to delete]]. It also doesn't add the category to that page, it just links to it. Cheers, [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]]_a ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 17:30, 30 November 2012 (UTC)
: Oh geez. You saw that? That's a little embarrassing with not knowing what to do, I kept trying to figure out how to put the link there. Thanks for the help! I couldn't find that information anywhere. --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 17:31, 30 November 2012 (UTC)

::When I had to learn about that trick the edits on that page looked fairly similar. I eventually found the right page [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Links] (ctrl+f "category", it's buried) and managed it. I have the Recent Changes page set to auto-refresh every minute. I see a few things. [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]]_a ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 17:43, 30 November 2012 (UTC)

== Your opinion? ==

Please comment [[explain xkcd:Community portal/Technical#We need more maintainers|here]]. Cheers, [[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 17:21, 5 December 2012 (UTC)
:Update: we've been offered help by [[mediawiki:User:Dantman|an experienced MediaWiki developer]], I think we can finally solve the server-side issues now! Please take a look at the thread linked above. [[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 20:07, 23 March 2013 (UTC)

== I am really dumb ==

and this morning, while creating a user name, I goofed it and wrote .mau, (with a trailing comma) instead of .mau. (with a trailing dot, which is my trademark). I know that a bureaucrat on MediaWiki can change a username which had few edits (my own edits are three including this one): could you do this, or at least delete this username so that I may recreate it without leaving a dead one? TIA, [[User:.mau,|.mau,]] ([[User talk:.mau,|talk]]) 15:09, 16 January 2013 (UTC)
:You can actually change your signature to .mau. if you want, to mask that for now. Just make a page called User:.mau,/sig and craft your signature to your liking, then go to my preferences at the top and set your sig to <nowiki>{{SUBST:User:.mau,/sig}}</nowiki>. If you want an example, [[User:Lcarsos/sig]] is a near-vanilla and quite clean example of a custom sig, while [[User:Omega/sig]] and my sig, [[User:Davidy22/sig]] are slightly more tricked-out options. Wikipedia's guidelines to signature crafting are {{w|Wikipedia:Signatures#Customizing_your_signature|here.}} '''[[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 15:53, 16 January 2013 (UTC)
::ok, thanks! [[User:.mau,|.mau.]] ([[User talk:.mau,|talk]]) 09:55, 17 January 2013 (UTC)
:::Aw, that's it? No bling or anything? Meeehhh. '''[[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 13:16, 17 January 2013 (UTC)
:(to Jeff) I believe user renaming is not possible in vanilla mediawiki. An extension is required: [[mw:Extension:Renameuser]] --[[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 18:21, 17 January 2013 (UTC)
::I find a bit disturbing to have a "wrong" username, especially because I may not remember it somewhen (yes, the word does not exist, but I like its sound); but I don't need any flashy signature, so I just changed the traling comma to a dot. --[[User:.mau,|.mau.]] ([[User talk:.mau,|talk]]) 14:09, 18 January 2013 (UTC)

==/wiki/==
Now that the site apparently redirects to the wiki, could the entire wiki URL just be explainxkcd.com, without the trailing wiki? It's mostly for cleanliness, but also to throw off the spambots for a while. Those accursed spam happy bots. '''[[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 04:29, 4 February 2013 (UTC)
: Sounds good, I'm working on that part next. It is next on my "to-do" list complete some URL work like that. --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 18:05, 4 February 2013 (UTC)
::''nag''. Also, the spam is becoming an issue. A pretty big issue. Time to switch captchas? '''[[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 13:04, 18 February 2013 (UTC)
::: OK - sounds good to me, any ones you recommend? --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 13:33, 18 February 2013 (UTC)
:::: I don't remember which captcha the wiki uses, but I know securimage and recaptcha are two very competent options. Alternately, you could use [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:ConfirmEdit ConfirmEdit] to screen anon edits. Much of the spam seems to be automated, so questycaptcha should screen out most of the chaff. Just simple questions, like "What webcomic does this site explain" or "Who created XKCD" should be sufficient to screw up our current spammers. Also, rm /wiki/ plx. '''[[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 13:41, 18 February 2013 (UTC)
:::::Confirm edit is in and Recaptcha is out. Let's try that. --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 14:11, 18 February 2013 (UTC)
::::::The questions appear to be case-sensitive. To avoid frustration, could you add a notice to every question saying that the answers have to be in all lower/upper case? I got "What's the name of this wiki" wrong a bunch of times, and I think it's due to capitalization. '''[[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 14:30, 18 February 2013 (UTC)
:::::::Ok - cool. I changed it to $wgSitename instead of just writing it out. --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 14:32, 18 February 2013 (UTC)
::::::::If we get no spam tomorrow, I will hold a party in your talk page. Oh, and /wiki/. '''[[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 14:38, 18 February 2013 (UTC)
:::::::::I'll just hijack this thread and ask: Isn't it time Davidy22 got admin tools? It's long overdue. And please promote Lcarsos‏‎ to bureaucrat, so he can make new admins if needed. And seconded: <code>/wiki/</code> ! --[[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 02:39, 19 February 2013 (UTC)
::::::::::Could you also put confirmEdit in general page creation for anonymous users? There's still a couple of spam pages being made that don't actually advertise anything. There hasn't been an account creation in a long time, so I think we've killed off the spam accounts. The rate of spam has definitely dropped significantly ever since we switched to confirmEdit. '''[[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 05:42, 20 February 2013 (UTC)
::::::::::We've just had a surge of pure griefer spam. Anons who don't insert any links, they're just throwing spam at us out of malice. Could you make anonymous users have to pass through confrimEdit to create pages? Thanks. On a side note, what's the ratio in terms of file size between current explanation pages to logs and diffs? '''[[User:Davidy22|Davidy²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 01:53, 22 February 2013 (UTC)
:::::::::::Wow those suck. Wiping out whole pages with anon edits. I can't change the settings from here, but I'll do it when I get home. Also, I'm not sure what you mean by filesize? --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 15:51, 22 February 2013 (UTC)
::::::::::::Eh, how much space do explanations and images take up on your hard drive when compared to the space that log files and diffs take up? '''[[User:Davidy22|Davidy²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 16:01, 22 February 2013 (UTC)
:::::::::::::Click a thing, check out the URL. I be posting this here instead of DMs because somthing like this has been requested for a pretty long time. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 01:55, 7 December 2013 (UTC)
::::::::::::: I'm confused. There's a lot going on in this thread. Want to break it out into its own header? --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 16:48, 9 December 2013 (UTC)
::::::::::::::Mkay '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 19:47, 9 December 2013 (UTC)

== Promote Davidy22 ==

:''Breaking this discussion out from where it was, because it merits its own section. [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]]_a ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]])''
I'll just hijack this thread and ask: Isn't it time Davidy22 got admin tools? It's long overdue. And please promote lcarsos‏‎ to bureaucrat, so he can make new admins if needed. And seconded: <code>/wiki/</code> ! --[[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 02:39, 19 February 2013 (UTC)

:'''Heartily Agree''' on promoting Davidy22, he's almost always more on top of spam patrol than I am these days (burn-out for the lose). I'm not sure I can speak for my own promotion without sounding self-serving and power-hungry. However, in my few spare moments this semester I am looking closely at getting a bot up and running to automate the clean up of spam (mostly because manual spam patrol is the most soul-sucking and disheartening activity I've ever done), so it would be nice to be able to get a bot account promoted to bot status without misrepresenting it as my account. [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]]_a ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 18:13, 19 February 2013 (UTC)
:: Davidy22 is up to admin (honestly, I thought he was already one, so no issue there on my end.) and lcarsos has been updated to bureaucrat because we should have more redundancy there. Also, create a bot account and let me know what it is and i'll give it bot rights. --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 18:36, 19 February 2013 (UTC)
:: Or now, you can do it! :) --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 18:41, 19 February 2013 (UTC)
:::WOO, power! '''[[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 05:42, 20 February 2013 (UTC)

== Small ConfirmEdit change ==

Can you change the line:
<pre>$wgCaptchaTriggers['create'] = false;</pre>
to true? I think this would solve most of our bot vandalism/griefing problems. [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]]_a ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 21:19, 22 February 2013 (UTC)
:: {{done}} I changed 'edit' to true as well since we've seen a bunch when editing user's talk pages. We will see if I have to move that back to false. --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 16:16, 23 February 2013 (UTC)

== DeleteOldRevisions ==

There's a script built into mediawiki called DeleteOldRevisions.php that seems to have deprecated the deletehistory plugin. A link to the [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:DeleteOldRevisions.php manual page.] A hard drive upgrade would be apt for the future though. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|purple|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 00:15, 20 March 2013 (UTC)
: I'm looking into it. I'm not sure how the wiki got back up and running without me running the update. I'll try the [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:DeleteHistory] and see if that can help in the meantime. The expanded HD might be a no-go, but I'll see on that too. --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 01:27, 20 March 2013 (UTC)

==Server Hardware==
The website is getting really slow and throwing internal errors all over the place, and it looks like both the main page and the page for the newest comic [[1190: Time]] are climbing rapidly in views. If one ambiguous comic is hitting us like a DDoS, we're going to get it in the shorts if Randall ever actually acknowledges our existence directly, or some other geeky media outlet posts a link to us. Is there a donate button anywhere? '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|purple|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 05:18, 25 March 2013 (UTC)
: We certainly can get a Donate button. We may need to migrate the server to get it upgraded. This is one of those big days, I guess. --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 12:39, 25 March 2013 (UTC)
:: How about a Kickstarter or Indiegogo campaign? --[[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 12:37, 26 March 2013 (UTC)
:::Kickstarter and Indiegogo are one-time things. No good for this. I recommend modifying the donate button so that there is a PayPal "Subscribe" button near it so people can also do small monthly subscriptions. I recommend a dropdown with $1, $2, $5, $10, $20 options.
:::Does 1&1 give you stats like how much bandwidth (or rather how much data) you are using. That could have an effect on where is best to get the new hosting; Rackspace Cloud, Linode, AWS, or even a real server with access to other network options like paying for actual Mbps bandwidth with unlimited data.
:::When you get a server I'd like to properly set it up with varnish, nginx, apc (or Zend_Optimizer+ considering it's going to be part of php 5.5), memcached, and perhaps php-fpm instead of mod_php. Varnish will allow anonymous pages to be cached hopefully reducing the load issues. And nginx should serve out static things better than Apache. [[User:Dantman|Dantman]] ([[User talk:Dantman|talk]]) 05:23, 27 March 2013 (UTC)
:::: Regarding the Paypal button, besides the subscribe option, I would recommend removing the credit card logos, as they make it too wide for the sidebar and not fit the design well. Besides, I personally think they give it kind of a corporate feel; instead, a simple "donate" button, while still recognizable as paypal's, feels simpler and more "personal", for lack of a better word.
:::: Also, I think you should place it above the AdSense block, since that makes it more visible, and prioritizes a form of supporting the site that people have direct, active control over, rather than the passive, choice-less (modulo AdBlock) AdSense.
:::: And also capitalize "donate" in the section title, to match the other titles ("Navigation", "Toolbox", etc.)
:::: Since we're at it: maybe more donation options would make sense: [//flattr.com Flattr], [//gittip.com Gittip], [//tiptheweb.org/ TipTheWeb], and possibly [//bitcoin.org/ Bitcoins].
:::: Finally, is it possible to make the AdSense background transparent, or at least the same as the site background of #F3F3F3? --[[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 14:15, 27 March 2013 (UTC)
:::::Is it possible to add the ad and donate buttons without including a section title? Minimizing unused space is gooood. Also, I noticed that you installed the deletehistory plugin, but it's trying to use another version of PHP that's installed on the server. deleteoldrevisions.php in the maintenance folder oughta work fine, though it'd probably be apt to run it over the weekend when we're not expecting absurd floods of visitors like we are now. We may need it too, after we've filled up the hard drive again with archives of Time.'''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|purple|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 14:39, 27 March 2013 (UTC)
:::::: Yes, it is possible for me to edit, I will have to go into the settings for each since I used extensions for them. I hate the credit card things too. Will take a look at all options tonight.
:::::: The Deletehistory plugin doesn't work, sadly because of the PHP version. Hopefully, when we migrate, it will be on a newer version and that will work. Hopefully, we will have more disk space too... --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]])
::::: Hey Jeff. Could you change the width of the paypal donate button so that it matches the google ads and the bitcoin donate button? Maybe using a custom button rather than the paypal-provided one?
::::: Also, any news regarding the possibility of changing the background of the google ads? --[[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 17:21, 8 April 2013 (UTC)
:::::: It did not work out with Google ads for a reason they will not disclose to me, but I'll work on the buttons and the banner ad. --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 16:11, 9 April 2013 (UTC)

== Everything's good ==

Except for the (currently) occasional server error, I have no problems.

I've turned on HotCat and Popups, imported wikEdDiff and my HideTopContribs, all of which make me fairly efficient at watching changes.

A minor request would be the Redirect toolbar button.

[[User:Markhurd|Mark Hurd]] ([[User talk:Markhurd|talk]]) 17:13, 19 April 2013 (UTC)

:When you turn off enwiki's "Enable enhanced editing toolbar" all of the toolbar buttons explainxkcd has are in the same order (it skips Math) and the very next one is Redirect #R. It seems to be defined at http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=MediaWiki:Common.js/edit.js&action=edit
:I've tried adding just Redirect #R myself [[User:Markhurd/common.js|here]], but something's going wrong. (And I should be sleeping!)
::Seeing as it is only one button I wanted, I simplified the code down to calling addButton directly and it is now working fine. [[User:Markhurd|Mark Hurd]] ([[User talk:Markhurd|talk]]) 13:07, 20 April 2013 (UTC)

:Re being an Admin: Yes, please, as long as you note this would be my first actual Admin bit. (I'm a Bureaucrat on another MW wiki so I could give myself Admin rights whenever I wanted.) [[User:Markhurd|Mark Hurd]] ([[User talk:Markhurd|talk]]) 19:39, 19 April 2013 (UTC)

== Sidebar ads ==

Hi, we're having a discussion about the sidebar ads on [[Talk:Main Page#sidebar ads?]]. --[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 08:42, 24 April 2013 (UTC)

== Economic transparency ==

Hi! I made a request on economic transparency on the proposals page. –[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 22:05, 27 May 2013 (UTC)

==Thumbnails are not working==
I'm relatively new here but I think each picture should get it's proper thumbnail when the original is to large to embed. Mediawiki is using some applications in the background maybe not available here. But there are some workarounds. And since "onlinehome.us" is well secured I still do even not know what OS is running in the background. But whatever the OS is, it should be solvable.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 18:13, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

== Last missing page ==

Hi, I'm hoping you don't mind about my adds to Natalie Dee. I was working on that at the same time.
BTW: Can I help you on that thumbnail issue? I really would be happy if it could fixed here.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:42, 18 June 2013 (UTC)
:: No problem on the Natalee Dee comic, I was just working on it because it was the last one, edit away. What's the thumbnail issue? --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 21:43, 18 June 2013 (UTC)
:::Thanks for your reply. I am still talking about this: [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Errors_and_symptoms#Image_Thumbnails_not_working_and.2For_appearing Image_Thumbnails_not_working]. I am sure there is a need to fix the [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/LocalSettings.php LocalSettings.php]. Maybe some paths are wrong or it's just using wrong image tools. I can help on any OS except Apple computers.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 22:07, 18 June 2013 (UTC)

== Congratulations! ==

You just created the last unexplained comic of ''xkcd''! [[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 23:38, 18 June 2013 (UTC)
: Thanks Greyson! --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 03:04, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

==Math==
A lot of comics have formulae in them. Could you set $wgUseTeX = true in LocalSettings.php? That lets us use latex in pages. It'd be useful for comics like yesterday's. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 09:12, 11 July 2013 (UTC)
:Yeah, this would be nice. But you have to install an extension, LaTex must be available, then compile something, and at least adjusting the LocalSettings.php config file. We also sill do not have all image features here. But I can help, Windows or Linux.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 13:55, 11 July 2013 (UTC)
:: I'll look into it. Let me know if you find an extension that will do the trick. Send me some links to anything that would help and I can get them set up. --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 14:44, 11 July 2013 (UTC)
:::Go here [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Math Extension:Math] and read the installation instructions first, it's not easy. For Fedora (Linux) there is a package called "mediawiki-math.x86_64" available. I will test this at my own computer.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 15:57, 11 July 2013 (UTC)
::::It's the hell, but I got a first crappy version at my local installation. I have had to install ''latex'' and ''ocaml'' packages and now its working, but it still renders many lines before the <nowiki><math></nowiki> tag, So it's still not usable for this site.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 14:35, 13 July 2013 (UTC)
===Seeing injected banner ads?===
I'm seeing banner ads (viewing on my iPad) that cover the actual banner of the site and never scroll out of view. It's as if they've been infected by a downstream server (ISP?). Anybody else? I'm in Wisconsin using TDS. Jeff M.
: That's terrible, I've got to fix that. bah. --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 18:36, 2 August 2013 (UTC)
:: Is there a place I can email some screenshots? Jeff M.{{unsigned ip|69.130.242.120}}

== Full cache kills this page ==

Hi, it seems this page was not reachable for 15 hours again. The cache here has to be cleared sometimes, but since I can do it with my account I will create a script running once per day. 15 hours outage are bad, I try to avoid this in the future. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 15:50, 3 October 2013 (UTC)
:Which page was dead? --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 16:11, 3 October 2013 (UTC)
::The entire site was dead. Look here: [[Special:RecentChanges|Special:RecentChanges]]. My last post was at 23:44 yesterday, no actions here after my reset at 14:54 today. The site was dead. I'm not a hacker, but I'm a programmer and I used this base of knowledge to fix this problem. If you do need more details, please send me an email. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 18:25, 3 October 2013 (UTC)
::: Agreed. Tried to visit yesterday PM, but a lot of pages were spilling guts: user pages, category pages, no comic explanations (as far as I could tell with my limited browsing.) A chron-job script to keep that at bay would be good medicine, assuming it didn't have other side effects. [[User:IronyChef|IronyChef]] ([[User talk:IronyChef|talk]]) 03:19, 4 October 2013 (UTC)
I will set up a cron job running once per day. Maybe this entry at the config file [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:LocalSettings.php LocalSettings.php] would be the better solution:
$wgMainCacheType = CACHE_NONE;
I'm using the MidnightCommander (Linux) for editing this file.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 12:11, 4 October 2013 (UTC)
:::: Cache_None is already set in the LocalSettings. I believe this is usually a database error that we are getting. It usually resolves itself as I'm not able to resolve it myself. I believe that we are getting hit with a brute force attack at our database during those times because the database is totally unreachable. I'm working on moving to a new host where the database will be better protected. --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 12:16, 4 October 2013 (UTC)
:::::Cache_None or CACHE_NONE? This should be case sensitive. Nevertheless I did purge the cache and the site was instantly available again (after approx. 15 hours). Also Davidy22 explained that he did clear the cache to bring the site back. The error messages are misleading and not showing the real problem.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 12:43, 4 October 2013 (UTC)
:::::: Yes, CACHE_NONE, sorry, I was typing fast. I've ran my clear cache script a few times when I've had that same problem and haven't seen results, so I'm glad we at least have something that's working. --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 15:18, 4 October 2013 (UTC)
:::::::You are doing a great job, I feel I just have to say thanks! When the next outage does happen I will activate a small script, but for now I just try to avoid unnecessary traffic to this server.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 16:15, 4 October 2013 (UTC)
:::::::: Thanks Dgbrt! --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 18:07, 4 October 2013 (UTC)

== New host ==

Great job, but please check this link: <code>/wiki/</code>. I can browse the entire folder and more. It seems that "htaccess" should be renamed to ".htaccess".--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 08:32, 30 October 2013 (UTC)
: Oh geez. That's bad. Thanks! --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 12:02, 30 October 2013 (UTC)
:: Should be good now. --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 16:45, 30 October 2013 (UTC)

I found an other serious issue belonging to DNS entries:
Name: explainxkcd.com
Address: 108.162.198.131
Name: explainxkcd.com
Address: 108.162.199.131
This works fine because 108.162.'''198'''.131 is correct. But most DNS servers showing up with this result:
Name: explainxkcd.com
Address: 108.162.199.131
Name: explainxkcd.com
Address: 108.162.198.131
This just leads to the old server at 108.162.'''199'''.131. Check Google DNS server 8.8.8.8 with nslookup, the wrong IP is shown first.
--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 19:34, 30 October 2013 (UTC)
: Weird... I'll research. --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 19:35, 30 October 2013 (UTC)
::Yes, it's weird. After I discovered this I did enter an entry for this at my local "/etc/hosts" file. But it seems most people can not access the new site.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:20, 30 October 2013 (UTC)
::One more: The logo on the left top is broken. ''style="background-image: url(/wiki/skins/common/images/explainxkcd.png)'' does not exist.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:53, 30 October 2013 (UTC)
::: Yea, what happened to that logo... it was there this morning. --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 20:56, 30 October 2013 (UTC)
::::Oh, after a computer crash I'm back. Right now even the editor is broken here. I don't know if I can send this message. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:22, 30 October 2013 (UTC)
:::::Ok, it does work, but all images for short cuts on top of the editor are also broken now. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:26, 30 October 2013 (UTC)
:::::: The editor works fine for me, I'll research the images. --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 21:27, 30 October 2013 (UTC)
:::::::It seems all links like "/wiki/skins/common/images/button_bold.png" are gone. Additionally I'm getting an JavaScript error "TypeError: document.getElementById(...) is null". http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/skins/common/images/button_bold.png redirects me to http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page. Maybe you still get some content, maybe cache, from 108.162.199.131? Or is the real site now on that IP? Remember, I have had to restart my computer; most of my cache is gone and I'm just seeing the real page.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:48, 30 October 2013 (UTC)
:::::::: I fixed the images. I did that stupidly through the htaccess page. I've got to figure a better solution for what I'm trying to do to solve another problem. --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 21:58, 30 October 2013 (UTC)
:::::::::Looks great right now. So that DNS glitch seems to be the most worse problem right now.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 22:08, 30 October 2013 (UTC)
:::::::::: I think DNS is still propagating with the updates from yesterday. Not every one has the correct information yet... those two DNS IPs are the load balancers, I believe. --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 22:09, 30 October 2013 (UTC)
:::::::::::Strange "load balancers", but it's working now on both IPs. Many thanks again for your hard work, you must have invested many hours on this migration. Let's see tomorrow if other users will be able to find this site again.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 22:30, 30 October 2013 (UTC)

== Please remove subaddressing from my account email [[user:tbc]] ==

Hi Jeff,

I requested a password reset, but I forgot that my account still has an old email registered: timc+explainxkcd@divide.net. My ISP, pcisys.net née divide.net, disabled subaddressing during an email upgrade earlier this year. If you will update that email to remove the plus sign so my account email is timc@divide.net, I will be able to reset my password. I was logged in from my iPad to write on the [[explain_xkcd:Community_portal/Admin_requests#Please_remove_subaddressing_from_my_account_email_user:tbc|community portal]] page, but since I needed my password, which I have forgotten, to change it, I got stuck. – ''[[User:Tbc|tbc]] ([[User talk:Tbc|talk]]) 30 Oct 2013''
: You should be good to go now. --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 16:07, 31 October 2013 (UTC)
:: I am. Thank you! – ''[[User:Tbc|tbc]] ([[User talk:Tbc|talk]]) 05:32, 8 November 2013 (UTC)''

== Forbidden ==

You don't have permission to access /wiki/ ([http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/ http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/]) on this server. I think a simple redirect would be a better solution.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 23:45, 4 November 2013 (UTC)
: Yup, that's on my list to work on. If you are knowledgable about htaccess files, feel free to send me an email. --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 13:48, 5 November 2013 (UTC)
::The first great point is: The error doesn't show the server, version, etc... A hacker can't figure what exploits are available.
::At my local test installation (Apache, Linux) it's covered by the general server configuration. And each folder simply does contain a proper "index.php" file from mediawiki doing the correct redirects.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:19, 5 November 2013 (UTC)
::: Fixed. --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 16:02, 21 November 2013 (UTC)
::::Great job, thanks.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 22:18, 21 November 2013 (UTC)

== Re: the latest puzzle ==

I don't know how to contribute in the discussion section on the page, so I'm throwing ideas at you.

Just quick thoughts.
I feel like Cpl klinger and the water type kingler is too solid a connection to ignore even though I can't really use it.
Kingler was owned in the series by Ash.
Ash is a three letter word and the last three letters of the phrase monstermash.
Monsterm=8 letters so the first block ash=3 letters in the second block.
Monsterm is about the monster.com thing, therefore purloined. It's a double reference, the .co has been purloined from the purloined website.
Then blastoise -3, or rather blastois3 - 3 (mocking the common password meme of replacing letters with numbers)
So the last password, which is super hard to guess and well chosen even with the clue is, blastoisash? It's a feasibly memorable password that would not be quickly forgotten by a pokemon fan while still being hard to guess.
Can you think of a way to check it? Maybe go into the old command line xkcd and try it as a password?

==URLs==
I made them marginally shorter. Can you spot the difference? '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 19:47, 9 December 2013 (UTC)
: Uh, I can't. Does that make me a bad person? --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 22:17, 9 December 2013 (UTC)
::If you go to any page, you should see that it says index.php/<page name> instead of index.php?title=<page name>. Small change, I'm trying to kill the index.php bit too, but I think I suck at regexes. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 22:31, 9 December 2013 (UTC)
::: Regexes are the WORST --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 22:45, 9 December 2013 (UTC)
::::Regexes are great, but they are hard to implement for a specific solution. But Goooogle helps. And a question to Davidy22: Why you do not present your enhancement here? --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 23:10, 9 December 2013 (UTC)
:::::I set $wgUsePathInfo to true in mediawiki settings, and here's our lines for redirecting URLs in general:

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !(\.png|\.jpg|\.gif)$ [NC]
# RewriteRule ^/wiki(/.*)$ %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/wiki/index.php$1 [L]

:::::Followed and preceded by htaccess commands that do other things. The broken line is commented out because it doesn't work. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 23:32, 9 December 2013 (UTC)
::::::Uhh, it seems I still do not understand the secret. [http://www.xkcd.com/1301] to [http://www.explainxkcd.com/1301] works fine for me, but I do not understand that [NC] here so far:
:::::::RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !(\.png|\.jpg|\.gif)$ [NC]
::::::maybe
:::::::RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !(\.png|\.jpg|\.gif)$[NC]
::::::is better. But this means every request not matching those three image extensions would fit that rewrite rule. This is just haaardly regex. The second line is just a comment you probably did remove. I can't see the rewrite rule. And testing for a simple number x, xx, xyz, or xyzz would be better.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 00:23, 10 December 2013 (UTC)
::::::::That's an entirely different rewriterule that does actually work and was deployed long ago that I didn't print here. I'm talking about a general-purpose rewrite that redirects from explainxkcd.com/wiki/<page name>, which I attempted to create in the commented-out line. The image exclusion is to stop image display requests from also being redirected, and I don't think you quite get how rewrite rules work. Not *every* page is fitted to every rewrite rule; the first half of the rule describes the conditions in which the rule should be applied. And yeah, just plugging in page names works, but I kinda don't want to hard-code every possible page redirect into our htaccess file. That's what the regex is for. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 00:51, 10 December 2013 (UTC)

== /r/xkcd sitenotice ==

Could you please remove the sitenotice linking to and promoting /r/xkcd? [[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]] added it to the sitenotice and cross-posted to reddit. Unfortunately, h/r/xkcd sub is controlled by /u/soccer, who links to racist, xenophobic and misogynistic content regularly. [http://www.reddit.com/r/anonymous123421/comments/1w8aie/petition_to_reinstate_uwyboth_as_a_mod_of_rxkcd/cezp63m Randall has spoken in support] of a petition for /u/soccer to be removed as a mod. /r/xkcdcomic is a non-hateful alternative, one that Randall supports, and it has more users than /r/xkcd.

I did comment on Davidy22's talk page, but I thought I should drop you a line as well. Thanks, [[User:LadyMondegreen|LadyMondegreen]] ([[User talk:LadyMondegreen|talk]]) 13:55, 2 May 2014 (UTC)
: Hi LadyMondegreen did he change it already? I didn't touch it yet, but it shows /r/xkcdcomic for me. I agree with you completely and I'm sorry if we linked to the wrong subreddit, even momentarily. --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 14:50, 2 May 2014 (UTC)
::It never linked to /r/xkcd. I think LadyMondegreen misread it or something. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 01:41, 3 May 2014 (UTC)
:::Yeah, that was my bad. Someone pointed it out to me on IRC and I guess I didn't look closely enough. Sorry about that. [[User:LadyMondegreen|LadyMondegreen]] ([[User talk:LadyMondegreen|talk]]) 19:36, 6 May 2014 (UTC)

User talk:Davidy22

2014-05-06T19:35:32Z

LadyMondegreen: /* /r/xkcd sitenotice */

Hi Davidy22,

Just a quick thanks for helping roll back so much of the vandalism. Per your recent log comment, yes, there has been a recent spate of vandalism; before yesterday, it was the odd spammer that I've had to remove. But with the advent of ''Click and Drag'', there's also been an insurgence of ip-based vandalism. I'm hoping this is just a spike owing to the popularity of the comic, but I'm with you; if it doesn't die down, something more drastic is going to have to be done.

But again, thanks for helping...

-- [[User:IronyChef|IronyChef]] ([[User talk:IronyChef|talk]]) 14:17, 21 September 2012 (UTC)

== Please don't ==

Please don't create the redirects to explanations that haven't been created yet. It breaks the next and previous buttons, and gives people that are browsing through the explanations the false impression that the site is more complete than it is. [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]] ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 06:41, 25 September 2012 (UTC)

:Ah, I'll stop then. Didn't know that. [[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]] ([[User talk:Davidy22|talk]]) 07:17, 25 September 2012 (UTC)

==Davidy22, the spam connoisseur==
Congratulations on transcending from being annoyed at all spam to recognizing the truly beautiful works of spammage from the rest of the cruddy heap. We should throw a party, lol. [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]] ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 16:33, 1 November 2012 (UTC)
:Hey, it *was* a well written bit of spam. It was one of those copy/paste types of spam, except it was nicely formatted and coherent all the way through. It was informative too. A great change from the mindless template drivel or gibberish that we usually get. [[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]][[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>(talk)</tt>]] 23:11, 1 November 2012 (UTC)

== Just asking ==:::Mostly cuz that didn't work when it was on the main page, and calling attention to specific comics has worked exceedingly well. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 06:57, 11 February 2014 (UTC)
Was there a reason you deleted most of the List of all comics? [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]] ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 05:21, 11 November 2012 (UTC)

:What on- shi-
:I was adding comic number 1132, and the preview was really slow, so I copied everything in the edit box and refreshed the page. I think half of the page hadn't finished loading in the edit box, and I only copied the first half. Derp [[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]][[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>(talk)</tt>]] 08:21, 11 November 2012 (UTC)

::I figured it was something like that. [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]] ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 04:56, 12 November 2012 (UTC)

Just so you know, it happened again. But SlashMe fixed it. [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]]_a ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 18:07, 26 November 2012 (UTC)

:Mother of fracking- I'm going to figure out what's causing this and I'm going to fix this. Godammit. [[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]][[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>(talk)</tt>]] 23:20, 26 November 2012 (UTC)

:Durr dee-durr, and now I've done it. Thanks for spotting that. [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]]_a ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 07:22, 1 December 2012 (UTC)

== Ahem... You gonna finish that? ==

Have you taken a look at the front page recently (say within since you created the [[1134]] redirect)? [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]]_a ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 05:42, 14 November 2012 (UTC)
:I have it open right now. Please don't ninja me again. [[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]][[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>(talk)</tt>]] 05:44, 14 November 2012 (UTC)

::<nowiki>*Sits tight and twiddles thumbs*</nowiki> Actually, if you've got this I'll go back to the pitiful bit of literature I'm calling this year's NaNo. [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]]_a ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 05:53, 14 November 2012 (UTC)

== The Anonymous editor of 1132 ==

Has been 50.0.38.245 all along. For a while he changed his signature to be a userpage that didn't exist, and wasn't a registered user. He has now changed it back to being the IP address again. Just thought I should do some out-of-band communication about that. If you want to change your last comment about the anonymous user, that would be good. (I almost offered to edit it for you, but then realized the subject we're talking about, and decided that if 50.0 ever learns about looking at the edit history and diffs, I don't need to be called a hypocrite as well as a banhammer wielding {{w|BOFH}}) [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]]_a ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 03:35, 15 November 2012 (UTC)

== Broken mirror... ==

Sorry for the "ninja"... I guess we probably don't need 2 versions of the image though... Feel free to distill the explain part...--[[User:Bpothier|B. P.]] ([[User talk:Bpothier|talk]]) 07:15, 19 November 2012 (UTC)
:Godammit, I even had the window open waiting for the article. The definitions can be merged into one paragraph, and wiki magic will explain how the comic works. [[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]][[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>(talk)</tt>]] 07:20, 19 November 2012 (UTC)

== Fooooooooor He's a Jolly Good Fellow... ==

You are the man, man. Keep it up! [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]]_a ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 06:50, 21 November 2012 (UTC)

:Seconded. Great work, you deserved the milestone! --[[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 12:26, 21 November 2012 (UTC)

== Please take a look ==

...at [[User talk:Lcarsos#Deletion|this]]. Nothing new to you, I suppose (spam fighting can be quite hard if we're overly cautious on every step), but I'm dropping the note just in case :) --[[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 17:52, 25 November 2012‎ (UTC)

== autoblocking suspicious users ==

Once again, it looks like auto-blocking users that have suspicious usernames would require someone with more power than we have.

However, I very nearly blocked those three when I noticed the account creation. But, I didn't because I thought they might be legitimate users with stupid usernames. But now I've read up on {{w|Wikipedia:New_admin_school/Blocking|Wikipedia's block policy}} and from now on I'll be posting {{tl|uw-blockindef}} (which I've bungled fantastically right now, but shortly should be working) which should allow the rare legitimate user (with bad taste in usernames) to reclaim their good account, but allow us to block bad people.

You're ever friendly, massive toddler of an admin, [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]]_a ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 03:41, 4 December 2012 (UTC)

:I've also just found this page {{w|Wikipedia:Administrators' how-to guide}} which I will be reading very thoroughly and beginning to use this blacklist. [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]]_a ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 04:16, 4 December 2012 (UTC)

::Hum. A great many of these templates could be condensed into a few bigger ones, but at least the documentation links are there for us to use. Also, you do know that Template:UserBox already exists, right? [[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]][[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 04:55, 4 December 2012 (UTC)
:::Well, crud. You switched, I switched. I do like the one we had better, mostly because of the descriptive labels and the nice thick borders. The name's in convenient CamelCase too. [[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]][[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 05:18, 4 December 2012 (UTC)

::::As a general rule I loathe my shift key, using more keys to achieve the same goal is wasted time, and I could be called ruthless about wasted time. Saving a single keypress seems petty. But I had a CS professor point out that by specially crafting what you have to type (creating shortcuts) saving a keypress here and there can add up to saving several thousand keypresses every 8 hours, which over a long enough quantity of time can equal hours and days. That's my long winded explanation for why I like using {{tl|userbox}} instead of {{tl|UserBox}}.

::::Also, I like the wikipedia userboxen, it's more flexible. And that allows anyone who comes over from Wikipedia to know how to work userboxen here too. That's my case for it. I hope you agree because I don't want to have to push my shift key, but I'll take your input, and if we end up in a tie, we might ask Waldir to tie break for us, as he'd be a neutral third party. [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]]_a ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 06:44, 4 December 2012 (UTC)

:::::In CS, I learned that descriptive variable names and easy to recognize naming conventions can save heaps of debugging time. I personally like the CamelCase version better because it uses variable names like left-bg instead of id-c for the background color in the box on the left, which makes the template self-documenting and easier to grok for a new user who's just reading the source. [[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]][[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 07:58, 4 December 2012 (UTC)

:::::: I was asked to comment. Here are my thoughts:
::::::* Regarding CamelCase, it is indeed a neat convention but we don't use it elsewhere on the wiki. In fact, MediaWiki itself, in its early versions, used to rely on CamelCase for linking, but moved to the free-form, space enabled link syntax, which is better in many cases. Not everything converts nicely into CamelCase. So while I appreciate the argument to use CamelCase as the template name, I think the regular case version fits the wiki better. Besides, redirects are cheap and work well, so if the CamelCase title redirects to the lowercase one, whoever wants to use the CamelCase version can still do so seamlessly. Not an issue, therefore.
::::::* I agree with Davidy22 on the parameter names. In fact, the code of the template can be arranged in a more readable form (using whitespace and indentation) so not only its uses can be deciphered, but the template itself too. Renaming parameters is a simple matter, especially for templates with not many uses as these are, which means there isn't a lot of replacements to perform.
:::::: In summary, I think the two templates should definitely be merged and the best features of each kept in the final version: the title being [[Template:userbox]] (with redirects from [[Template:UserBox]] and [[Template:Userbox]]), and the parameters using intuitive names as {{tl|UserBox}}.
:::::: --[[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 17:06, 5 December 2012 (UTC)

::::::: Sounds good to me. The wikicode looks god-awful ugly though, who's up for cleaning that thing up? [[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]][[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 00:03, 6 December 2012 (UTC)

:::::::: If you guys do the merge, I can clean it up afterwards :) --[[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 01:14, 6 December 2012 (UTC)

== separate section for title text ==

I agree that in the two instances you removed the section header for the title text, it wasn't justified, but in some cases it does make sense. See [[explain xkcd:Community portal/Proposals#Subsection for title text explanation|here]]. Cheers, [[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 15:27, 5 December 2012 (UTC)

== No more imagesize ==

I made a comment on [[Template Talk: comic#Imagesize]], essentially imagesize isn't necessary, and I've changed the {{tl|create}} template to not include it. So rejoice, and forget imagesize ever existed (until the bug gets fixed). [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]]_a ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 03:02, 6 December 2012 (UTC)
: Bah, what was that parameter good for anyways? Clicking on the image should take you to the XKCD site anyways. What user cares about the image pages that the template currently takes you to? [[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]][[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 06:20, 6 December 2012 (UTC)
:: That's an interesting point. It's technically doable. But I think there should be a way to access the comic images (granted, I'm not sure why exactly, but I'm not comfortable leaving them "orphans" —linkless— either) --[[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 12:08, 6 December 2012 (UTC)
::: There's the list of all comics page, and we could make the titletext link to the image page or something. I dunno, any excuse to kill imagesize. [[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]][[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 12:16, 6 December 2012 (UTC)
:::: To clarify, linking the image directly to xkcd has nothing to do with killing imagesize. That, for what I understand, has already been done. Good point about the list of comics page. I'll wait for more comments before implementing the change in the image link target. --[[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 12:35, 6 December 2012 (UTC)
::::: Imagesize isn't *quite* dead yet. There's still four or five comics that still use it. Permission to upload the thumbnail versions of those comics, as we do with the other large comics, and end that broken thing once and for all? [[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]][[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 13:05, 6 December 2012 (UTC)
:::::: I don't like the idea of uploading smaller versions of images. We ought to be able to use mediawiki's own image scaling abilities as soon as we can do some [[explain xkcd:Community portal/Technical#We need more maintainers|testing in the wiki setup]] and make the image scaling issue go away. Apart from that, what exactly are the problems of imagesize, again? I haven't followed the discussions about it, sorry. Feel free to give me pointers to the appropriate places where the issues have been discussed. --[[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 13:17, 6 December 2012 (UTC)

== Please move pages ==

I'm noticing that when someone creates a new page with the wrong title you're just copy/pasting the content onto the new page. Please don't do that. Please use the move page feature on the drop down of the page, that way we can keep the edit history for the page intact, and that way it doesn't look like you created these oddly poor quality pages. Thanks much. [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]]_a ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 00:49, 6 January 2013 (UTC)
:Righty ho. '''[[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 02:09, 6 January 2013 (UTC)

== Sorry ==

I have been working contra u by routinely adding a white line above the categories. I instantly raise white flag! And say good night! -- [[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 00:40, 7 January 2013 (UTC)

== Trivia placement ==

Cheers mate! Please check the comment I made some time ago in the section you started, [[explain xkcd:Community portal/Proposals#Section style and usage|"Section style and usage"]] on the Proposals community page. –[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 23:10, 27 January 2013 (UTC)

If you disagree with the trivia placement between explanation and transcript, why don't you say so, and explain why? –[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 14:50, 6 March 2013 (UTC)

I made a section for discussion of this, so that we can come to some agreement: [[explain xkcd:Community portal/Proposals#Trivia and transcript]]. –[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 15:18, 6 March 2013 (UTC)
:Moved to [[explain xkcd:Community portal/Coordination#Trivia and transcript placement]] –[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 23:05, 6 March 2013 (UTC)

== Jurassic Park category ==
Hi, you wrote you don't like how I created a new category for Jurassic Park. I thought it appropriate: there's a *lot* of references to Jurassic Park and/or velociraptors in the comics. And not all reference are to both... But what did you not like? Thanks for enlightening me! [[User:Kaa-ching|Kaa-ching]] ([[User talk:Kaa-ching|talk]]) 09:07, 28 January 2013 (UTC)

:There's a lot of categories on this wiki. When adding categories to a page, it can get extremely difficult to make sure that you've gotten every category that applies to the comic. For regular editors, the amount that we have to remember when maintaining pages is already quite onerous; more categories hurt our dinky heads. If you're willing to steward that category, go ahead, but you'll have to remember to put in the explanation pages yourself when you find a comic that it applies to. '''[[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 09:36, 28 January 2013 (UTC)

:: OK. [[User:Kaa-ching|Kaa-ching]] ([[User talk:Kaa-ching|talk]]) 08:26, 1 February 2013 (UTC)

==[[220: Philosophy]]==

Actually, what happened was: This being my first new page edit, I copy-pasted the format from another page, and then edited all the information to fit the correct comic. Then I realized I'd forgotten to remove the date of the original page's comic, so I did so. *blushes* No trolling intended, just a newbie mistake. Is 2/7/07 the correct date for this comic? [[User:Ekedolphin|Ekedolphin]] ([[User talk:Ekedolphin|talk]]) 11:23, 28 January 2013 (UTC)
:Oooh. I thought you had gotten the date then removed it after seeing earlier rants concerning omitted dates. You can check a comic's date by clicking on the "All Comics" button in the sidebar on the left. All dates are in YYYY-MM-DD format. '''[[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 11:37, 28 January 2013 (UTC)
::Yep. I see that now, and now that I know it's there, I create new pages straight from [[List of all comics]]. No offense taken. Thanks for the useful advice! [[User:Ekedolphin|Ekedolphin]] ([[User talk:Ekedolphin|talk]]) 05:52, 29 January 2013 (UTC)

== Character names in transcripts ==

Ah, I see now that you've been cleaning up after me, adding character names to transcripts instead of "Man", "Woman", et cetera. Now realizing that's the wiki's standard, I'll endeavor to do that myself from now on. Thanks for your patience with the new guy. [[User:Ekedolphin|Ekedolphin]] ([[User talk:Ekedolphin|talk]]) 07:40, 29 January 2013 (UTC)

:It's k, just doing maintenance. You're really prolific, do you write all of those yourself or are you getting those explanations off the forums somehow? '''[[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 10:38, 29 January 2013 (UTC)

::I write them all myself. It's been some time since I've looked at the xkcd forums, actually. Sometimes I get a little help from Wikipedia when a particular detail escapes me. But you'll notice I don't make an attempt to explain the math ones. *laughs* [[User:Ekedolphin|Ekedolphin]] ([[User talk:Ekedolphin|talk]]) 02:16, 30 January 2013 (UTC)

== My unexplained hobbies. ==

I just want to make sure that you are getting this, but I restored "My Unexplained Hobbies." You can now explain them. [[User:Greyson|Greyson]] ([[User talk:Greyson|talk]]) 14:47, 11 February 2013 (UTC)
:Shweet. '''[[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 00:44, 12 February 2013 (UTC)

I suck at wiki stuff but am a real human - sorry for the confusion. {{unsigned|‎Schmammel}}
:No matter. Also, see the blue box above the talk page edit box for instruction on how to sign your posts. '''[[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 04:55, 19 February 2013 (UTC)

== About your new admin powers ==

Actually just the rollback hammer. I've learned this after being burned a few times.

Rollback will actually not revert just the one edit you are looking at, but will go back until it hits a revision that wasn't done by that user, so its useful for pure spam accounts, but if you're just undoing a single edit, you may still want to use the undo tool.

Also, once or twice I actually had it revert all the way back to the last patrolled edit, which meant it actually got rid of the edits of a few anonymous editors too.

Just a caution that with great power comes great responsibility.

--[[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]]_a ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 04:11, 22 February 2013 (UTC)

:Oh damn, did I do that? Welp. '''[[User:Davidy22|Davidy²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 04:28, 22 February 2013 (UTC)

== Removed Level 2 headings from Discussion page ==

Hi, I noticed you removed the level 2 headings in the discussion of comic 1188. I'm guessing it's the application of some formatting rule established on this wiki, so I'm curious where I can find a list of these standards that I should adhere to, so I don't make such a mistake again in the future. [[User:Jfresen|Jfresen]] ([[User talk:Jfresen|talk]]) 15:10, 20 March 2013 (UTC)

:It's not really a formatting convention, more of a workaround to technical limitations of the wiki. The way discussion pages are embedded into comic pages, headings in talk pages cause breakages when tables of contents are spawned. It's ugly and bad and it's the reason why we delete discussion page headers. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|purple|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 15:33, 20 March 2013 (UTC)

== Captcha help ==

:''This thread was moved to [[explain xkcd:Community portal/Admin requests#Captcha help]].''

== RE: Signature ==

Sweet, thanks David. {{User:Omega/sig}} 14:51, 28 March 2013 (UTC)

== Time is hard... ==

... and not only that, she also is, just like her sister Gravity, a heartless b**** :D
Thanks for taking care! :) [[User:Caranhyas|Caranhyas]] ([[User talk:Caranhyas|talk]]) 09:41, 4 April 2013 (UTC)

== Feedback ==

Hey David. It's nice that you're so responsive to requests such as those at [[Mediawiki talk:Sitenotice]] (or [[explain_xkcd:Community portal/Admin requests#Captcha help|this one]]), but please take also a moment to report the request as completed, as that not only provides feedback to the requester, but is also a reference for the future (which removes the need to dig through the relevant page's history if, for example, one decides to check whether a request ever got implemented), and exemplifies desired behavior for future administrators. Cheers, [[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 21:53, 6 April 2013 (UTC)
:Alright. Was just trying to get through everything quickly, and forgot to reply to those requests. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 23:55, 6 April 2013 (UTC)

== 262 correction: Thanks! ==

Hi there!

Unfortunately, I was not aware that I had incorrectly created the page for xkcd 262. Thanks for fixing that. My only question is whether the page "262" should be redirected to xkcd 262 rather than just showing the deletion template.

Thanks,

[[User:Milar Kayne|Milar Kayne]] ([[User talk:Milar Kayne|talk]]) 07:02, 7 April 2013 (UTC)

:The page "262" and all other pages consisting of only numbers are used internally to handle page linking. You don't really need to worry about them, you just need to know that making explanation pages in those numbered pages is baaad and that the create templates in the [[List of all comics]] will set up everything relevant for you. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 08:14, 7 April 2013 (UTC)

::So all of the xkcd comic pages theoretically "exist" on the site, but not all have connected pages? Also, how do I create a new page from the "All comics" page? Thanks for being so patient--I really want to be able to contribute meaningfully here. [[User:Milar Kayne|Milar Kayne]] ([[User talk:Milar Kayne|talk]]) 20:27, 7 April 2013 (UTC)
::No, we just link to the xckd comic pages. The numbered pages handle links between explanation pages. On the "List of all comics" page, there are (create) buttons next to all the red links; click those to start explaining those comics. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 00:12, 8 April 2013 (UTC)

:::OK thanks for explaining! I'll try to do better next time :). [[User:Milar Kayne|Milar Kayne]] ([[User talk:Milar Kayne|talk]]) 01:36, 10 April 2013 (UTC)

== List of unexplained comics ==

Thanks for the vote of confidence - hoping it'll encourage more contributors! [[User:Sean|Sean]] ([[User talk:Sean|talk]]) 21:50, 22 April 2013 (UTC)

== New sections in comic talk pages ==

Re [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:277:_Long_Light&curid=8457&diff=35146&oldid=35143 this correction] (especially your edit summary!): while there is the "Add topic" tab at the top of talk pages, you'll get new sections added to comic talk pages too.

Perhaps reducing them to ; headings is a better alternative that still marks a new topic.

;Just testing that I have the right formatting character
Yes.

Of course this won't fix the automatically supplied heading from the "Add topic" tab, but then we do still want that functionality in other talk pages, like here...
[[User:Markhurd|Mark Hurd]] ([[User talk:Markhurd|talk]]) 03:25, 26 April 2013 (UTC)

:Ooh, the semicolon does that? You learn something new every day. Noted. There might be a way to change those controls at the top, I'll look into that. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 03:50, 26 April 2013 (UTC)

== Time frames 1008-1014 have an artefact in your upload ==

In your uploads "under the ground" between frames 1008 and 1014 there is a grey horizontal line with unmoving "ticks" while the terrain does change above. This is not reflected in the live hash for the only hash in this range recorded so far. [[User:Markhurd|Mark Hurd]] ([[User talk:Markhurd|talk]]) 10:55, 1 May 2013 (UTC)
:Hrm, I've just been pulling the images from the xkcd site and uploading them straight. Imma check on this. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 11:29, 1 May 2013 (UTC)
::Yeah, it's not just you, the [http://geekwagon.net/projects/xkcd1190/?frame=1014&framediff=1007 geekwagon.net/projects/xkcd1190] has it too. Randall must have had a snafu that he's fixed. [[User:Markhurd|Mark Hurd]] ([[User talk:Markhurd|talk]]) 12:47, 1 May 2013 (UTC)

== Time1190 - but sometimes I also have NO time ==

I did register in here mainly for 1190, I am sure you did see this.
This weekend I will work on a script giving me an easy update for the next day template, for now I am doing manual.

THANKS for your great job on all the other comics!

I just do need more TIME...

And I am not native English, so I am still happy about everyone correcting me.

Archive discussion I did start here [[Talk:1190:_Time]]

--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:29, 10 May 2013 (UTC)
:I actually already have a script to do that. I thought you had made one of your own though when you were filling in for new days, so I was just letting you go ahead with that. Here's my script: [http://pastebin.com/RQGGia3L]. Change the variables at the top of the script, run it and copy/paste the output into the page for time. The fields should be self-evident, but ask me if you have any questions. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 00:38, 11 May 2013 (UTC)

:: Oh, PYTHON - I prefer Perl or just a simple bash script.
:: So I will ask Randall for a translator for Python to Perl ;)
:: And tomorrow I hopefully will have some more time, your script is helpful.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:53, 11 May 2013 (UTC)
:::Just for fun I did the script in PERL. Here is the link: [http://pastebin.com/PG5j56Nv template]--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 19:29, 12 May 2013 (UTC)

== And sometimes I do have time ==
Just tell me what I did do wrong (I will follow you...). I am still new to WIKI syntax, it is still new to me. But I am learning as you can see.
And after all that I will write a Perl Script with a missing close paren...

I like jokes but I also like a clean Wiki here!

--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 23:38, 23 May 2013 (UTC)
:Uh, the explanation for that page is a wee bit thin for the size and complexity of the comic, and it uses terms like the hibbert curve without defining them. It's not enough of an explanation to cover the whole comic. Also, there were a few missing categories and a bunch of trailing spaces in the transcript. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 23:46, 23 May 2013 (UTC)
::"a wee bit thin for the size and complexity of the comic" so sure this is still incomplete (I just did forget to add that template). Oh, and we have so many more complex comics with a need for more explanations. And while I am still not native English, which does mean I have to goooogle fore many memes, I am hoping I can support this wiki. I just try to do my best - any help on me is welcome! --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 00:12, 24 May 2013 (UTC)
:::And I'm pretty sure they're all tagged as incomplete too, so all is well. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 02:17, 24 May 2013 (UTC)

== User talk page deleted? ==

Hey there, apparently my talk page was deleted because the only content on it was "buttsex", which is fine, but I just thought I should let you know that I did not add that ;). Can I restore my talk page blank? --[[User:Mynotoar|Mynotoar]] ([[User talk:Mynotoar|talk]]) 11:39, 25 May 2013 (UTC)
:Yeah, sure, I saw the edit log when I deleted it. Do whatever you want with your user page. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 11:50, 25 May 2013 (UTC)

== Incomplete explanations ==
Hello [[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]], I will stop creating incomplete new pages even when I think it's good idea to have a page for each comic here and work afterwards on all those incomplete ones. The pages [[Help:How to add a new comic explanation]] and [[List of unexplained comics]] should clarify this issue. Furthermore there are many more incomplete comics here not marked as incomplete so you can't find them here: [[:Category:Incomplete explanations|Incomplete explanations]]. I am trying to give my best to support this wiki--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 17:44, 3 June 2013 (UTC)

:One add: I am not a youngster, my first computer was a C64 and the next one was a IBM compatible PC 286 (512 KByte main memory, 20 MByte hard drive). And right now I'm just trying to encourage other people to help here. But I don't want to fight against windmills.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:24, 3 June 2013 (UTC)
::I wasn't making any implication as to your age. It is actually harder to track incomplete articles than nonexistent ones - the wiki has no way of automagically detecting them the way it automatically provides red links for missing explanations. We have the incomplete tag, but people delete it from pages that still haven't quite been explained completely, and I sometimes forget to tag a new incomplete explanation as incomplete. Also, the fact that some incomplete articles exist that are not tagged as incomplete does not justify the creation of more stubs; if you find an unsatisfactory explanation, mark it as incomplete yourself. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 23:15, 3 June 2013 (UTC)

== Various requests ==
Could you delete the spam page [[User:Inkovic]] and block the user who created it? And delete [[Talk:283: Projection]] as well, since it was apparently created by mistake?

Also, [[1225: Ice Sheets]] is still missing a transcript. Could you help add it? And [[266: Choices: Part 3]] and [[267: Choices: Part 4]] lack explanations, but have been removed from the [[List of unexplained comics]]. Should we re-add them to that page, or create some basic explanations for them? --[[User:Oneforfortytwo|Oneforfortytwo]] ([[User talk:Oneforfortytwo|talk]]) 20:19, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

:Incomplete articles are marked as incomplete, we'll deal with all the unsatisfactory articles on this wiki after we have a page for every comic. Still not an excuse to make more stubs, mind you. Did all the rest though. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 22:08, 17 June 2013 (UTC)

Please block spammer 70.50.106.152, he did kill 1190 Time.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 08:53, 18 June 2013 (UTC)
:Looks like a mistake. Not ban-worthy. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 10:24, 18 June 2013 (UTC)
::This was the only edit he/she ever did. I am hoping this will not happen again, that big page was really hard to load.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 10:32, 18 June 2013 (UTC)

The main page needs to be edited, as the recent deletion of the [[List of unexplained comics]] was recently deleted, making the wiki comic count one less than the actual number. Also, could you delete [[Talk:List of unexplained comics]] and [[:File:a matter of some gravity.jpg]]? The former is an orphaned talk page, and the latter was superseded by [[:File:A Matter of Some Gravity.png]]. --[[User:Oneforfortytwo|Oneforfortytwo]] ([[User talk:Oneforfortytwo|talk]]) 20:19, 19 June 2013 (UTC)
:Done. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 02:08, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

I created an explanation for 1228 (Prometheus). What I wrote didn't appear for a few minutes and then when I tried to check why, I found you'd deleted a page, but the text I wrote then appeared where I was expecting it. Your comment on the deletion referred to "a thing on the front page" I should have read. I looked for this "thing", but I've still no idea what I did wrong, or what happened with all the page creation / deletion jiggery pokery. I created the explanation after clicking a box which told me to do so if I wanted to provide / improve the explanation. I apologise for my mistake, but perhaps it would be better not to put boxes on the main page which invite edits if those edits end up in the wrong place? [[Special:Contributions/87.115.172.168|87.115.172.168]] 08:55, 21 June 2013 (UTC)
:I manually create the comic page and set it to show up on the front page usually within an hour of every new xkcd comic. The explanation pages for every comic follow a naming convention, with the comic number followed by the comic name. We also make a few redirects for the wiki to use to make the back/forwards buttons work. In addition to that, every explanation page has a template; note how every other page on this site has a particular look to it. The page that you created didn't follow any of that, so I deleted it and copy/pasted it to the correct location. The thing on the front page that I was referring to was the correct explanation page location that I had created 21 minutes earlier. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 09:06, 21 June 2013 (UTC)
::Thanks for the explanation - quite a manual process! I didn't realise I was creating a page - it looked to me like the page had already been created (which it had, it seems) and I would just be editing the empty section for the explanation. Now I realise that the "please edit" box should have shown up in the editor, perhaps alarm bells should have wrung. Nevertheless, I'm still wondering if it would be better, if possible, to somehow remove or modify the "please edit" box when it appears on the main page so it doesn't create an incorrect new page when one already exists! [[Special:Contributions/87.115.172.168|87.115.172.168]] 09:29, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

Thank You,

[[User:Hopiakuta|hopiakuta DonFphrnqTaub Persina hopiakuta]] ([[User talk:Hopiakuta|talk]]) 09:03, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

There are a couple of xkcd comics that link to an extra image on the site when they are clicked. On this wiki, most of the time, the explanations just contain a direct link to this image. However, sometimes, users upload the secondary images and link to those. This is rather inefficient, especially since some images are too large to be displayed directly after they are clicked on the wiki. So, I was wondering if you could delete the few secondary images from the wiki. They are: [[:File:lakes and oceans large.png]], [[:File:na make it better.png]], [[:File:subways large.png]], and [[:File:lojban translated.png]].

In addition, I suggest that some [[Special:UnusedFiles|unused files]] also be nuked. [[:File:combination vision test fullcolor.jpg]] was superseded by [[:File:combination vision test fullcolor.png]]. [[:File:22 pieces.png]] was uploaded by a user who apparently just wanted to show off his Tetris skills. [[:File:2008 christmas special original.png]] is an xkcd comic before it was updated, which I doubt is necessary to include on the wiki. [[:File:starsmove.png]] doesn't seem to serve any useful purpose. --[[User:Oneforfortytwo|Oneforfortytwo]] ([[User talk:Oneforfortytwo|talk]]) 23:50, 13 July 2013 (UTC)

Na make it better and the translated lojban do add to the comic. The two larger versions of comic images and the junk files have been deleted. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 01:12, 14 July 2013 (UTC)

I think you might have forgotten to delete [[:File:22 pieces.png]]. And [[404: 404 Error]] was created by mistake and also needs to go.

Also, could some admin tackle the issue that involves thumbnails not displaying properly? Dgbrt suggested [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Errors_and_symptoms#Image_Thumbnails_not_working_and.2For_appearing this fix]. Perhaps it could be tried? --[[User:Oneforfortytwo|Oneforfortytwo]] ([[User talk:Oneforfortytwo|talk]]) 16:00, 18 July 2013 (UTC)

:The 404 page needs to exist for the previous/next comic buttons to work properly. It also explains why comic 404 is missing, which may be confusing to some xkcd readers. Mostly the forward/backwards buttons though. The scrap image is gone, and I'm looking into the proposed fix. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 12:21, 21 July 2013 (UTC)
::Nope. The page [[404: 404 Error]] is a duplicate to [[404: Not Found ]]. I just did a redirect there because I can't delete it.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 17:58, 21 July 2013 (UTC)
:::Whoop, deleted. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 23:08, 21 July 2013 (UTC)
::::Thanks, but there is still the discussion page. I did the same redirect there.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 23:26, 21 July 2013 (UTC)

== Spam at 1190 Time ==

Hi, IP 68.100.149.94 is still doing annoying edits here. I do not like that.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 18:38, 22 June 2013 (UTC)

== Su Doku ==
Hi Davidy22, I'm trying to enhance explains. People do read and understand shorter explains more easy, but the link to the details must be always included. I just did add the incomplete tag because my edit is maybe not complete. Everyone is welcome to help. But please keep short as possible, otherwise people won't read.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 13:19, 2 July 2013 (UTC)
:That explanation is hardly too long. Our explanations should be self-sufficient, with the links there just to provide further context on things that we talk about in the explanations. A description of the format of sudoku is an important part of the explanation for comic 74, as the comic deviates from it in a notable way that not all visitors may recognize, be it because they haven't heard of sudoku before or because they aren't particularly familiar with the puzzles. There's a wee difference between cutting information and condensing the wording of a passage, and what you did with that explanation leads further towards cutting content. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 13:45, 2 July 2013 (UTC)
::I prefer explains people will read. The wiki link for Su Doku is already there but I will work on a small explain soon.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 15:07, 2 July 2013 (UTC)
:::What, three full paragraphs is too much for people to read? Three full paragraphs of a complete explanation are better than a paragraph and two sentences of incomplete description? I'd rather we follow the name of the wiki and actually explain the comics. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 15:41, 2 July 2013 (UTC)
::::Read my version completely, I did adopt your hints on explain Su Doku and did some more polish. PLEASE just read before you undo! Tell me what's missing but I still prefer a more simple explain. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 16:10, 2 July 2013 (UTC)
:::::You made a complete explanation incomplete in the name of simplicity. At least you bothered re-adding the relevant information back in post-hoc this time. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 02:03, 3 July 2013 (UTC)

== 1190 Time pictures after major changes ==

Hi,
any ideas to get new file uploads here? After your change we have some silence...--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 00:55, 6 July 2013 (UTC)
:Geekwagon, Aubronwood and many other sites keep archives of past frame hashes. We can look up our last hash and upload all proceeding images here. I did that for the first 500-odd frames, until people started doing it faster than me. I'll probably start again since other editors seem to be on holiday. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 02:43, 6 July 2013 (UTC)
::You did upload all the images manual, is this the new way to do this? I thought your scripts don't like file names like 1234a, 1234b..., so do you not use a bot to upload the images? Further more: Since hashes from other sites do not map to the new naming here I think we have to document them here. But it seems I'm just running against windmills.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 19:01, 6 July 2013 (UTC)
:::Post-hoc scripts; instead of an image archive littered with special cases, scripts need only iterate in numerical order. It's slightly more difficult to upload, but it's a consistent naming scheme for future use. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 02:03, 7 July 2013 (UTC)

== 1190 Time pictures - Do you use a bot or not... ==

...it seems not - why?
Lazy as I am! You're not like this.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:27, 12 July 2013 (UTC)
:I have a script to help with backlog uploads, but then I also manually upload new images while I'm awake and am near my computer. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 05:14, 13 July 2013 (UTC)
::What do you think about a bot? My computer is downloading the images by 24/7 so an upload here should be possible. But first I will start some tests at my local MediaWiki installation.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 12:56, 13 July 2013 (UTC)
:::A bot would be nice. Slashme's Slashbot actually did time image uploads, but he stopped cuz electricity bills or something. We could ask him if he's willing to share. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 13:31, 13 July 2013 (UTC)
::::I am thinking about a bot like ''DgbrtBot''. I never have done this before (WikiBot) but I know the fucking manuals and while Randall does not like Perl I will use this language ;). Tomorrow I will start some tests at my local MediaWiki and then I will need an account for a bot.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 14:53, 13 July 2013 (UTC)

== Outage from Friday to Saturday ==

Did you recognize this, every error was just a "access denied for user ... on database ...". This board was dead for 24 hours.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 23:32, 21 July 2013 (UTC)
:Yep, purged cache to fix it. Not currently in a place with perfect access to internet though, so I'm not quite as fast with that as I usually am. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 01:33, 23 July 2013 (UTC)
::The same happened yesterday. Do you have chronic disk space/quota shortage? --[[User:Chtz|Chtz]] ([[User talk:Chtz|talk]]) 13:13, 25 July 2013 (UTC)
:::Yep. We added a donate button and the sidebar ads when these issues started happening - a few days after time - to buy better hardware. Money comes slow. We could probably stand to upgrade mediawiki and PHP too sometime. Sometime. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 13:43, 25 July 2013 (UTC)

== User RouterIncident and a bunch of templates ==

Hi, I'm hoping you have had nice holidays. We all do need recovery. But it's bad when no active admin is available here.

Please delete that citation template, or just enter a link to [[285: Wikipedian Protester]]. Please delete also this categories: "All articles lacking reliable references" and "Articles lacking reliable references". We still have the incomplete category, that should be enough.

BTW: RouterIncident is maybe also on holiday, no action the last days.
--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 17:04, 28 July 2013 (UTC)

:I could not find these categories you speak of in the page creation log, but citation needed is gone now. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 08:01, 29 July 2013 (UTC)

== Please move some pages and edit the "List of all comics" ==

I can't move pages here, but this should work:

<nowiki>{{comicsrow|1245|2013-07-31|10 Day Forecast}}</nowiki>
*the correct page must be: "1245: 10 Day Forecast"
*the ''title'' must be: "10 Day Forecast"

So I did not save this update because it would result into corrupt links:

<nowiki>xkcd.com/1245 | 10 Day Forecast (create) | number / title / talk | 10_day_forecast.png | 2013-07-31</nowiki>

Please help, or give me the power to do this on my own.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:03, 1 August 2013 (UTC)
:Ooor instead of deviating from the title on xkcd, we could use an excellent feature to the comicsrow template put in by Waldir. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 21:20, 1 August 2013 (UTC)
::Uh, I didn't know this feature.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 08:03, 2 August 2013 (UTC)

== Template:Verification needed ==
This template is unnecessary, please delete it.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 08:03, 2 August 2013 (UTC)
:Please also delete the templates behind this non existing categories:
:*Wikipedia pages with incorrect protection templates‏‎ (2 members)
:*Wikipedia protected templates‏‎ (2 members)
:--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 08:07, 2 August 2013 (UTC)
::Holy dependency hell. Purged the lot. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 12:42, 2 August 2013 (UTC)

Can you nuke [[Talk:404: 404 Error]]? You forgot to delete it when you got rid of [[404: 404 Error]].

Also, any update on the thumbnail issue? They are still not displaying correctly See [[Special:UnusedFiles|unused files]]. --[[User:Oneforfortytwo|Oneforfortytwo]] ([[User talk:Oneforfortytwo|talk]]) 22:03, 9 August 2013 (UTC)
:Deleted. Thumbnails are a bit trickier, seeing as Jeff is the only one who has direct access to the server. Still plugging. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 02:08, 10 August 2013 (UTC)

For some reason, the wiki places the [[Main Page]] in the same categories as the current comic. This should be fixed, as the only category it should belong to is the [[:Category:Root category|root category]]. --[[User:Oneforfortytwo|Oneforfortytwo]] ([[User talk:Oneforfortytwo|talk]]) 16:30, 17 August 2013 (UTC)
:FYI I have answered [[User:Oneforfortytwo]] on [[User talk:Oneforfortytwo|his talk page]]. [[User:Markhurd|Mark Hurd]] ([[User talk:Markhurd|talk]]) 19:01, 17 August 2013 (UTC)

One more thing: Can you edit [[1190: Time]] and remove all links to images after 2973:00? Seeing as there will not be any more of them uploaded, and some of them are showing up on the [[Special:WantedFiles|wanted files page]]. Also, can you restore the deleted image [[File:starsmove.png]]? Originally, I thought there was nowhere to put it, but I realized that I can link to it at [[1190: Time: Pictures]]. --[[User:Oneforfortytwo|Oneforfortytwo]] ([[User talk:Oneforfortytwo|talk]]) 06:04, 20 August 2013 (UTC)
:Done. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 06:51, 20 August 2013 (UTC)

== Time animation—a little help maybe? ==

About the animated Time GIF, I actually prepared one right away at the end, but I haven't been able to get it to upload here, even though it's rather less than the stated size limit, 12 MB out of I think 40 MB. If anyone can suggest what might be going on, I'll be happy to try it out. I did ask in the XKCD forum, but didn't get any help there. Just in case it was a temporary thing, I'll go give it a shot here again after I post this. Wouldn't want to save face or anything if it actually works all of a sudden, after all.—[[User:KarMann|KarMann]] ([[User talk:KarMann|talk]]) 20:03, 20 August 2013 (UTC)

== Clean explains ==

Oh, I did some reverts (undo) today again, I'm not happy:
*Ninja Turtles still belong to NASA
*Bullsh.. sorry
*Duplicate on some chess jokes
*Math
*And math again at some statistics (Increased Risk). <- ok, or (Increased Risk.)
While you do fight against spam, I simply do fight against some similar windmills. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 23:04, 27 August 2013 (UTC)
:Many of these were hamfisted ones that were targeted at one change, and reverted everything else contained in the same edit. Some of them were legitimate, some of them seem to show minimal effort to look at context before you edit. It's getting to the point where it's actually kind of disruptive now. If something is not in your area of expertise, don't revert like you do currently. There's a reason why rollback privileges are not given to all users. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 03:37, 28 August 2013 (UTC)

== 1269: Privacy Opinions‎ ==

This edit war is useless. The add is just '''TL;DR'''. And I'm sure even you did not read it all. Please keep explains as short as possible, otherwise people don't read. For understanding my post read this (read it all, there is a final statement at the bottom):
According to the title, the comic is about “opinions on internet privacy” in general. Six positions are offered as options. Four of the positions are tagged negatively by the author by their subtitles alone: the Crypto Nut, the Conspiracist, the Nihilist, and the Exhibitionist, all of which have negative valences in contemporary English. That the viewer is encouraged to identify negatively with these four positions is further encouraged by the content of the panels, as those characters are depicted either as having such boring lives that they have no need for privacy (the Crypto Nut, the Nihilist), or as being crazy (the Conspiracist, the Exhibitionist).
A fifth position, the Philosopher, is tagged somewhat ambivalently by the author: Megan is depicted as boring her interlocutor, yet in the title text, the author admits that he is usually the Philosopher. Also, “Philosopher” in vernacular English is neutrally valenced, potentially having the ability to expound either wisdom (sophia) or sophistry. It is also a synonym for Sage, the sixth position. As the author condones his own movement from Philosopher to Sage, he thus indicates that the Philosopher is to be viewed negatively, even if it is a tempting position to hold.
The title of the sixth position, the “Sage”, is positively valenced in contemporary English, and the author in the title text states that once he obtains a “burrito” – i.e., a “real” thing, he switches from the Philosopher to the Sage. The internal evidence presented thus far therefore is entirely consistent; the author encourages the reader to identify with the Sage.
By presenting five negatively tagged positions followed by a positively tagged sixth and final one, the author follows a rhetorical commonplace of listing and refuting a number of positions one by one, concluding with the favored and best one, which is not refuted and should be accepted both on its own merits and by virtue of being the last one standing. The comic therefore implies that no other (significant) positions exist.
Having completed the rhetorical analysis of the comic, we are now in a position to understand the meaning of “Internet Privacy”.
Panels #3 and 5 directly reference the American NSA. Panel #5’s “exhibitionist” also references Google, but the characters in the panel appear to be NSA agents (one wears an official cap and they are viewing the exhibitionist on an official, government-looking monitor). Likewise, the focus of the “Nihilist” is that the joke is on the people who gather the data, rather than those who are subsequently able to make use of it (such as Facebook’s users rather than "Facebook" itself; i.e., Facebook's employees and, by extension, its advertisers). The content of the actual data is only mentioned in panels #2, 4, and 5, and in each panel, it is suggested that it is meaningless or trivial. The Sage underscores the notion that any data known about him does not bother him, and therefore must be meaningless or trivial. The reader is thus encouraged to believe that it does not actually matter whether others discover personal data abou t him/her.
The comic is therefore what social theorists call *reductive*, because it reduces the range of possibilities of “Opinions on Internet Privacy” to an artificially and simplistically narrow subset; in this case, individuals concerned with government or corporate agencies using data that they have gathered on individuals, and the futility of worrying about such things. The comic does not admit the possibility of other “opinions on internet privacy” – namely, that individuals might have legitimate concerns with governmental or corporate uses of their data, let alone other individuals’ access to data that is assembled and distributed by corporations such as Facebook. The comic likewise does not consider the possibility of individuals having more interesting lives than the characters depicted, and therefore very real concerns about their privacy due to the activities that they engage in that are potentially more career limiting (should they be discovered) than obsessing about cryptography or eating a burrito.
The comic is “functionally” reductive, as opposed to “intentionally” reductive, because the reduction is the function or effect of the comic for readers who read it straightforwardly (such as the poster who claimed it was “about” Edward Snowden), whether or not the author intended this reduction to occur. There is not enough internal evidence in the literary text (i.e., the comic) to maintain that the author intentionally excluded other viable opinions on internet privacy; it could be that they are just not on his radar. For example, we do not have enough information in the comic to claim that the author is against civil rights; it could be simply that he doesn’t often think about them. Likewise, it would exceed the evidence of the comic to claim that the author believes that schoolteachers who use the internet to facilitate legal but frowned-upon sexual behaviors should lose their jobs if they are found out due to internet privacy breaches; it could be that the author simply hasn’t bothered to worry about these matters if they don’t affect him personally. This adjudication – whether the comic is “intentionally” reductive or not – may only be made on the basis of external evidence; that is, data known about the author from sources beyond this comic.
Use of such external evidence – historical, personal, psychological information about an author – is valid in determining the meaning of an author’s text, and is increasingly viable due to the accessibility of information about an individual on the internet today.
Additional observations about the comic follow.

And when you did complete all that readings maybe you can summarize it, just in a way a reader would read.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 18:15, 29 September 2013 (UTC)
:PRO TIP: explainxkcd is not guessxkcd.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 18:19, 29 September 2013 (UTC)
::I did actually read it, and goes well past merely defining words in the comic. It covers writer's craft and all of it is derived from valid analysis of text from the comic. There's maybe a couple of excess words that I edited out, but length is not a bad thing. I read it the first time, and it was a valuable analytical contribution to the explanation; I question the value of flat-out reverting major edits that significantly improve pages. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 18:33, 29 September 2013 (UTC)
:::First sentence is mapped to the title, the TL;DR section is at the bottom. OK?--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 19:10, 29 September 2013 (UTC)
::::Uh, you cut the passage in half and split it up when it was referring back on itself? And you're accusing me of not bothering to read it? '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 19:26, 29 September 2013 (UTC)
:::::Uh, Oh, Ahh, I did not delete any content, I just asked about improvements. Read my comments, still much smaller than this adds.
:::::Are you happy when people do not visit this site again because the explain is bullshit? TL;DR... I still prefer articles people will read.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:49, 29 September 2013 (UTC)
::::::I know you didn't delete anything. You cut it down the middle and pasted half the passage at the end of the article, with little regard for flow or structure. That's not a valuable edit, even if it's a smaller change than the initial passage addition. Having short explanations is not worth cutting out valuable information. Cutting out content that's irrelevant to the comic, yeah. Cutting out false relations and waffle, that's fine. Don't cut out well-written analysis.
::::::Also, I'm noticing concurrent issues being raised against your edits again. Consider editing and working on top of edits instead of straight reverting them, and avoid antagonistic language. You already have one warning from the last time this happened. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 21:59, 29 September 2013 (UTC)
:::::::I still disagree. The list of panel explains is overruled by a massive amount of text before. This is still not a helpful explanation.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 06:58, 30 September 2013 (UTC)
::::::::It's not a helpful explanation for those incapable of reading or scanning a sizeable passage of text. It contains all the relevant information in a coherent and laid-out manner, with a bullet pointed list to draw attention to the frame-by-frame explanations for those who want to skip the intention and analysis. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 07:26, 30 September 2013 (UTC)

== Advertising ==

My Firefox AddOn NoScript did block the external page "projectwonderful.com". The untrusted picture [http://www.projectwonderful.com/img/uploads/pics/91967-1378268302.png] does not belong to "explainxkcd.com". Then clicking the picture brings me to this link: [[explain_xkcd:Advertise_Here]]. But, I still do not see any advertisement here at all, only this "wonderful project world", what's wrong?

I would like to pay here for a link to Randall's store (he doesn't know), but it has to be an internal picture to an external link. A user action is required, ask Randall about this security. External clicks do count, embedded content to external sites is a real insecure solution. Many modern browsers will not allow this. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:51, 1 October 2013 (UTC)
:The image does belong to us, it's just served by project wonderful when no advertisers are currently bidding on us. The word "advertise" used in the link title is in the verb form, not the noun; that page describes how to advertise on our site. That page contains our advertising guidelines and a few links to our project wonderful bidding page. There, you can create an account and bid on any of the four regions we have on offer. Our minimum rate is USD$3.8 per day, and they let you link any image to any site. If you still can't advertise with us, post imgur links to screenshots to show me what you're doing.
:Have you not said in the past that you are an employed software developer? Instead of advertising a site wholly unaffiliated to you, why not ask your boss to try his hand at advertising on explain xkcd? It's cheaper than most advertising outlets, and we have a large and valuable audience for your average technology company. Your company can probably easily muster the ~$15 per day needed to advertise in all our available regions, and the process takes about as long as creating an account on any other site on the internet. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 07:13, 2 October 2013 (UTC)

== A database error has occurred... ==

I did clean the cache, it seems no admin is required to fix this damn problem. Site was down but available now again. I will also talk to JEFF about this.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 14:54, 3 October 2013 (UTC)
: New server coming soon. Hopefully these DB issues will stop... forever. --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 16:39, 25 October 2013 (UTC)

== IP Users ==

I still do not like this mess: [[User:108.162.216.45]] and [[User:50.151.2.168]]. Users have to register for this.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 11:18, 8 November 2013 (UTC)
:No they don't? {{w|User:70.21.5.28}}. The page takes up so little space, it's not worth forcing them to do something they may not want to do. When our IP friend wants an account, they will make that choice on their own. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 16:35, 8 November 2013 (UTC)
::Someone else will use the IP 50.151.2.168 in the future. If that user also likes xkcd and explainxkcd he will find a history he never has done. Still a mess. Nevertheless you can be sure that I never will edit this without admins permission.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:39, 8 November 2013 (UTC)

== Question: — or - ==

You're changing — to -, even while it looks to me like a (typical American) loooong dash at the picture. Original transcript by Randal on [[752]] is "Do you--", so I don't understand some of your latest edits. I'm changing &mdash to — ( on Linux). I did opt for removing the double spaces after a sentence, but is this dash also history? Like miles... --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:01, 22 November 2013 (UTC)
:Eh, I just do it because it's only one character in the original comics. I don't actually have easy access to an mdash on my keyboard when I'm editing, I'll probably bind that to a key for future use. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 00:12, 23 November 2013 (UTC)
::My question was just: Is "—" wrong or not. You know I am German, but my OS and much more programs are running on English. That's because all that translations are just annoying. Nevertheless, at [[752]] the original transcript shows this: "Blonde: Do you--". this should be a long dash. And you did change many &mdash to "—", I just want to understand how to behave on this.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:17, 23 November 2013 (UTC)
:::There isn't really a codified grammatical rule for the length of a dash. It's mostly stylistic, but it seems to be a rather common convention that a short dash is for joining words, and a long mdash is for punctuation dashes. Again though, it's not on the keyboard and the vast majority of people probably don't pay attention to dash length when reading. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 21:41, 23 November 2013 (UTC)
::::You did introduce this in the past, my keyboard gives me on "ALT GR + SHIFT + -" just a "—". but we still have to decide about a rule on this. "-"--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 22:22, 23 November 2013 (UTC)

== Extension:Comments ==

Have you thought about trying [[mw:Extension:Comments|Extension:Comments]]? It was recently updated (July 2013) and looks like it would make commenting the explanations much more user-friendly. Could you make a little experiment to see if it works well? Say, install it so we can test and see if it works well? I'd be willing to help in the conversion of current comments to the new format, and we could even make it a long-term goal to eventually bring back all the comments from the blog :D --[[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 16:24, 23 November 2013 (UTC)
: I did edit the incomplete template, ERROR is not correct. But a hint to the missing reason is great.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:24, 23 November 2013 (UTC)
: From prior experience, the comments plugin does generate a lot of meta-pages with scrambled names that made me prioritize other things over it, but I can totally run it for a few days to see how things go. In a few weeks, my free time will skyrocket and I should be able to install and monitor the plugin then. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 08:40, 24 November 2013 (UTC)
:: Hey Davidy. I wonder if you're able to try this out. If so, let me know how I can help!
:: On the other hand, I am disappointed to hear that the comments extension doesn't integrate neatly with mediawiki. Are you aware of any similar choice that may be better-behaved? --[[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 17:33, 4 March 2014 (UTC)

== New comics BOT ==

I think that BOT is doing the job right now. Maybe there is a possibility to install it on this server, not much but some PERL modules are required, it should work on any OS. Nevertheless since I could see the updates in general did happen at 04:00 UTC I will implement a new script starting at 04:00 UTC, polling again after that again. But since I don't want to poll xkcd too much that poll would stop after fifteen minutes. Then there will be just a five minute schedule, until a new comic is found.

BTW: <nowiki>$text .= "{{comicsrow|$comic_num|$date|$comic_name|$picture_name}}\n"; </nowiki> means I will always add the optional parameter for the picture. Not all picture did work properly in the past, so I decided to include this parameter to get a working picture link on the main page. Any suggestions are welcome. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:50, 26 November 2013 (UTC)
:I have an idea for that, but I have a metric buttload of things that I need to do by the end of this week. I've seen comics come out several hours late so I think polling for four hours would still be apt, and I'm sure Randall's server could handle us polling him a little faster. Having a explanation page up at the same time as a new comic is really huge. I believe I have a solution for the comicsrow problem, but I also don't know Perl. I could probably figure it out in a weekend though. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 01:19, 27 November 2013 (UTC)

== Incomplete tag at main page ==

Am I wrong, or is every new comic complete at the main page in the future? --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 23:16, 9 December 2013 (UTC)
:When we include a comic page on the main page, templates and categories are preserved. While that's good for page layout and the like, it's not so good when we have templates that impart their categories upon the inheriting page, like the incomplete template did. It was tagging the main page as incomplete whenever the newest comic was marked as incomplete. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 23:27, 9 December 2013 (UTC)
::Yezzz, I understand. But presenting a new incomplete page in this way is not good. The counter has to be adjusted. But I'm serious on this and maybe some ''noinclude'' tags may help. While the main page should not be counted, the page it presents, if incomplete or not (<-the problem), should presented at the proper state. My bot will cover any solutions for further uploads. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 23:40, 9 December 2013 (UTC)
:::What counter? The counter on the main page doesn't take into account the main page itself, and the transcluded page is shown in its entirety, save for the discussion page and one category. What's the problem here? '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 00:37, 10 December 2013 (UTC)

== I don't mind about a 24 hour ban... ==

...but after that I did try to do some more talks here:
http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=User_talk:Mrarch&curid=13771&diff=55110&oldid=55109
DELETED!
I'm still the pest here, or what? I'm still hoping you will understand my actions here. I'm working much on the health of this board, talking to Jeff and many more here. And Mrarch just did delete my message. I'm German, so it could happen that I do use a sentence which could be interpreted different to my meanings. BUT: I just want to support this site as much I can do. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 00:49, 13 December 2013 (UTC)
:Oh nuts, didn't see that. I though he was just setting up his own user and talk pages. I'll leave a notice. Also, try to cooperate, and practice your English. There ''are'' a few naunces in his arguments that you're gliding over. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 02:45, 13 December 2013 (UTC)
::And oh nuts, we need some more people to review all the updates here. We have many new people here, doing great edits, but sometimes a correction is needed. I will still do this here, but you can be sure I will be much more polite when an edit-war does happen. I don't mind - xkcd is just fun. That counts! --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 00:26, 14 December 2013 (UTC)

== BOT uploads at the comic list ==

Hi,
I can remove that "Picture.png" add, but I think it's more safe to use this optional parameter. Sometimes upper case and lower case did cause some problems. I'm trying to prevent this by providing the image link my BOT did upload here.

On January 1 my BOT did fail because the picture was not accepted at this Wiki, and my BOT stops on every unexpected error. The BOT doesn't understand Randall and so, when the BOT is running on problems it simply does nothing.

I've had serious problems to connect this site since a few deys, I don't understand why, but my BOT is doing it's job as planed.

Looking forward to some translations...

--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 22:04, 6 January 2014 (UTC)
:Hm? What cases cause it to fail? Imma make this work. In cases of ambiguity, we could always err on the side of caution and include the parameter. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 00:54, 7 January 2014 (UTC)
::The BOT did fail on January 1. because the "PNG" was in fact an "Adobe XMP" format and the upload was rejected by this site. A BOT barely can't handle this unexpected mess. This requires human action and the BOT stops further actions. The optional parameter will be posted anyway; if BOT doesn't fail.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:13, 7 January 2014 (UTC)

== Incompleteness Tag. ==

My browser (Chrome) is showing that 137: Dreams is the incomplete comic of the day. I used the tags there as the page instructed. Did I use them incorrectly? (possibly it was supposed to be in the main page edit instead of the discussion? I am fairly new here)This is the algorithm now. 19:10, 12 January 2014 (UTC)
:The explanation page is already tagged. Tagging the discussion page marks the discussion page as incomplete. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 19:31, 12 January 2014 (UTC)
::I did edit this discussion page with a nowiki marker. And ‎Anomulus please sign your comments in the proper way, it's much more easy to discuss with an user instead of just a date. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 22:41, 12 January 2014 (UTC)

I did move some comics back to the incomplete section, a full explain is still more worth than a 0% ratio here. Nevertheless I am still thinking, not really working, on a German translation. But just because the ratio looks great here I will focus on that translation soon. Stay tuned...--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 23:18, 2 February 2014 (UTC)
:If our numbers are right, a very healthy portion of our visitors should be German and you shouldn't have to be concerned with taking on the entire burden of translation. It's probably good to be conservative with the incomplete tag, it reduces the burden on of research on translators if they only have to change the language. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 23:33, 2 February 2014 (UTC)

== Incomplete Explanation of the Day ==

Some thoughts:
*[[explain xkcd:Incomplete Explanation of the Day]]: No need for the daily update, it's also still at the top.
*[[MediaWiki:Sitenotice]] should contain a link to this: [[:Category:Incomplete explanations|Incomplete explanations]].
--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 18:43, 8 February 2014 (UTC)

:It takes very little extra effort to also update the project page, so I just do it anyways. The incomplete explanation of the day is supposed to be a focusing effort, to finish off one comic at a time. A link to the list of all the incomplete comics wasn't working, which is why I started drawing attention to individual comics in the sitenotice. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 19:55, 8 February 2014 (UTC)
::So tell me what's wrong with this link: [[:Category:Incomplete explanations|Incomplete explanations]]. In my opinion this could be still placed at the top.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:26, 10 February 2014 (UTC)
:::Mostly cuz that didn't work when it was on the main page, and calling attention to specific comics has worked exceedingly well. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 06:57, 11 February 2014 (UTC)
::::I don't understand, there was a similar link in the past.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:13, 11 February 2014 (UTC)
:::::And in the past, that link had almost no effect on the incomplete pages count. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 23:54, 11 February 2014 (UTC)

===I just did remove a typo===
<code>:"1930s" has "Santa Claus is Coming to Town". a</code>

If you can not accept my typo correction on that simple damn "a" I will give up here. And I'm not sorry. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 00:40, 19 February 2014 (UTC)
:In the same edit I removed whitespace from the page, as is not immediately obvious from diffs but can be seen from the edit size numbers. The "a" has been gone in each of my proceeding edits, as you can see in the revision log if you would care to read it. Autoreverting is bad. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 00:57, 19 February 2014 (UTC)

== 1037: Umwelt ==

Hi, I'm sorry. But as my comments did say, some texts maybe helpful; but I can't fix all that layout issues. The individual pictures are still great, some ideas on that edits are nice, but it does not work in the full context. And those massive edits don't give both of us a way to review them all. I just did that revert because it doesn't work. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 22:09, 28 February 2014 (UTC)
:The layout is still broken... I don't like edits without using a preview to verify a proper layout — and I do not like massive edits no one can follow.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 22:22, 28 February 2014 (UTC)
::Image resizing will be fixed soon. Give it at most three weeks. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 01:37, 1 March 2014 (UTC)

== New admin proposal ==

Please take a look [[explain xkcd:Community portal/Admin requests#New admin|here]]. Cheers, [[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 18:36, 4 March 2014 (UTC)

== Template:comic ==

Isn't this just a revert and a freeze to a former revert done by me? Others did play then again on the main page appearance, but changes at this should be only possible for people not experimenting. The entire main page has to be protected. That page isn't a playground.

And on that admin discussions on me: My most posts are related to language, layout, and something — and I still don't like all those esoteric explains on ASSes, PENISpumps, ... But an admin has to work mostly on different issues.

Randall does primarily focus on "romance, sarcasm, math, and language.". Randall does more, so the SEX category is here, but I think we have to focus on the "primarily focus" at the headlines on explain pages first.

My advice here: Do NOT try to enhance well working templates, other statements are much more important.

--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 00:18, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

:It's not quite a revert, he changed how linking works for the first comic page, added jump links to the first and last pages and attempted a few fixes. I just fixed a few omissions that he made. Admin work usually tends to be focused on non-content stuff, yeah, but I feel like those people maybe probably might be right. Innuendo in comics not explicitly mentioning sex exist. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 03:03, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

== Mail send ==

It's still not easy to find important mails, I nearly lost yours but now you got a reply. Your issues needs a test, I will do that soon. And sorry for this three month late reply. Maybe I have been blind, I just found your message today.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 23:46, 17 March 2014 (UTC)
:The site GitHub.com did send a message to me from "David ???(possibly your surname)" but the address was in fact <nowiki>notifications@github.com</nowiki>. So this reply was stupid by me because that mail will never reach you.
:Please send me a notification here because I don't visit that GitHub site on a regular base. Last visit was two or three months ago. It's just a backup for myself and available to everyone who likes.
:Your request could remove links to GIF or JPG files, so I decided to include the picture link always because it does work on that template. Dynamic comics are much more complicated and my BOT stops to post any update here if something went wrong. I'm still thinking about a better logging on that, My idea is still: If the BOT decides not to post chaos here it should save any content for later manual analysis. But that's a big deal because Randall's comics are so different...
:Nevertheless the BOT covers most comics just in time, I know people are happy on this — and when the comic is too sophisticated, it just stops to prevent chaos here.
:--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:41, 18 March 2014 (UTC)

== File:lorenz-new.png ==

Moving this to File:lorenz.png does not work like my former updates, maybe it's some cache on the server. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:31, 3 April 2014 (UTC)
:Huh. I'll have to take a look at that. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 21:45, 3 April 2014 (UTC)
:The file on the server looks right. It'll probably update itself on the caching servers in good time. The distortion is annoying though. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 21:49, 3 April 2014 (UTC)
::Can you clear the cache? The page [[1350]] still looks bad like my former reverted updates. But maybe we use this just a test for the servers. Uploads are easy, but updates are the hell. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 22:08, 3 April 2014 (UTC)
:::Eff it, let's wait on it. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 22:17, 3 April 2014 (UTC)
::::One idea: Try "Lorenz.png" instead of "lorenz.png". While WIKI is mostly case insensitive the servers maybe are. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 22:20, 3 April 2014 (UTC)

== German page ==

Is it still possible to create a German page here? I'm complete (honestly mostly) on my investigations for presenting a proper German page. On a positive reply I will present some more details (maybe screenshots) of my local wiki and a plan on how to bring it up to public. And consider, this would not only be for German readers, we have Austria, Switzerland, and many other parts in Europe. I would be happy to support this, and my BOT would be too. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:37, 30 April 2014 (UTC)

:It's still possible, gonna do it after we clear out all the incomplete pages as promised.'''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 20:44, 30 April 2014 (UTC)

::So then this never would be happen. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:50, 30 April 2014 (UTC)
:::No, because we'll eventually clear out our backlog of old, incomplete articles. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 21:24, 30 April 2014 (UTC)

== /r/xkcd sitenotice ==

May I ask why you've added a sitenotice about /r/xkcd? The /r/xkcd sub is controlled by /u/soccer, who links to racist, xenophobic and misogynistic content regularly. Randall has even spoken in support of a petition for /u/soccer to be removed as a mod (which of course didn't happen because reddit doesn't do that). /r/xkcdcomic is a non-hateful alternative, one that Randall supports, and it has more users than /r/xkcd. [[User:LadyMondegreen|LadyMondegreen]] ([[User talk:LadyMondegreen|talk]]) 13:19, 2 May 2014 (UTC)
:If you look closely at the text and click on the link, you'll see that it actually says and links to xkcdcomic. Also, /r/xkcd is currently at 40000 subs and hit 10000 a few years ago. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 20:38, 2 May 2014 (UTC)
::Hmmm, yeah, I'm not sure how I got that backwards, but I did. Someone pointed it out to me on IRC and I guess I didn't look closely enough. Sorry about that. [[User:LadyMondegreen|LadyMondegreen]] ([[User talk:LadyMondegreen|talk]]) 19:35, 6 May 2014 (UTC)

User talk:Jeff

2014-05-02T13:55:45Z

LadyMondegreen: /* /r/xkcd sitenotice */ new section

User talk:Davidy22

2014-05-02T13:19:37Z

LadyMondegreen: /* /r/xkcd sitenotice */ new section

739: Malamanteau

2013-10-09T02:27:57Z

LadyMondegreen:

{{comic
| number = 739
| date = May 12, 2010
| title = Malamanteau
| image = malamanteau.png
| imagesize =
| titletext = The article has twenty-three citations, one of which is an obscure manuscript from the 1490s and the other twenty-two are arguments on LanguageLog.
}}

==Explanation==
A {{w|malapropism}} is the use of an incorrect word in place of a word with a similar sound, resulting in a nonsensical utterance. An example is {{w|Yogi Berra}}'s statement: "Texas has a lot of electrical votes," rather than "electoral votes".
A {{w|portmanteau}} is a word made-up of two or more combined words and their definitions. For example, motel is a portmanteau, from the words motor and hotel.
Here, Randall uses the word "malamanteau" which is both a portmanteau of "malapropism" and "portmanteau" and a malaprop of "portmanteau". The methods used to create this new word are the very words used in the process. This is called a meta or “self-referential” joke.

"Malamanteau" was originally coined in 2007, when it was proposed by user [http://www.metafilter.com/user/17900 ludwig_van] on [http://www.metafilter.com Metafilter] as a term for language errors like "flustrated" (flustered & frustrated) and "misconscrewed" (misconstrued & screwed). Malamanteau did not appear on LangaugeLog until after this strip.

==Response==
In response to this comic, editors at Wikipedia created a malapropism page. It was deleted multiple times and eventually turned into a redirect to the Wikipedia page for {{w|xkcd}}. Malamanteau and the controversy at Wikipedia got coverage at ''The Economist'' and ''The Boston Globe''.

==Transcript==
:[The strip is set up as the top of a Wikipedia page.]
:((The Wikipedia logo.))
:Wikipedia
:The free encyclopedia
:((Side navigation options.))
:Navigation
:- Main Page
:- Contents
:- Featured Content
:- Current Events
:((Wikipedia header options.))
:Article Discussion Edit this page History
:((The article itself.))
:Malamanteau
:From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
:A malamanteau is a neologism for a portmanteau created by incorrectly combining a malapropism with a neologism. It is itself a portmanteau of ((... the article cuts off.))
:((Below the panel.))
:Ever notice how Wikipedia has a few words it *really* likes?

==External links==
*[http://wiki.xkcd.com/irc/Malamanteau Malamanteau] at the official xkcd wiki
*[http://malamanteaus.blogspot.com/ Malamanteaus], a blog dedicated to the creation and proliferation of malananteaux
*[http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Malamanteau Malamanteau] at urbandictionary.com
*[http://wordsquirt.com/Word/View/Malamanteau/dbb34d48-e565-4012-bcc8-56718f351712 Malamanteau] at wordsquirt.com

==References==
*[http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/index.php?s=malamanteau Entries referencing "malamanteau"] at LanguageLog.com
*Malamanteau Talk Page Archives [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk%3AMalamanteau/Archive_1 1][https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Malamanteau/Archive_2 2] at Wikipedia.com
*[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Malamanteau Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Malamanteau]
*[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Malamanteau_page_history.jpg Screen capture] of the deleted history for the "Malamanteau" page from Wikipedia
*[https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Log&page=Malamanteau Wikipedia Log for "Malamanteau"]
*Beutler, William (May 5, 2010) "[http://thewikipedian.net/2010/05/18/much-ado-about-malamanteau/ Much Ado About Malamanteau]". ''The Wikipedian''
*McKean, Erin (May 30, 2010) "[http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/05/30/one_day_wonder/ One Day Wonder]". ''The Boston Globe''
*R.L.G (Nov 4th 2010) "[http://www.economist.com/blogs/johnson/2010/11/neologisms Eggcorn, mashup, malamanteau or other?]". ''The Economonist''
*July 17, 2007 "[http://ask.metafilter.com/67192/How-to-define-this-language-mistake How to define this language mistake?]" - MetaFilter thread with the first usage

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Wikipedia]]
[[Category:CC-BY-SA comics]]
[[Category:Portmanteau‏‎]]

739: Malamanteau

2013-10-09T02:24:04Z

LadyMondegreen: mondegreen tackles malamanteau. can it get anymore meta than that?

{{comic
| number = 739
| date = May 12, 2010
| title = Malamanteau
| image = malamanteau.png
| imagesize =
| titletext = The article has twenty-three citations, one of which is an obscure manuscript from the 1490s and the other twenty-two are arguments on LanguageLog.
}}

==Explanation==
A {{w|malapropism}} is the use of an incorrect word in place of a word with a similar sound, resulting in a nonsensical utterance. An example is {{w|Yogi Berra}}'s statement: "Texas has a lot of electrical votes," rather than "electoral votes".
A {{w|portmanteau}} is a word made-up of two or more combined words and their definitions. For example, motel is a portmanteau, from the words motor and hotel.
Here, Randall uses the word "malamanteau" which is both a portmanteau of "malapropism" and "portmanteau" and a malaprop of "portmanteau". The methods used to create this new word are the very words used in the process. This is called a meta or “self-referential” joke.

"Malamanteau" was originally coined in 2007, when it was proposed by user [http://www.metafilter.com/user/17900 ludwig_van] on [http://www.metafilter.com Metafilter] as a term for language errors like "flustrated" (flustered & frustrated) and "misconscrewed" (misconstrued & screwed). Malamanteau did not appear on LangaugeLog until after this strip.

==Response==
In response to this comic, editors at Wikipedia created a malapropism page. It was deleted multiple times and eventually turned into a redirect to the Wikipedia page for {{w|xkcd}}. Malamanteau and the controversy at Wikipedia got coverage at ''The Economist'' and ''The Boston Globe''.

==Transcript==
:[The strip is set up as the top of a Wikipedia page.]
:((The Wikipedia logo.))
:Wikipedia
:The free encyclopedia
:((Side navigation options.))
:Navigation
:- Main Page
:- Contents
:- Featured Content
:- Current Events
:((Wikipedia header options.))
:Article Discussion Edit this page History
:((The article itself.))
:Malamanteau
:From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
:A malamanteau is a neologism for a portmanteau created by incorrectly combining a malapropism with a neologism. It is itself a portmanteau of ((... the article cuts off.))
:((Below the panel.))
:Ever notice how Wikipedia has a few words it *really* likes?

==External links==
*[http://wiki.xkcd.com/irc/Malamanteau Malamanteau] at the official xkcd wiki
*[http://malamanteaus.blogspot.com/ Malamanteaus], a blog dedicated to the creation and proliferation of malananteaux
*[http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Malamanteau Malamanteau] at urbandictionary.com
*[http://wordsquirt.com/Word/View/Malamanteau/dbb34d48-e565-4012-bcc8-56718f351712 Malamanteau] at wordsquirt.com

==References==
*[http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/index.php?s=malamanteau Entries referencing "malamanteau"] at LanguageLog.com
*[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk%3AMalamanteau/Archive_1 Malamanteau Talk Page Archive] at Wikipedia.com
*[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Malamanteau Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Malamanteau]
*[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Malamanteau_page_history.jpg Screen capture] of the deleted history for the "Malamanteau" page from Wikipedia
*[https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Log&page=Malamanteau Wikipedia Log for "Malamanteau"]
*Beutler, William (May 5, 2010) "[http://thewikipedian.net/2010/05/18/much-ado-about-malamanteau/ Much Ado About Malamanteau]". ''The Wikipedian''
*McKean, Erin (May 30, 2010) "[http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/05/30/one_day_wonder/ One Day Wonder]". ''The Boston Globe''
*R.L.G (Nov 4th 2010) "[http://www.economist.com/blogs/johnson/2010/11/neologisms Eggcorn, mashup, malamanteau or other?]". ''The Economonist''
*July 17, 2007 "[http://ask.metafilter.com/67192/How-to-define-this-language-mistake How to define this language mistake?]" - MetaFilter thread with the first usage

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Wikipedia]]
[[Category:CC-BY-SA comics]]
[[Category:Portmanteau‏‎]]

explain xkcd:Community portal/Proposals

2013-10-09T01:33:48Z

LadyMondegreen: /* references */ new section

<noinclude>{{Community portal}}</noinclude>

== Add unexplained strips ==

At the moment, browsing through the explanations using the previous and next buttons is interrupted whenever there's an explanation missing.

I think adding a page with the strip fr all of those with a short message like "no one has explained this yet, want to give it a shot?" would make the wiki easier to browse through and will get more strips explained faster.

:I don't think that would happen. If suddenly it was much easier for people to skip over pages that had no explanation, I think they would do exactly that, skip right over it. On the same side of that coin, If suddenly there are no longer any red links on the [[List of all comics]] then everyone perusing that page assumes that all the comics have been explained and don't need to contribute any more. It's astonishing how quickly an [[589: Designated Drivers|embedded]] red link gets an explanation page created simply to get rid of the red link.

:Secondarily, ''many'' of the pages created recently aren't being created with their numerical and titular redirects. Without the numerical redirect, the comic template can't find that there is a previous/next comic to link to. Every once in a while somebody will go through and try to notice all the pages that don't have their redirects created but it's an unscientific process that only happens occasionally. If we could get every joe blow that comes in and vomits up a poorly done explanation to create the redirects I wouldn't be quite as annoyed at their lack of show-don't-tell-manship. But, since they can't be bothered to put the date in the comic template, I doubt we'll ever get people to create the redirects.

:'''TL;DR:''' No more red links, no more work gets done on the back catalog.

:--[[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]]_a ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 14:28, 21 December 2012 (UTC)

== xplainkcd.com ==

When I first saw this site I thought it should definitely be at xplainkcd.com or at least redirect from that url {{unsigned|115.166.22.158|12:45, 3 January 2013 (UTC)}}

: I like that idea! --[[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 13:28, 3 January 2013 (UTC)

:Yeah! If it's possible, it would be cool! At least as a redirect. -- [[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 15:46, 3 January 2013 (UTC)

== Section style and usage ==

I am new here and I'm trying to get up to speed with the culture. I have a few questions about how and where to use sections (== this ==). I am more willing to go with (and enforce) whatever norms there are here, but I have not seen them actually discussed.

# '''Is it OK to create sections in Discussion pages?''' I have been told no, but there are many examples extant of this usage in this Wiki and indeed in Wikipedia.
# '''Section title case''' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style/Capital_letters#Acronyms Wikipedia's style guide] recommends sentence case, not title case. There are many title cased section headers here.
# '''Links''' I do not have a reference for this but it seems to me putting links in section code (== [[<nowiki>this</nowiki>]] == ) is bad form.

Last note -- it's understood if these bylaws have not yet been written. I can see that a few of you have made a huge personal investment to make this Wiki what it is today, and that is a credit to you all -- this is awesome! As a long-time aficionado of xkcd I applaud your work and look forward to further collaboration.
--[[User:Smartin|Smartin]] ([[User talk:Smartin|talk]]) 04:15, 4 January 2013 (UTC)

:As a general rule, we stick to the standard format that existing pages follow, with an optional trivia section below the transcript. Some zealous editors like to add other sections though, which tend to be for the most part unneeded or redundant. If something you want to add doesn't help to explain the comic in some way, but the inclusion of which would somehow still add to the page, *and* it doesn't fall under the trivia category, a new section is warranted. This isn't the case most of the time though, so editors usually fold the content of extraneous sections into "Explanation" or "Trivia." We have no policy on links in titles, and they're allowed so long as they are appropriate; the link is useful and can't be folded into the section itself. And we use title case for titles cuz it just makes sense. '''[[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 05:08, 4 January 2013 (UTC)

:We generally do not (or at least, discourage) use sections on the talk/discussion pages for explanation pages. This is purely for looks. The comic discussion section of the explanation page looks/feels wrong if there are level 2 section breaks in the transclusion. Also, if the [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Table_of_contents Table of Contents] starts showing up on a page, such as on [[Click and Drag]] the sections created on the talk page also show up in the TOC. This gets confusing, and this is why we prefer not to use them on explanation talk pages. Everywhere else we follow standard wiki format and do use sections on the discussion pages.

:Personally, I think that links in section titles looks wrong, but I choose not to be the dictator of style in this matter. :p

:Please feel free to make edits. The worst that happens is someone reverts your edit. If it's a big enough issue and/or you don't seem to be learning from what people are fixing about your edits someone will leave a comment on your talk page. That's it. We might leave a nasty-gram in the edit summary, but oh well. We only ban for malicious intent. Honestly working to better the wiki is good, even if sometimes we grumble about it.

:--[[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]]_a ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 07:00, 4 January 2013 (UTC)

::Oh, I just looked at your talk page. I completely forgot that that happened. Don't worry about it. Learning the ropes is part of the experience. Do make edits, and if they're wrong, we'll nudge you in the right direction. [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]]_a ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 07:18, 4 January 2013 (UTC)

I have been moving some trivia sections to directly below the explanation, in order to make it more consistent, and easier to survey and maintain. Often the dividing line between trivia and explanation is not entirely clear, and in articles without a trivia section the end of the explanation very often contains trivia-like information. (e.g. [[1155: Kolmogorov Directions]]) -- [[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 10:13, 4 January 2013 (UTC)
===Title case doesn't make any sense===
At first sight title case in titles just makes sense. However title case '''never''' makes sense. It's worse than all caps. Besides, only Americans and children like title case. [[Special:Contributions/190.96.48.48|190.96.48.48]] 20:04, 10 August 2013 (UTC)

== Protip ==

Anyone for adding ''Protip'' as a [[:Category:Comic series|Comic series]]. I have found five so far: [[653]], [[711]], [[1022]], [[1047]] and [[1156]]. (There are also a few comics with a protip title text.) -- [[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 10:25, 4 January 2013 (UTC)

:I think that qualifies as a recurring topic (thus worthy of a category), but not as a series, where you can see a clear sequence. In fact, [[:Category:My Hobby|My Hobby]] has the same limitation, for what I suggest it to be removed from [[:Category:Comic series]]. --[[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 11:42, 4 January 2013 (UTC)

::Seconded. Looks general and common enough to be a category. '''[[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 14:57, 4 January 2013 (UTC)

:::Okay, great! Do you think that the ones with a "protip:" title text should be included? Besides, I think I might be the one responsiple for moving My Hobby from [[:Category:Comics by topic|Comics by topic]] to Comic series. I felt that all the My Hobby comics were about different topics, but maybe i've got to narrow an interpretation of the word "topic". -- [[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 15:31, 4 January 2013 (UTC)

:::: Can you link to the protip-in-title-text comics?
:::: As for My Hobby, note that categories aren't mutually exclusive. They can be in the "my hobby" topic, and each of them further categorized as appropriate: music, math, etc. Makes sense? --[[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 03:45, 5 January 2013 (UTC)
:::: I just searched for protip in the xkcd search bar. Here: [[1084]], [[427]]. And yes, makes sense. I've moved My Hobby back to "by topic". -- [[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 12:06, 5 January 2013 (UTC)

== Category: Sports ==

How about creating a new "Sports" category? [[User:Ekedolphin|Ekedolphin]] ([[User talk:Ekedolphin|talk]]) 15:31, 28 January 2013 (UTC)
:Well, maybe. Everyone aren't so keen on new categories here. Which comics are you thinking of, for a start? –[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 20:32, 28 January 2013 (UTC)
::We definitely need to reach an agreement as a community on when to create new categories. Something simple like a minimum of 3 (or, say, 5) existing comics. Since we're already at the proposals' portal... what do you guys think about that? --[[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 21:44, 28 January 2013 (UTC)
:::My opinion: Five would be enough to qualify. [[User:Ekedolphin|Ekedolphin]] ([[User talk:Ekedolphin|talk]]) 09:31, 29 January 2013 (UTC)
::::I vote for four. But it should also be a reasonable thing to categorize, like sports, not like "sports with Cueball containing at least three anagram words". Wich sholdn't be a problem. :) But the best name choice could be tricky sometimes. e.g. "Film & television", Film & TV", "Film", "Films", or "Movies"? –[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 12:59, 29 January 2013 (UTC)
:::
::::Agreed, five should be enough to create the category without having to discuss it. - [[User:Cos|Cos]] ([[User talk:Cos|talk]]) 00:50, 26 February 2013 (UTC)
: OK, let's start with [[588: Pep Rally|588]], [[1092: Michael Phelps|1092]], [[904: Sports|904]] and [[1107: Sports Cheat Sheet|1107]]. Should be able to find a few more. [[User:Ekedolphin|Ekedolphin]] ([[User talk:Ekedolphin|talk]]) 05:00, 29 January 2013 (UTC)
::Yeah, it's a broad subject so there are probably several more. -[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 12:59, 29 January 2013 (UTC)
:::I found another one, sort of, in [[929:Speculation|929]] (although it hasn't been explained yet). Should I get the ball rolling (no pun intended) on setting up the category? Don't wanna do it unilaterally and get yelled at. ;) [[User:Ekedolphin|Ekedolphin]] ([[User talk:Ekedolphin|talk]]) 06:18, 30 January 2013 (UTC)
::::I think you should. On a wiki, getting stuck in discussions which die without a conclusion, to the point that motivated people give up without having done anything, is definitely counter-productive, and phrases like [[wikipedia:Wikipedia:Be bold|Wikipedia:Be bold]] are here to remind us of that. Seems like people agreed that you ''could'', and after a while nobody said that you ''shouldn't'', so I'd say do it. - [[User:Cos|Cos]] ([[User talk:Cos|talk]]) 00:50, 26 February 2013 (UTC)

== Category: Sex ==

I think we should also create a Sex category. There's no ''doubt'' we can find more than three examples. I'll start looking for them and post the ones I find in here; again, I don't wanna create a large category by myself without community consent. [[User:Ekedolphin|Ekedolphin]] ([[User talk:Ekedolphin|talk]]) 09:20, 2 February 2013 (UTC)
*OK, the ones for Category: Sex that I've found so far are [[443]], [[219]], [[550]], [[1026]], [[575]], [[468]], [[592]], [[320]], [[1101]], [[417]], [[713]], [[672]], [[230]], [[436]], [[940]], [[532]], [[649]], [[176]], [[1006]], [[596]] and [[717]], and I'm sure there are many more. Should we create this category? [[User:Ekedolphin|Ekedolphin]] ([[User talk:Ekedolphin|talk]]) 23:17, 3 February 2013 (UTC)

:Same as [[#Category: Sports|above]], do it. Oh, already did; well, all the better. - [[User:Cos|Cos]] ([[User talk:Cos|talk]]) 00:53, 26 February 2013 (UTC)

==New character==
As per [[Talk:1178: Pickup Artists]], the character with hair has appeared in quite a few comics now, and he's starting to become a recurring character. Shall we go ahead with inaugurating him into our list of regular characters, and what name shall we assign him? Current candidate names include Hairy and Harry. Anyone? '''[[User:Davidy22|Davidy²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 00:07, 26 February 2013 (UTC)

: I like Harry :) --[[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 01:04, 26 February 2013 (UTC)
::Cos made a point in the discussion on [[Talk:1178: Pickup Artists]] that Hairy is directly descriptive, whereas Harry is not obvious to visitors. On the other hand, not all names are descriptive ([[Danish]]) and I think this wiki is entitled to create some xkcd-in-culture, and not just describe. And Harry is quite funny.
::I wonder: has [[Randall]] ever called him anything at all in the transcript? –[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 21:52, 26 February 2013 (UTC)
:::Well, he's not named in a any official transcripts, but he's already called Harry in quite a few comic explanations. Then again, I do like having a more descriptive name for him. Shall we hold this up to a vote? '''[[User:Davidy22|Davidy²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 23:29, 26 February 2013 (UTC)
::::I think we should wait a little for a few more viewpoints to crop up. Also, can someone link to some more comics he's been featured in? I've got [[1028: Communication]], [[1027: Pickup Artist]] and [[1178: Pickup Artists]]. –[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 23:41, 27 February 2013 (UTC)
:::::I actually like what that anon said: ''Curly''. Second choice: Hairy (being descriptive, a la Black Hat, Beret, Cueball, etc.) While there's talk about in-culture, we've done that with the names Cueball, Beret, etc. It's my opinion that the only names that should be "real" proper names are those that are named in the comic. Megan, Miss Lenhart, etc. Danish (as is discussed below) isn't truly a proper name, but you could argue it's a meta-description (one attributed by Black hat.) So that's my vote: yes for '''Curly''' or '''Hairy''', no for Harry. [[User:IronyChef|IronyChef]] ([[User talk:IronyChef|talk]]) 05:21, 2 March 2013 (UTC)
:::That's right, [[Danish]] is not descriptive, but 1/ that name was suggested because the character [[515: No One Must Know|was called that way in the comic]], which is a tiny bit like a name given by the author (at least more than Harry which we have completely made up), and 2/ in that case it's hard to find a descriptive term: use something that revolves around her black hair (her only descriptive feature), and you easily mix up with [[Megan]]; the only graphical difference is that her hair is ''long'', but what kind of name can you make out of that?
:::For this new character, I suggest Hairy because it comes as the easy solution with every advantage: descriptive, easy to understand, and it's not ugly... I actually see no reason to resort to a made-up name like Harry.
:::[[User:Cos|Cos]] ([[User talk:Cos|talk]]) 22:29, 27 February 2013 (UTC)

: '''Alright. So the discussion's been had, and the most oft recommended name appears to be Hairy. All in favor, say aye. If more than 1/3 of editors agree and we have more than 6 votes, Hairy it is.''' '''[[User:Davidy22|Davidy²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 05:58, 2 March 2013 (UTC)
:# '''Aye''' '''[[User:Davidy22|Davidy²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 05:58, 2 March 2013 (UTC)
:# '''Aye''' [[User:Guru-45|Guru-45]] ([[User talk:Guru-45|talk]]) 06:14, 2 March 2013 (UTC)
:# '''Aye''' to Hairy. [[User:IronyChef|IronyChef]] ([[User talk:IronyChef|talk]]) 15:43, 2 March 2013 (UTC)
:# '''Aye'''. Harry would be a nice nod to the fact that he's actually hairy, but indeed it's better to avoid inside jokes. --[[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 17:05, 2 March 2013 (UTC)
:# '''Aye'''. I'm convinced! –[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 17:52, 3 March 2013 (UTC)
:# '''Aye'''. Hairy. [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]]_a ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 20:52, 3 March 2013 (UTC)
::Hooray! We now have a [[:Category:Comics featuring Hairy]], with four pages already! Does anyone feel compelled to create "[[Hairy]]", with a brief description and a nice profile pic like the other characters? –[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 22:58, 3 March 2013 (UTC)

== Ambiguous characters ==

I've been thinking about the problem of the ambiguity of characters. "Is this really Cueball even though he has an eye and half a nose?", "This is very likely ''not'' x." "Darnit, these arn't Cueballs, these are Randall and his friends!", and so on. The character ambiguity is standard for xkcd (not less so in the early ones), and comes from the very loose or "free" way Randall uses his characters to be whatever he needs at the moment. It's simply often impossible for us to know whether he had e.g. "Cueball" or himself in mind, when drawing a particular comic (and I'd say: probably often both).

I want to suggest that we in general have a likewise rather loose policy towards including characters in the categories for the comics. So that reasonably ambiguous cases should be included in e.g. [[Category: Comics featuring Ponytail]] (does she have a ponytail?) This is not because I believe this or that to really be this or that; I just don't believe in objective truth (here!). I feel that when doing research :) on a character, the borderline cases are often the most interesting ones, and you want to be able to find them through the "Comics featuring miss x"!

I came to think this through now, when I wanted to (and did) list two comics with [[Miss Lenhart]] (?) where she was drawn but not named. Any thoughts on this in general? Other case studies? –[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 21:17, 5 March 2013 (UTC)
:My take has always been that [[Cueball]], for example, has not been a specific character. There is not ''a'' cueball, per se, distinct from any other cueball... indeed, there are several comics with several cueballs in-frame, and that is the point. I see the cueball character as a wildcard character (pun intended) ready to stand in for anybody (and ''not'' necessarily just Randall; I think those readers who suggest "this ''is'' Randall" are missing the point; he's way more META than that...) [[Megan]], while slightly less generic, still remains the female wild-card significant-other, while Curls seems to be a not-significant-other female used to illustrate a relationship that is transient. Other characters come and go, and when it's important to visually distinguish them from others in the frame, they're given additional characteristics, to wit [[Hairy]], [[Ponytail]], etc.
:Unfortunately, that viewpoint is not commonly held, so I daresay I'm in the minority here.
:-- [[User:IronyChef|IronyChef]] ([[User talk:IronyChef|talk]]) 14:18, 6 March 2013 (UTC)

== Note at the top, about the server error ==

:''This thread was moved to [[MediaWiki talk:Sitenotice]]''

== Category: Flowcharts ==

Hello, the line "Randall has made use of flowcharts before." in today's comic explanation made me want a [[:Category:Flowcharts|flowcharts category]] to navigate into...

As it didn't exist, I proceeded to create it, but as the log says, [[User:lcarsos|lcarsos]] deleted such a category in November, saying ''"Insufficient differentiation from Category:Comics with charts, diluting the depth of comics tagged charts"''.

I don't agree with that, and I think we could profit from such a subcategory. I found those pages fitting it:
* [[94: Profile Creation Flowchart]]
* [[210: 90's Flowchart]]
* [[488: Steal This Comic]]
* [[627: Tech Support Cheat Sheet]]
* [[844: Good Code]]
* [[851: Na]]
* [[854: Learning to Cook]]
* [[1195: Flowchart]]

So? - [[User:Cos|Cos]] ([[User talk:Cos|talk]]) 10:59, 5 April 2013 (UTC)
:Weell if you're willing to take charge of the category and personally make sure it's added to all relevant comic explanations, go ahead. The usual objection to making new categories is that we admins can't remember all the categories when we're reviewing new explanations, but it's K if you're willing to take up that responsibility yourself. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 11:17, 5 April 2013 (UTC)
:
:: OK. I did it without waiting for further replies, because I think it will be especially profitable today (to viewers).
:: It doesn't seem a big issue to me if the correct category is not added when a new explanation is made: a passing editor will do it later on... But hey, I'm OK with taking special care of adding pages to this category.
:: [[User:Cos|Cos]] ([[User talk:Cos|talk]]) 12:28, 5 April 2013 (UTC)

::: I just want to add that Cos' view is indeed the appropriate way to work in wikis: there is no concept of a single author for a page, category, or piece of text, and the workload is meant to be distributed among several editors: it is not necessary that any single editor remembers all existing categories, or knows the wiki markup by heart, or knows how to work with all the features of mediawiki, etc. The reason why wikis can be edited by anyone is precisely a recognition that there *will* be errors and any page can be improved somehow. That reasoning against categories should, IMO, be abandoned, or at most only kept as the opinion of some editors. --[[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 22:00, 6 April 2013 (UTC)

Isnt there a page which lists all the categories? If not, there should be one, and it should be accessible to all. Such a page could be useful when trying to quick-add categories to comics. [[Special:Contributions/117.194.83.155|117.194.83.155]] 13:43, 24 April 2013 (UTC)
:Yes, there is. [[Special:Categories]]. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 14:07, 24 April 2013 (UTC)
::Of course, there's a gazillion of 'em, over several pages, so I understand any reluctance to add new categories (having just suggested a new one myself which I feel is justified, but knowing that the upkeep needed may be the key point of contention so remaining philosophical about it).
::A solution perhaps to carry over from another locale that I frequent is to have a "Categories of Character" page, a "Categories of Object" one, perhaps "Categories of Event", and a "Categories of Publication". For each new comic someone can easily check the shorter Character categories list against those present, the Object list against itemsin use, Events, etc, and of course the Publication one has the "Tuesday Comic"/equivalent, and other date-based ones (although isn't that automatic from templated creation? ...never added a comic, but would imagine it is). After that it's a trawl through the miscelania categories (perhaps a meta-category just for them?). But, yeah, a lot of work to set up. Wouldn't wish it on anyone who wasn't already willing to do it, and I remain an anon-IP person right now so can hardly commit ''myself'' as volunteer maintainer of this. [[Special:Contributions/178.98.31.27|178.98.31.27]] 17:20, 22 June 2013 (UTC)

== I've removed "add a comment!" from Discussion heading ==

This does move it to above the line, and the rule stops early. Undo my change if that's more bothering than when the TOC is displayed as "add a comment!Discussion"...

I don't know how to automatically treat level 2 headers as level 3. That may be why Discussion was a level 1 heading earlier.
[[User:Markhurd|Mark Hurd]] ([[User talk:Markhurd|talk]]) 11:16, 14 April 2013 (UTC)
:Actually I now noticed there was a short edit war at {{tl|comic discussion}} over whether it should be a level 1 heading, just for this reason. [[User:Waldir]] seems to have conceeded... [[User:Markhurd|Mark Hurd]] ([[User talk:Markhurd|talk]]) 11:25, 14 April 2013 (UTC)

:: No edit war, hence no (intentional) concession. I reverted a change once, and didn't notice the change being re-implemented by another user. In any case, it is irrelevant now since we actively discourage using headers in talk pages precisely so that they don't display in the TOC for the main comic page, where the discussion page is transcluded to (see the discussion [[#Section style and usage|above]]). This might not scale well for comics that generate lots of discussion. It might be worth discussing our customs (and perhaps write them down somewhere) before performing such changes. What do others think? --[[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 11:49, 14 April 2013 (UTC)

== Time: The Table ==

Right now on the page [[1190: Time]], we have a whole bunch of tables in the form image-time-hash. The tables take up heaps of vertical space and all have to be collapsed to even be remotely traversible. I propose that we aggregate all the images into one table after Time ends, like so:

{| class="wikitable plainlinks table-padding"
|-
!Image
!Time
!Image
!Time
!Image
!Time
!Image
!Time
|-
|[[Media:time.png|00:00]]||01/00:00||[[Media:time.png|10:00]]||01/10:00||[[Media:time.png|20:00]]||01/20:00||[[Media:time.png|30:00]]||AND MOAR SAMPLE DATAS
|-
|[[Media:time.png|00:30]]||01/00:30||[[Media:time.png|10:30]]||01/10:30||[[Media:time.png|20:30]]||01/20:30||[[Media:time.png|30:30]]||AND MOAR SAMPLE DATAS
|}

The hash values aren't really a part of the comic, they're gibberish for the most part and they take up space that could be used to compact the table, as shown above. Even if we are conservative and make the table only five columns wide to account for smaller screens, we've divided scrolling time by five and eliminated much of the need for annoying collapsed tables and section headers for each day. Constructing the table shouldn't be particularly hard either, as all our current data is in nice regular tables with clear patterns that are easy enough to parse through.

I'm putting this here because the organization of the frame entries would be unintuitive and difficult to change from the edit window, which would make it a poor choice when we're still expanding it and don't even know how long the comic will continue for. It's merely a space-saving trick for after we're sure that the comic is over. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 09:26, 16 April 2013 (UTC)

:Oh and it'd be really nice if other people could also upload images if you're awake and a new one rolls by. There's gaps in the image record every time I wake up, and I dun likey. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 11:34, 20 April 2013 (UTC)
:Good work so far; go ahead make it better! :) –[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 08:34, 24 April 2013 (UTC)

==Featured Explanation, and Archival?==

* Wikipedia has featured content. Now that we are close to reaching the goal of all comics explained, I think it makes more sense to have a "featured explanation" which would serve as a sort of a marker for a complete and good explanation. Many comics, and almost all charts are not fully explained/not a good quality explanation.

* We should set up archival of discussion of the most discussed pages, like this one. Its not very pleasing to see comments from July 2012 still lying around here. It becomes hectic at some point.

Just my 2 cents, feel free to discuss. Cheers,
[[Special:Contributions/117.194.88.180|117.194.88.180]] 13:36, 24 April 2013 (UTC)

:We dedicate this wiki to explaining xkcd, and we do actually have a featured comic feature; it changes every week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and we usually manage to fill out the explanation for it within an hour or so of it going up. The most recent comic tends to be the one that most people visiting the wiki care about, so we give it prime space on the front page so they can find it easily. xkcd updates frequently enough that there isn't really that big of a time window for us to feature an article on our front page. Also, we're a volunteer project with quite a bit less manpower than Wikipedia.
:We do need to archive talk pages though. Some of these are getting ridiculously long. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 14:04, 24 April 2013 (UTC)
::I agree with Davidy22. Archiving topics can be done by anyone, by moving resolved threads to the portal section's corresponding [[explain xkcd talk:Community portal/Proposals|talk page]]. We could start with the threads marked "✓ Closed". [[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 17:42, 1 May 2013 (UTC)

:: The reason I asked for a "featured explanation" was because many of the comic explanations we currently have are sub-par, and we're almost at our initial goal of explaining all comics. A "featured explanation" would drive our editors towards the goal of having complete and good explanation towards all comics, and would allow us to know which explanations need elaboration.
:: P.S. My definition of complete explanation would be - To have a good explanation, To have all categories relevant, To link to any comics related and To explain any technical portions of the comic.
:: [[Special:Contributions/117.194.82.49|117.194.82.49]] 07:45, 8 May 2013 (UTC)
:::That message on the front page is going to link to all the pages marked by the incomplete template. If you find an unsatisfactory explanation, please mark it with <nowiki>{{incomplete}}</nowiki> '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 07:54, 8 May 2013 (UTC)
:::: By my definition, I think all comics will be incomplete. An incomplete template will be focused more towards improving the worst explanations, while a featured one will be to improve the best ones. Since we already have the former, we should focus on the latter. Just my 2 cents. [[Special:Contributions/117.194.85.82|117.194.85.82]] 06:55, 9 May 2013 (UTC)

== Split the list of all comics ==

[[List of all comics]] is getting larger and larger, which makes it hard to read and hard to edit. How about splitting into parts, say [[List of all comics/1-1000]], [[List of all comics/1001-2000]], etc., or something to that effect? --[[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 17:39, 1 May 2013 (UTC)

: Done. [[Special:Contributions/117.194.88.176|117.194.88.176]] 10:03, 9 May 2013 (UTC)
::Great job, thanks! [[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 11:09, 9 May 2013 (UTC)
:::And I've added back [[List of all comics (full)]], which allows, for example, listing all comics by alphabetical order.[[User:Markhurd|Mark Hurd]] ([[User talk:Markhurd|talk]]) 17:29, 10 May 2013 (UTC)

== Sidebar ads ==

''Moved from [[Talk:Main Page]] –– [[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 08:06, 4 May 2013 (UTC)''

Are they generating significant money? The ones I see are pretty sleazy looking and/or scammy - "Power Companies Hate this Device! - click here to break the laws of thermodynamics!" and "Debt relief program click here to lose more money". How much money are they generating? Can you set any selections to remove the sleazy ads? [[User:J-beda|J-beda]] ([[User talk:J-beda|talk]]) 18:30, 3 April 2013 (UTC)
:Do we have sleazy sidebar ads? Since when? Thanks Google Chrome and AdBlock, I had no idea! –[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 07:47, 14 April 2013 (UTC)
::People give 20$ a pop to get a bunch of clicks on explainxkcd, and Jeff uses that money to buy a faster server with a hard drive that doesn't have less space than a public toilet with an elephant in it. It'd be really nice if you didn't turn on adblock, the money is appreciated. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 08:47, 14 April 2013 (UTC)
:::It's a question of me not turning it off specifically every time I visit this site. More importantly, I do think people would be more likely to click the "donate" if it weren't irrelevant ads around it. –[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 19:29, 14 April 2013 (UTC)
:::Generating money is a great thing. Getting "20$ a pop to get a bunch of clicks" is a bit unclear. Do the ads only generate revenue when clicked on? So EXKCD only gets money when someone actually falls for the sleazy ads? I know lots of people do not like Google - but at least their adsense stuff is relevant to the content of the website, which might generate some legitimate traffic for a legitimate advertiser.... [[User:J-beda|J-beda]] ([[User talk:J-beda|talk]]) 11:48, 19 April 2013 (UTC)
::::Welllll, I didn't pick the ad supplier. You could bring it up with [[User talk:Jeff|Jeff]] if you want, I think he picked the ad provider on basis of which one had a mediawiki plugin or something. If you can link Jeff to a quick and easy way to put adsense on mediawiki, he should change it quickly enough. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 14:21, 19 April 2013 (UTC)
:::::And I also gather then that they are only a temporary thing? -- [[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 08:27, 24 April 2013 (UTC)
::::::Until we can buy a server that doesn't poop itself every time a new comic is released, the ads are staying. If you want them to go away sooner, throw more money at Jeff. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 09:25, 24 April 2013 (UTC)
::::::: The ads are crap. For sure. Wish I didn't have to run them, but I don't trust donations alone to hold up continually some better hosting. The ads really don't bring in that much $$$. I had google adsense before, but Google shutdown my adsense account for unnamed reason after 1 week. This new ad service is way sketchier. If you all think they don't have a place here, I'll ax 'em. --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 16:02, 24 April 2013 (UTC)
::::::: Thanks for the info Jeff. How much ad money are we talking about? Is it calculated on how many ads are displayed or how many are clicked-through? How close to the goal is the server fund? How about a Kickstarter campaign for the server? $10 gets your name on a thankyou webpage or something like that. [[User:J-beda|J-beda]] ([[User talk:J-beda|talk]]) 17:32, 24 April 2013 (UTC)
:::::::: It ain't much, last I looked it was $2 or $3 in 2 weeks. I believe it is based on clicks, it is not nearly as clear as Google adsense. I'm not really interested in doing a Kickstarter. I think the donations will cover the initial start up, I just want to be able to cover the monthly costs as well. A few things are still up in the air. --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 16:24, 25 April 2013 (UTC)
:::::::::Can you find a way to show the donations and ad income on the site, to make it transparent? ––[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 15:30, 30 April 2013 (UTC)
::::::::: How about a donation amount that you'll take to turn it (the annoying unethical scummy ads) off for a year? Give me a dollar value and I might step up for the good of us all! [[User:J-beda|J-beda]] ([[User talk:J-beda|talk]]) 16:28, 3 May 2013 (UTC)

== Economic transparency ==

I think this is very important: How can we make the donations and ad-income transparent, so that we all can see when and how much money is coming in, and how far we are from reaching our goal? – [[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 00:35, 24 May 2013 (UTC)
: Sounds fine to me, I think I can put something together. --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 15:52, 28 May 2013 (UTC)

== Using <nowiki><nowiki></nowiki></nowiki> in transcripts to improve accuracy ==

In the transcripts, <nowiki>[[lines]]</nowiki> are being changed to [lines] in order to avoid auto-linking. Why not just surround these with <nowiki><nowiki></nowiki></nowiki> tags and avoid the problem entirely? --[[User:Epauley|Epauley]] ([[User talk:Epauley|talk]]) 04:18, 16 June 2013 (UTC)
:Because it takes less time to type and single brackets are just as readable as double brackets to visitors. It's also a bit more readable in the editor. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 09:55, 16 June 2013 (UTC)

== Category: (Barred/banned from?) Conferences ==

I come here after realising I erroneously posted (in reply) to the Main page Talk, being anonymous (or at least IP-only) and without a list of qualifying articles to support me, just yet, but still wish to put forward the above category before I forget. There's no apparent equivalent, that I found, but it's definitely a recurring meme. I should be back (named or otherwise) with my suggested list of members, if someone else doesn't get there first, but I thought I'd start with the placemarker. [[Special:Contributions/178.98.31.27|178.98.31.27]] 16:41, 22 June 2013 (UTC)
:Ok, so I got the bee in my bonnet and spent a few minutes actually looking into this. Revising "Barred from Conferences" (actually more often "Banned" or even "Thrown out of"/equivalent) to just "Conferences", the subset of comics that I can easily find that are involved is *[[153]], *[[177]], *[[365]], *[[410]], *[[463]], *[[541]], [[545]], [[685]], [[829]] and [[867]], but I'm sure there are more recent ones that I didn't spot/recall. One alternative title to "Conferences" is "Presentations", and I'm sure if I'd searched for that I'd have found more potential candidates (less some that might ''exit'' the renamed category). The asterisked ones ''do'' deal with being barred/banned/thrown out/etc, making it still a suitable category in its own right, IMO, but I'll leave it up to your combined musings to decide. [[Special:Contributions/178.98.31.27|178.98.31.27]] 17:07, 22 June 2013 (UTC)
::I add [[690]] to the list. --[[User:Chtz|Chtz]] ([[User talk:Chtz|talk]]) 08:12, 13 September 2013 (UTC)

== Strip Title ==

For someone who commonly browses explainxkcd in place of xkcd, and hence often see the strips for the first time here rather than the parent site, I find it somewhat odd that the 'Title Text' is so poorly displayed given how critical it can be to the strip.

I propose that, while retaining the given name (perhaps moving it top left), the title text be enlarged and relocated to being over the strip as originally intended. {{unsigned ip|175.41.133.18}}
:The title text is placed very well at bottom of the image.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 07:20, 6 September 2013 (UTC)

:I would have to agree with Dgbrt, it's placed nicely at the bottom, and there is no need for it to be moved. My reasoning is that you never actually read the title text first, you read it last. Making it <code>text-align: left;</code> does not make sense, because the image is centered (just like on xkcd.com). I also believe that there is no need for it to be re-sized, mainly due to the fact that it is slightly larger than the title text (for me, at least). {{User:Grep/signature|05:18, 08 September 2013}}

:Plus, if you hover over the image, it's the same as on xkcd.com {{User:Grep/signature|06:13, 08 September 2013}}

:I also agree with Dgbrt and Grep. The title text is kind of a bonus and should not be emphasized more than on the original page. On the original site you only see it before the image, if you have very slow internet access (or very fast eyes) --[[User:Chtz|Chtz]] ([[User talk:Chtz|talk]]) 08:06, 2 October 2013 (UTC)

== Sections in talk pages ==

Is there a reason why there are no sections in talk pages? It is not a very big deal, but especially for longer talk pages it would make editing be much handier, especially when using the preview function (not having to find the section every time). Also it automatically adds a description to the history (thus makes it more easy to look for certain edits, or decide by just looking at the [[Special:RecentChanges]], if a comment should concern you. --[[User:Chtz|Chtz]] ([[User talk:Chtz|talk]]) 08:01, 2 October 2013 (UTC)
:When discussion pages are transcluded by the comic discussion template, section headers carry over from talk pages and bad things happen. Using ; to denote headers instead of equals signs works well, and doesn't share transclusion pain. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 08:04, 2 October 2013 (UTC)

== references ==

Any chance we can add [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Cite/Cite.php cite.php] to this wiki? Most pages don't need it, but some comics take on a life of their own and being able to add reference tags would be really helpful for those. [[User:LadyMondegreen|LadyMondegreen]] ([[User talk:LadyMondegreen|talk]]) 01:33, 9 October 2013 (UTC)

978: Citogenesis

2013-10-09T00:34:55Z

LadyMondegreen: added wiki ref

{{comic
| number = 978
| date = November 16, 2011
| title = Citogenesis
| image = citogenesis.png
| titletext = I just read a pop-science book by a respected author. One chapter, and much of the thesis, was based around wildly inaccurate data which traced back to ... Wikipedia. To encourage people to be on their toes, I'm not going to say what book or author.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is calling into question the {{w|Wikipedia#Accuracy of content|accuracy}} of {{w|Wikipedia}}. This is a favorite past-time of librarians and professional researchers, and not usually one of [[Randall]]'s. But, to take it seriously for a moment: People, Wikipedia is editable by anyone. If you are doing serious work, follow through the citations, and decide which are from upstanding sources, and which are just people writing on their blog, and which are people writing on their blog who know what they are talking about.

The title of the comic is a play on the word [http://www.merriam-webster.com/medical/cytogenesis cytogenesis]. Cytogenesis is the formation of cells and their development. Citogenesis, on the other hand is a [http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/portmanteau portmanteau] of 'Citation' and 'Genesis'. [http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/citation Citation] meaning quoting a source. [http://mw1.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/genesis?show=1&t=1346949206 Genesis] being the origin of something. So, citogenesis would be the creation of a quote that can be used to back-up a fact or statement.

The comic is discussing citogenesis occurring on Wikipedia. {{w|Wikipedia}} is a free and freely editable encyclopedia that aims to become the most complete and correct knowledge base available, in all languages, to all people. Wikipedia is managed by the {{w|Wikimedia Foundation}} who publish {{w|MediaWiki}}, a web-based {{w|wiki}} engine written in {{w|PHP}}. The explain xkcd wiki is run on a MediaWiki server.

Following this comic, the actual {{w|Scroll lock}} and {{w|Steven Chu}} articles {{w|Talk:Scroll_lock#Thanks_Randall|were both}} {{w|Talk:Steven_Chu#Scroll_lock_key|wiki-bombed}} by "helpful" editors trying to enforce Randall's reality on the Internets. The wikipedia article on {{w|Citogenesis&redirect=no|Citogensis}} redirects to the {{w|Reliability of Wikipedia#Information loop|information loop}} section on the article "Reliability of Wikipedia".

==Trivia==
*We probably never will know the book or author Randall mentions in the title text, but there is a nice similar story about the former German minister {{w|Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg}}. His complete name contains fifteen! names/words and reads: '''Karl-Theodor Maria Nikolaus Johann Jacob Philipp Franz Joseph Sylvester Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg'''. An anonymous user did add one more ('''Wilhelm''') to the German Wikipedia, just in the evening before Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg was presented as the new Federal Minister of Economics and Technology on February 10, 2009. The next day many major German newspapers did publish this wrong name ([http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=de&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bildblog.de%2F5704%2Fwie-ich-freiherr-von-guttenberg-zu-wilhelm-machte%2F translation of bildblog.de]). But the joke doesn't stop here, because that minister was taken guilty on plagiarism, getting revoked his doctoral status, and finally it has led to his resignation as Minister of Defence on March 1, 2011.

==Transcript==
:Where Citations Come From:
:Citogenesis Step #1
:Through a convoluted process, a user's brain generates facts. These are typed into Wikipedia.
:[A guy with short hair sits at a desk, typing on a laptop.]
:Guy: (typing) The "scroll lock" key was designed by future Energy Secretary Steven Chu in a college project.

:A rushed writer checks Wikipedia for a summary of their subject.
:[Ponytail sits at a desk, typing on a desktop.]
:Ponytail: (typing) US Energy Secretary Steven Chu, (Nobel Prizewinner and creator of the ubiquitous "scroll lock" key) testified before Congress today...
:Step #2

:Surprised readers check Wikipedia, see the claim, and flag it for review. A passing editor finds the piece and adds it as a citation.
:[Cueball sits on a couch with a laptop in his lap, typing.]
:Cueball: Google is your friend, people. (typing) <ref>{{cite web|url=
:Step #3

:Step #4
:Now that other writers have a real source, they repeat the fact.
:[A flow chart, with "Wikipedia citation" in the center. The word "Wikipedia" is in black, the word "citations" is white with a red background.
:A black arrow leads from "brain" to "Wikipedia."
:A black arrow labeled "words" leads from "Wikipedia" to "careless writers," and a red arrow labeled "citations" leads back to "Wikipedia citations."
:A black & red arrow leads from "Wikipedia" to "cited facts" which leads to "slightly more careful writers," which leads to "more citations," which leads back to :"Wikipedia" (all black & red arrows).]
:References proliferate, completing the citogenesis process.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Wikipedia]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]

124: Blogofractal

2013-06-20T16:56:21Z

LadyMondegreen: /* Transcript */ linking parts of the transcript

{{comic
| number = 124
| date = July 5, 2006
| title = Blogofractal
| image = blogofractal.png
| 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.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete}}
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.

{{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.

==Transcript==
:From the makers of the Blogosphere, Blogocube, and Blogodrome comes
:the Blogofractal

:[A large rectangle subdivided into rectangles in a fractal pattern, most with a phrase or word inside.]
:[Mostly left to right from top-left corner.]
:TripMaster Monkey says
:118th Post!!
:Wikiconstitution!
:OMG
:DeCSS
:Casemod your Boyfriend!!
:FLICKR
:They're saying on {{w|Daily Kos|Kos}} that
:http:
:slashdot.org
:articl
:tagCloud
:{{w|Cory Doctorow}} is a little upset about copyright law.
:Hey guys what if Google is evil?!?
:I'll sleep with you for a FreeIpods deal.
:FirstPsot!!
:{{w|Snakes on a Plane|Snakes on an I don't Even Care Anymore}}
:KiwiWiki
:CSS
:Comments (0)
:{{w|Tesseract|Blogotesseract}}
:¡play games!
:[RSS icon.]
:is AYB retro yet?
:Google Google Google Apple Google Goog
:Cheney totally shot a dude!!!
:Watch this toddler get owned by a squirrel!!!
:Developers
:Developers
:Developers
:Developers
:I installed a Mac Mini inside ANOTHER Mac Mini!
:Check out this vid of {{w|Jon Stewart}}
:9-11 <-> Trent Lott!
:Web 7.1
:Kryptonite™ locks vulnerable to "keys!"
:Interesting post! Check out my blog, it has useful info on CARBON MONOXIDE LITIGATION
:FIREFLY!!
:HELP ME
:Engadget
:Boing Boing
:{{w|Gizmodo}}
:MAKE Blog: DIY baby
:My friend has a band!!
:Jon released an exploit in the protocol for meeting girls.
:Internets!
:{{w|Howard Dean}}?
:So I hear there's a hurricane.
:We should elect this dude!
:{{w|Google Maps}} is da best!!
:Moderation: +1 Sassy
:RSS!
:A-list
:<3
:Trackable URL?
:I shot a man in Reno check it out on YouTube!
:HEY LOOK ROBOTS!
:{{w|Net Neutrality}}!
:Friends Only.
:Dupe!
:AJAX?
:COMPLY
:Cowboy Neal
:Blogodrome
:Hey look I got Linux running on my tonsils!
:Look alive, blogonauts!
:Cafepress cockrings
:BOOBIES!!
:MIA
:A Beowulf Cluster... of BLOGS!!
:SPOILER ALERT
:Dupe!
:You have been eaten by a Grue.
:Ruby on a monorail
:Lesbians!
:DNF Released!
:Steampunk
:BLAG
:PONIES!
:Xeni found some porn!
:IRONY
:LIARS!
:Linux on Rails!
:Blogocube
:del.icio.us!
:404
:o.O
:Don't slam the source when you close it.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]

633: Blockbuster Mining

2013-06-20T16:49:18Z

LadyMondegreen: /* Transcript */

{{comic
| number = 633
| date = September 7, 2009
| title = Blockbuster Mining
| image = blockbuster mining.png
| titletext = The 2007 Bridge To Terebithia trailer put me off to much to see that particular movie, but I am cautiously optimistic about Where The Wild Things Are.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] has acquired the {{w|intellectual property}} rights to produce a movie, but is unsure of how to make it appealing to a wide audience. An off-screen character suggests hiring {{w|Michael Bay}}, a director and producer well known (and occasionally criticized) for his style of film adaptation. Cueball is unsure that the IP would be a good fit for a summer blockbuster, but is dismissed.

The following panels depict violent and gritty scenes from a spy thriller, starring an unknown and brutal female spy. In the last panel, she is revealed to be {{w|Harriet the Spy}}, the 11 year old protagonist of a bestselling children's book written by Louise Fitzhugh, as well as other spinoff books written by various other authors.

The comic references Hollywood's search for new stories to adapt to film, and how poor some of these adaptations can be.

==Transcript==
:Cueball: We've acquired some new rights, but I'm not sure it's in the spirit to make it a blockbuster--
:Voice: Do it anyway. Take $100 million, hire Michael Bay.
:Cueball: But--
:Voice: ''NEXT!''

:[Panel is inverted, white on black background.]
:Megan: They said if I were captured I should take my own life.
:Megan: But I'd just as soon take yours.
:[Megan is pointing two handguns at two men with machine guns.]

:''BOOM''
:[Megan explodes off a cliff, carrying a rectangular object and a gun. In the background is a helicopter, some mountains, and the sea.]

:[Panel is inverted, white and red on black background.]
:Man: Stop! I'll talk!
:Megan: No, I know everything, this is just for fun.
:[Megan is holding a bloody pipe. Man is tied to a chair. There is blood pooling on the ground under the chair.]

:[Crosshairs follow a man.]
:Megan: I'll be watching.

:[The panel is inverted colour, white on black.]
:Harriet
:the
:[in red] SPY
:[A bloody spiral notebook, with blood streaks leading from it.]

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]

Talk:633: Blockbuster Mining

2013-06-20T16:48:20Z

LadyMondegreen: reply

Why do we think that this is Danish? The hair isn't the same and there are no other indicators. [[User:LadyMondegreen|LadyMondegreen]] ([[User talk:LadyMondegreen|talk]]) 12:59, 13 June 2013 (UTC)
:I'm also sure it's not [[Megan]], she isn't that violent. And for now we have chaos here because [[Danish]] is still at the transcript.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 11:45, 18 June 2013 (UTC)
::I'm only using Megan because it's drawn like Megan. Megan, like Cueball is basically the default girl. Her personality changes as necessary. Besides, we're seeing an actor play Harriet the Spy so none of the violence is a character trait. I'd classify it as Harriet the Spy, but it's not only not completely accurate but it steps on the punchline. [[User:LadyMondegreen|LadyMondegreen]] ([[User talk:LadyMondegreen|talk]]) 16:48, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

111: Firefox and Witchcraft - The Connection?

2013-06-20T16:27:56Z

LadyMondegreen: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 111
| date = June 5, 2006
| title = Firefox and Witchcraft - The Connection?
| image = firefox wicca.png
| titletext = ThisadpaidforbythecounciltopromoteMicrosoftandChristianity. Remember, The Bible is Closed Source.
}}

==Explanation==
The comic shows a chart between the number of members of the pagan religion {{w|Wicca}} and the number of times Mozilla's web browser {{w|Firefox}} has been downloaded, the implication being that Firefox is related to Wicca. The page lists Internet Explorer, a rival web browser, and the cross, representing Christianity, on the bottom, implying that it is an attempt at discouraging Firefox by both Microsoft (creators of Internet Explorer) and a Christian source.

The title text is reminiscent of political commercials, which tell you who paid for them. The last sentence is a play on the term of {{w|Closed source software}}, which Internet Explorer is, as opposed to Firefox, which was open source in development. Similar in that vein, the Bible can be considered "closed source" [http://kingjbible.com/revelation/22.htm due to God's prohibition on altering its contents.]

This type of [https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/false-cause statistical ploy] is used again in a few other comics, e.g [[925: Cell Phones]]

==Transcript==
:[Y axis]:membership in wicca
:[X axis]:total firefox downloads
:[Positive slope graph.]
:[Internet Explorer icon.]
:Keep the Faith
:[Outline of a cross.]

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Statistics]]

633: Blockbuster Mining

2013-06-18T05:47:33Z

LadyMondegreen: /* Transcript */ megan not danish

{{comic
| number = 633
| date = September 7, 2009
| title = Blockbuster Mining
| image = blockbuster mining.png
| titletext = The 2007 Bridge To Terebithia trailer put me off to much to see that particular movie, but I am cautiously optimistic about Where The Wild Things Are.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] has acquired the {{w|intellectual property}} rights to produce a movie, but is unsure of how to make it appealing to a wide audience. An off-screen character suggests hiring {{w|Michael Bay}}, a director and producer well known (and occasionally criticized) for his style of film adaptation. Cueball is unsure that the IP would be a good fit for a summer blockbuster, but is dismissed.

The following panels depict violent and gritty scenes from a spy thriller, starring an unknown and brutal female spy. In the last panel, she is revealed to be {{w|Harriet the Spy}}, the 11 year old protagonist of a bestselling children's book written by Louise Fitzhugh, as well as other spinoff books written by various other authors.

The comic references Hollywood's search for new stories to adapt to film, and how poor some of these adaptations can be.

==Transcript==
:Cueball: We've acquired some new rights, but I'm not sure it's in the spirit to make it a blockbuster--
:Voice: Do it anyway. Take $100 million, hire Michael Bay.
:Cueball: But--
:Voice: ''NEXT!''

:[Panel is inverted, white on black background.]
:Danish: They said if I were captured I should take my own life.
:Danish: But I'd just as soon take yours.
:[Danish is pointing two handguns at two men with machine guns.]

:''BOOM''
:[Danish explodes off a cliff, carrying a rectangular object and a gun. In the background is a helicopter, some mountains, and the sea.]

:[Panel is inverted, white and red on black background.]
:Man: Stop! I'll talk!
:Danish: No, I know everything, this is just for fun.
:[Danish is holding a bloody pipe. Man is tied to a chair. There is blood pooling on the ground under the chair.]

:[Crosshairs follow a man.]
:Danish: I'll be watching.

:[The panel is inverted colour, white on black.]
:Harriet
:the
:[in red] SPY
:[A bloody spiral notebook, with blood streaks leading from it.]

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]

97: A Simple Plan

2013-06-14T11:28:22Z

LadyMondegreen: /* Explanation */ needs fixing i cant do

{{comic
| number = 97
| date = May 3, 2006
| title = A Simple Plan
| image = a_simple_plan.jpg
| titletext = This is true. The lyrics are ridiculous.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete}}
The song on the radio is "{{w|Welcome to My Life}}" by {{w|Simple plan}} (not A Simple Plan), which was released in 2004 as a first single to the band's second album "{{w|Still Not Getting Any...}}". The lyrics of the song mainly deal with the frustration of adolescence, e.g. Life becoming real. Many, if not all, adolescents go through a phase were the on-going realisation of becoming fully responsible for their body, mind and personality beyond parents scares them. While longing to the simple childhood of the past, this also reminds them that this is what they wanted as a child in the first place.

The above paradox leads to teenage angst, graphically displayed in the song, which questions quality of life, and therefore maybe taking the "Simple Plan" and terminating life because it lacks this quality. [[Cueball]], obviously beyond this phase, first hears the pop-song, liking it for it's addictive sound, and then realising the lyrics may turn some adolescents into bodybags.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball standing in front of stool with radio on it.]
:Radio: You don't know what it's like to be me!
:At first, I loved A Simple Plan. Then I realized, with creeping horror, that they were serious.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

95: The Sierpinski Penis Game

2013-06-14T11:20:40Z

LadyMondegreen:

{{comic
| number = 95
| date = April 28, 2006
| title = The Sierpinski Penis Game
| image = the_sierpinski_penis_game.jpg
| titletext = Inappropriate places for the Penis Game include baby showers and terrorist attacks.
}}

==Explanation==
The Penis Game is an infantile activity where elementary or high school students compete to shout "Penis!" the loudest while the teacher is out in the hallway without getting in trouble. Variants exist using other sexual or excretory words. The placement of this embarrassment to our species in a {{w|Sierpinski triangle|Sierpinski gasket}} may be a reference to the way the game tends to ripple through a crowd of young men after someone (usually the same person every time) starts it.

==Transcript==
:[A large triangle is shown, with many smaller triangles inside.]
:[Words are in the triangles.]
:Sierpinski game: PENIS! Haha, penis.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Math]]

59: Graduation

2013-06-14T10:19:27Z

LadyMondegreen: general rewrite -- removing frost-no direct connection and mangled interpretation of his poem.

{{comic
| number = 59
| date = February 3, 2006
| title = Graduation
| image = graduation.jpg
| titletext = Opening dialogue by Scott
}}

==Explanation==
In this comic Blonde (possibly a young [[Miss Lenhart]]) and Megan are discussing their plans for what to do after college. Blonde doesn't know what she wants to do with her life, so she is going to go to {{w|Graduate school|grad school}}. Graduate school is the next level of education after {{w|undergraduate education|undergraduate work}}, where students pursue a master's or doctoral degrees.

[[Megan]], on the other hand, has decided to become a lighthouse operator. Which is a path that is becoming increasingly less traveled. Fewer people need lighthouses. Before GPS technology, lighthouses were invaluable markers of where the sea ended and where land began. Megan likes the idea of being the maid in the highest tower. Except where most fairy tales portray the {{w|Rapunzel|maid in the tower}} as helpless, waiting to be rescued, operating a lighthouse is far from helpless. It can be one of the most needed jobs for sea-farers to find their way back home.

Other comics with a similar theme about finding or taking unexplored paths, instead of fitting into the mold, includes [[137: Dreams]] and [[267: Choices: Part 4]].

==Transcript==
:[Megan and a blonde are talking.]
:Blonde: What do you want to do when you graduate?
:Megan: I want to become a lighthouse operator.
:Blonde: Oh?
:Megan: Yeah.
:[Cut to scene of lighthouse with text overlaid.]
:Megan: Lighthouses are built on interesting pieces of coast, so I'll have an interesting place to walk and swim, and great views of all kinds of weather. I'd feel good about myself and my work every single day.
:[Cut back to the two girls.]
:Megan: I'd get to be the girl in the tower, only I'd be the one rescuing people.
:Megan: Why. What do you want to do ?
:Blonde: I'm going to grad school. I don't really know why.
:Megan: Wanna come hang in my lighthouse over breaks?
:Blonde: ...yeah.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Miss Lenhart]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]

58: Why Do You Love Me?

2013-06-14T10:10:26Z

LadyMondegreen: wikilinking alt text

{{comic
| number = 58
| date = February 1, 2006
| title = Why Do You Love Me?
| image = why_do_you_love_me.jpg
| titletext = Opening dialogue by [[Scott]]
}}

==Explanation==
In this comic, [[Cueball]] asks "Why do you love me?" to [[Megan]], a fairly common question that couples ask each other. She responds "My heart never gave me a choice", a seemingly very sentimental, romantic answer. However, after a {{w|Beat_(filmmaking)|beat panetl}} she effectively kills the romance of the moment by adding, "I wish it had", indicating that she would rather not have loved Cueball.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Megan are having a conversation.]
:Cueball: Why do you love me?
:Megan: I don't know; my heart never gave me a chance.

:Cueball: Aww.

:[No dialogue.]

:Megan: I wish it had.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Romance]]

58: Why Do You Love Me?

2013-06-14T10:09:17Z

LadyMondegreen: /* Explanation */ adding the beat panel

{{comic
| number = 58
| date = February 1, 2006
| title = Why Do You Love Me?
| image = why_do_you_love_me.jpg
| titletext = Opening dialogue by Scott
}}

==Explanation==
In this comic, [[Cueball]] asks "Why do you love me?" to [[Megan]], a fairly common question that couples ask each other. She responds "My heart never gave me a choice", a seemingly very sentimental, romantic answer. However, after a {{w|Beat_(filmmaking)|beat panetl}} she effectively kills the romance of the moment by adding, "I wish it had", indicating that she would rather not have loved Cueball.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Megan are having a conversation.]
:Cueball: Why do you love me?
:Megan: I don't know; my heart never gave me a chance.

:Cueball: Aww.

:[No dialogue.]

:Megan: I wish it had.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Romance]]

33: Self-reference

2013-06-13T17:21:11Z

LadyMondegreen: /* Explanation */ changing to wikipedia link

{{comic
| number = 33
| date = November 21, 2005
| title = Self-reference
| image = self-reference.jpg
| titletext = I think about self-reference a lot. Example: this comment.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Self-reference}} is a situation where something (a comic, a drawing, a musical work, a novel, a mathematical theorem) refers to itself in some manner. This can be a powerful technique in art, music, mathematics and computer science (it is the basis of recursion).

In this comic, [[Cueball]] promises not to use self-reference for humor, and then realizes after a {{w|beat panel}} that, since this comic is referring to the series of comics he is part of, he is using self-reference, thus breaking his promise.

Without the last panel, this comic wouldn't be funny, and therefore wouldn't break the promise about using self-reference for humor. But with it, and his realization that he is breaking his promise, it does break that promise.

== Transcript ==
:[Cueball standing alone.]
:Cueball: I promise to never again squeeze humor out of self-reference.

:[Cueball standing alone.]

:[Cueball standing alone.]
:Cueball: God dammit.

== Trivia ==
*This is the thirty-fifth comic originally posted to [[xkcd#History|livejournal]]. The previous was [[32: Pillar]]. The next was [[41: Old Drawing]].

{{Comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics posted on livejournal]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

626: Newton and Leibniz

2013-06-13T16:59:25Z

LadyMondegreen: adding category

{{comic
| number = 626
| date = August 21, 2009
| title = Newton and Leibniz
| image = newton_and_leibniz.png
| imagesize =
| titletext = YEEEEEEAAAAAAHHHHHH!
}}

==Explanation==
First and foremost {{w|Isaac Newton}} and {{w|Gottfried Leibniz}} both invented {{w|calculus}} independent of each other, as the comic says, about 8 years apart. However, Newton disputed the fact that Leibniz invented calculus independent of him.

In calculus a {{w|derivative}} is the result of mathematical differentiation; the instantaneous change of one quantity relative to another; df(x)/dx. Another way to think of the derivative, is a plot of all the slopes of lines tangent to the original equation. However, the literary word derivative means to develop from something older.

So, the pun is that Newton in the comic is claiming that Leibniz's derivative (meaning: the invention of calculus) is a derivative of (meaning: developed from) his derivative (meaning: calculus).

The comic as a whole is mocking the pattern of corny one-liners that {{w|David Caruso}} often spurts out during the opening scenes of {{w|CSI: Miami}}. The one liner is followed by him dramatically pulling off his sunglasses and then the show breaks into the title sequence which starts with the word "YEEEEAAAAAAAH." This has become a [http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/csi-4-pane-comics popular Internet meme] and was used frequently most recently with {{w|Michael Jackson}}'s death.

==Transcript==
:Newton, 1666
:[A guy with long white hair holds up a sheet of paper.]
:Newton: I've invented calculus!

:Leibniz, 1674
:[A man with long black hair holds up a sheet of paper.]
:Leibniz: I've invented calculus!

:Newton: Really? Sounds a little bit...

:[Newton puts on a pair of sunglasses.]

:Newton: ...''Derivative.''

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Puts on sunglasses]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]

Category:Apatosaurus

2013-06-13T16:55:06Z

LadyMondegreen: new topic category

The {{w|apatosaurus}} appears in a few comics, sometimes because of a reference to the discontinuation of the term {{w|Brontosaurus}}.

[[Category:Comics by topic]]

650: Nowhere

2013-06-13T16:48:52Z

LadyMondegreen: adding category

{{comic
| number = 650
| date = October 16, 2009
| title = Nowhere
| image = nowhere.png
| titletext = I mean, seriously, NOWHERE? For starters, there are like a thousand species of dinosaur.
}}

==Explanation==
The phrase used by [[Cueball]] in the first panel is the sort of thing that many people say to their significant other, suggesting that they are so happy together that there is nowhere else anywhere that they would rather be in. [[Megan]], however, takes the saying literally and imagines herself riding a dinosaur suggesting that she would rather be doing just that. This, and the title text are saying that the likelihood that out of all the possibilities in the universe, the chances that the one single place you would most want to be is just sitting with your significant other is fairly low.

Seriously though, who wouldn't want to ride an apatosaurus if given the chance?

Megan previously rode an apatosaurus in [[15: Just Alerting You]]. An apatosaurus also appears in [[460: Paleontology]] and [[636: Brontosaurus]].

==Transcript==
:Cueball: There's nowhere I'd rather be
:Cueball: than with you
:Cueball: here
:Cueball: right now.

:[Silence.]

:[Megan is imagining herself riding an apatosaurus.]

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Romance]]
[[Category:Apatosaurus]]

636: Brontosaurus

2013-06-13T16:48:34Z

LadyMondegreen: adding category

{{comic
| number = 636
| date = September 14, 2009
| title = Brontosaurus
| image = brontosaurus.png
| titletext = Well, sex is like a velociraptor: despite your movie-fueled lifelong neurotic obsession, unlikely to be found in your house.
}}

==Explanation==
In this comic, Megan describes her relationship to Cueball with the simile "our love is like a turtle", a comparison often made when referring to a shy and slowly developing yet steady sort of romance. However, Cueball thinks the {{w|Brontosaurus}} the better impersonation. His explanation refers to the fact that remains of {{w|Apatosaurus}} were by mistake believed to be an own, different species which the paleontologist {{w|Othniel Charles Marsh|O.C. Marsh}} named Brontosaurus. It was later discovered that the two species should be classified as one, with the older name prevailing according to convention. The term Brontosaurus is therefore a scientific redundancy.

Applied to the scenario in the comic, Cueball apparently considers the relationship without any emotional foundation and only continues it out of nostalgic motives. This conclusion counteracts the initial romantic tone adopted by the turtle simile, as comparing a romance with a falsely classified fossile is one of the least charming statements imaginable.

The title text aims at Randall's well-known enthusiasm for {{w|velociraptors}} which he mockingly compares to the obsession others might cherish for sex.

Randall has previously mentioned the Brontosaurus name change in [[460: Paleontology]]. The apatosaurus also appears in [[15: Just Alerting You]] and [[650: Nowhere]].

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Megan are sitting at a bench. Megan is holding a turtle.]
:Megan: Our love is like a turtle.
:[Megan sets down the turtle and turns to Cueball. They hold hands.]
:Megan: Humble and simple, enduring by virtue of perfect design.
:Cueball: Our love is like a brontosaurus.
:Cueball: Recognized as a mistaken combination long ago, lingering only out of misplaced affection for an imagined past.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Velociraptors]]
[[Category:Romance]]
[[Category:Apatosaurus]]

460: Paleontology

2013-06-13T16:48:17Z

LadyMondegreen: adding cat

{{comic
| number = 460
| date = August 8, 2008
| title = Paleontology
| image = paleontology.png
| titletext = Dinosaurs totally jumped the ichthyosaur when they got rid of Brontosaurus.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is essentially a set up for a pun: 'underground' can mean 'under the ground' ('buried in the dirt') or 'non-mainstream.' In this case, [[Ponytail]] is whining that she had been doing paleontology before {{w|Jurassic Park}} kicked Paleontology into the mainstream with living reproductions of dinosaurs, thus apparently undermining the hard word paleontologists had done. In other words, this comic is also poking fun at 'hipsters.'

The title text refers to both the phenomenon called '{{w|jumping the shark}}' and the controversy having the Brontosaurus's name changed to '{{w|Apatosaurus}},' despite the 'Brontosaurus' already having made a name for himself in the mainstream. [[636: Brontosaurus]] also references the Brontosaurus name change. An apatosaurus also appears in [[15: Just Alerting You]], and [[650: Nowhere]].

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Ponytail in a museum, near a reconstructed dinosaur fossil.]
:Ponytail: Man, paleontology sucks these days.
:Cueball: Why?
:Ponytail: Jurassic Park came out 15 years ago.
:Cueball: So?
:Ponytail: Today's grad students got into dinosaurs after seeing it as kids. They don't care about fossils. Brats.
:[A woman in a hat exploring a barren landscape.]
:Ponytail: Before they had living dinosaurs handed to them by Hollywood, I was out in Texas digging up Arcocanthosaur teeth.
:Cueball: So, you were into dinosaurs when they were still underground?
:Ponytail: Exactly!

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Apatosaurus]]

15: Just Alerting You

2013-06-13T16:47:56Z

LadyMondegreen: new cat

{{comic
| number = 15
| date = October 2, 2005
| title = Just Alerting You
| image = just_alerting_you.jpg
| titletext = Just thought you should know
}}

==Explanation==
This comic arguably introduces [[Megan]], riding an {{w|apatosaurus}}. Megan later rides an apatosaurus in [[650: Nowhere]]. An apatosaurus also appears in comics [[460: Paleontology]], and [[636: Brontosaurus]].

==Trivia==
*[Original [[Randall]] quote]: "I bet she's cool. I mean, she has a dinosaur!"
*This is the fourteenth comic posted to livejournal. The previous was [[11: Barrel - Part 2]]. The next was [[16: Monty Python -- Enough]].

==Transcript==
:[Megan is standing on top of a dinosaur and holding reins to the dinosaur's head.]
:Megan: Before you talk to me, I should warn you: I am kind of strange

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics posted on livejournal]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Apatosaurus]]

Category:Ferrets

2013-06-13T16:45:43Z

LadyMondegreen: fixing link. ferret redirects here

[[Randall]]'s brother has a pet {{w|ferret}}.

[[Category:Comics by topic|ferret]]

17: What If

2013-06-13T16:42:00Z

LadyMondegreen:

:''Not to be confused with Randall's new [[what if?]] blog.''
{{comic
| number = 17
| date = October 7, 2005
| title = What If
| image = what_if.jpg
| titletext = I once made an anniversary card for my then-girlfriend with this layout.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic features a man and a woman in a romantic setting, surrounded by a {{w|fractal}} combination of love and doubts; a {{w|Sierpinski Triangle}}-like arrangement based on the {{w|Apollonian gasket}} construction. Three circles are drawn tangent to each other, then additional circles are added which are tangent to three existing circles (without overlap), ad infinitum.

Randall's character design wasn't yet fully settled. Considering that Megan arguably was introduced two comics ago, and that the man has some hair, the couple might or might not be interpreted as Cueball and Megan.

==Transcript==
:[A large black circle with white bubbles inside it, filled with hearts, question marks, and stick figure couples.]
:What if this isn't everything it should be?
:I'm not even sure how I feel
:What if I'm making a mistake?

== Trivia ==
*Original [[Randall]] quote: "One of my best friends just got engaged. I really, truly think they're going to be very happy together." The friends this referenced are [[Scott]] and [[Sarah]]
*This is the sixteenth comic originally posted to livejournal. The previous was [[16: Monty Python -- Enough]]. The next was [[18: Snapple]].

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics posted on livejournal]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Romance]]

15: Just Alerting You

2013-06-13T16:25:00Z

LadyMondegreen: /* Explanation */

650: Nowhere

2013-06-13T16:23:58Z

LadyMondegreen: /* Explanation */ adding other apatosaurus instances

636: Brontosaurus

2013-06-13T16:22:36Z

LadyMondegreen: /* Explanation */ adding other apatosaurus instances

460: Paleontology

2013-06-13T16:20:47Z

LadyMondegreen: /* Explanation */ adding other apatosaurus instances

15: Just Alerting You

2013-06-13T16:18:02Z

LadyMondegreen: /* Explanation */ adding other apatosaurus instances

{{comic
| number = 15
| date = October 2, 2005
| title = Just Alerting You
| image = just_alerting_you.jpg
| titletext = Just thought you should know
}}

==Explanation==
This comic arguably introduces [[Megan]], riding an {{w|apatosaurus}}. Megan also rides an apatosaurus in [[650: Nowhere]]. The apatosaurus also shows up later in comics [[460: Paleontology]], and [[636: Brontosaurus]].

==Trivia==
*[Original [[Randall]] quote]: "I bet she's cool. I mean, she has a dinosaur!"
*This is the fourteenth comic posted to livejournal. The previous was [[11: Barrel - Part 2]]. The next was [[16: Monty Python -- Enough]].

==Transcript==
:[Megan is standing on top of a dinosaur and holding reins to the dinosaur's head.]
:Megan: Before you talk to me, I should warn you: I am kind of strange

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics posted on livejournal]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]

9: Serenity is coming out tomorrow

2013-06-13T16:08:38Z

LadyMondegreen: adding links to The Race

{{comic
| number = 9
| date = September 30, 2005
| title = Serenity is coming out tomorrow
| image = firefly.jpg
| titletext = Mal, Simon, Wash, Zoe, River, Kaylee, Jayne, Inara, Book.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is about the release of the movie {{w|Serenity (film)|Serenity}}, which was supposed to be the sequel to {{w|Joss Whedon}}'s TV show, {{w|Firefly (TV series)|Firefly}}, which was cancelled by {{w|Fox Broadcasting Company|Fox}} after only one season (which it had aired out of order). The show was followed by a devoted number of fans who were outraged by the cancellation of the show. High DVD sales and strong fan support allowed the follow up film Serenity to be created, which tied up many of the loose ends that Firefly left open, such as the cause of {{w|List of Firefly characters#River Tam|River}}'s abilities and the origins of the {{w|Reaver (Firefly)|reavers}}.

The image shows the main characters of Firefly. From left to right:
*{{w|Malcolm Reynolds|Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds}} - the ship's captain.
*{{w|Simon Tam}} - a doctor trying to rescue his sister.
*{{w|Hoban Washburne|Hoban "Wash" Washburne}} - the ship's pilot.
*{{w|Zoe Washburne}} - the ship's second-in-command.
*{{w|River Tam}} - Simon's sister, who displays superhuman capabilities, but is crippled by alliance research.
*{{w|Kaylee Frye}} - the ship's happy-go-lucky mechanic.
*{{w|Jayne Cobb}} - the hired muscle.
*{{w|Inara Serra}} - a companion, the equivalent of a courtesan, but with a greater deal of respect.
*{{w|Derrial Book}} - a shepard, which is similar to a priest, with a very unknown backstory.

This is the first [[xkcd]] with adorned stick figures (e.g. hair, coats, etc) to represent distinct characters, which later becomes a standard motif of the comic.

[[:Category:Comics featuring Nathan Fillion|Nathan Fillion]], [[:Category:Comics featuring Summer Glau|Summer Glau]] and [[:Category:Comics featuring Jewel Staite|Jewel Staite]], the actors who play Mal, River and Kaylee respectively, show up later in Randall's series [[:Category:The Race|The Race]].

==Trivia==
*This is the tenth comic originally posted on livejournal. The previous was [[6: Irony]]. The next was [[10: Pi Equals]]. View archive [http://liveweb.archive.org/web/20070927001941/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=40 here].
*[Original title]: "Firefly"
*[Original [[Randall]] quote]: "Drawn in honor of the upcoming Serenity! If you work very hard you can figure out who is who."

==Transcript==
:[Several stick figures stand side by side in a lineup. A forlorn male in a coat, a male with combed hair, a male with spiky hair and arms outstretched enthusiastically, a female with long hair and cornrows, a shorter female with stringy hair falling over her face, an enthusiastic female with arms raised in celebration with shorter hair, a male with short hair and a goatee, a female with curly hair wearing a dress, and a stern-looking man with flyaway hair. There is no dialogue.]

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics posted on livejournal]]
[[Category:Firefly]]

Mrs. Roberts

2013-06-13T15:44:44Z

LadyMondegreen:

{{Infobox character
| image = mrs roberts.png
| imagesize =
| caption = Mrs Roberts cooking and typing from [[341: 1337: Part 1]]
| first_appearance = [[327: Exploits of a Mom]]
}}

'''Mrs. Roberts''' is an elite hacker, second only to her daughter [[Elaine Roberts|Help I'm trapped in a driver's license factory Elaine Roberts]], known simply as Elaine. She is capable of by hand (or oven-mitt) live editing {{w|Transmission Control Protocol|TCP}} streams of neighbors using her WiFi network and closing their secure tunnel connections, while also baking delicious cookies.[[341: 1337: Part 1|[1]]]

Mrs. Roberts also has a son, <code>Robert'); DROP TABLE students;--</code> who is known as [[Little Bobby Tables]].

{{navbox-characters}}
[[Category:Characters]]

Mrs. Roberts

2013-06-13T15:44:17Z

LadyMondegreen: elaines full anme

{{Infobox character
| image = mrs roberts.png
| imagesize =
| caption = Mrs Roberts cooking and typing from [[341: 1337: Part 1]]
| first_appearance = [[327: Exploits of a Mom]]
}}

'''Mrs. Roberts''' is an elite hacker, second only to her daughter [[Elaine Roberts|Help I'm trapped in a driver's license factory Elaine Roberts]], known simply as Elaine. She is capable of by hand (or oven-mitt) live editing {{w|Transmission Control Protocol|TCP}} streams of neighbors using her WiFi network and closing their secure tunnel connections, while also baking delicious cookies.[[341: 1337: Part 1|[1]]]

Mrs. Roberts also has a son, <code>Robert'); DROP TABLE students;--</code> who is also known as [[Little Bobby Tables]].

{{navbox-characters}}
[[Category:Characters]]

Beret Guy

2013-06-13T15:38:51Z

LadyMondegreen:

{{Infobox character
| image = Beret_Guy.png
| imagesize = 40px
| caption = Beret guy, as seen in [[1117: My Sky]]
| first_appearance = [[167: Nihilism]]
}}
'''Beret Guy''' is a [[stick figure]] character in [[xkcd]]. He is distinguished by his white beret.

==Characteristics==
Beret Guy is an optimist, and sometimes a naïve one (although he is rarely a victim in the strip). He enjoys philosophizing, often taking the role of the {{w|existentialist}}. He has a very surreal side to him, often thinking about or being involved in bizarre situations. He is also oddly fascinated with bakeries, scones in particular.

{{navbox-characters}}
[[Category:Characters]]

White Hat

2013-06-13T15:36:50Z

LadyMondegreen: adding first appearance

{{Infobox character
| image = white_hat.png
| caption = White hat as seen in [[973: MTV Generation]]
| first_appearance = [[260: The Glass Necklace]]
}}
'''White Hat''' is a [[stick figure]] character in [[XKCD]]. He is distinguished by his eponymous white hat which appears to be in the shape and style of a {{w|boater}}. He has a similar appearance to [[Black Hat]] other than the color of their respective hats. However, he is far less often depicted. He is sometimes referred to as "White Hat Guy" in the transcripts.

{{navbox-characters}}
[[Category:Characters]]

Beret Guy

2013-06-13T15:35:31Z

LadyMondegreen: updating infobox

{{Infobox character
| image = Beret_Guy.png
| imagesize = 40px
| caption = Beret guy, as seen in [[1117: My Sky]]
| first_appearance = [[167: Nihilism]]
| list of appearances = [[:Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
}}
'''Beret Guy''' is a [[stick figure]] character in [[xkcd]]. He is distinguished by his white beret.

==Characteristics==
Beret Guy is an optimist, and sometimes a naïve one (although he is rarely a victim in the strip). He enjoys philosophizing, often taking the role of the {{w|existentialist}}. He has a very surreal side to him, often thinking about or being involved in bizarre situations. He is also oddly fascinated with bakeries, scones in particular.

{{navbox-characters}}
[[Category:Characters]]

Category:Comics featuring Hairy

2013-06-13T15:17:12Z

LadyMondegreen: he's considered a major character by the navbox and has appeared more often then other major characters, like danish

These are all the comics that have been marked as featuring [[Hairy]].

[[Category:Comics by major characters|Hairy]]

345: 1337: Part 5

2013-06-13T13:47:16Z

LadyMondegreen: fixing categories

{{comic
| number = 345
| date = November 16, 2007
| title = 1337: Part 5
| image = 1337 part 5.png
| titletext = This digital music thing will probably reach its endgame sometime in the next decade or so. These are very exciting times.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Richard Stallman}} is the ardent defender of freedom and believer in {{w|copyleft}}, he also founded the {{w|GNU Project}}.

{{w|Cory Doctorow}} is a blogger, journalist, and science fiction author who serves as co-editor of the weblog {{w|Boing Boing}}. He is an activist in favour of liberalising copyright laws and a proponent of the {{w|Creative Commons}} organization.

{{w|Bram Cohen}} is the founder of {{w|BitTorrent}}, a distributed method of downloading files.

The {{w|Dread Pirate Roberts}} is a fictional character from the book and movie {{w|The Princess Bride}}. Roberts is the most feared pirate on the seas. But, "Dread Pirate Roberts" is merely a title that has been passed down as previous "Roberts" have gained enough money (from piracy) to retire comfortably. Wesley, one of the main characters from The Princess Bride, becomes the Dread Pirate after being taken prisoner by the preceding Pirate Roberts. If Elaine became Dread Pirate Roberts, she would be a true Dread Pirate Roberts.

{{w|Ubuntu}} is probably the most well known {{w|Linux}} distribution. A Linux distribution is any operating system that is based on the Linux {{w|kernel}}.

All comics in "[[:Category:1337|1337]]" series:
* [[341: 1337: Part 1]]
* [[342: 1337: Part 2]]
* [[343: 1337: Part 3]]
* [[344: 1337: Part 4]]
* [[345: 1337: Part 5]]

This series was released on 5 consecutive days (Monday-Friday) and not over the usual Monday/Wednesday/Friday schedule.

==Transcript==
:[Two RIAA agents attack Elaine and Stallman. Elaine breaks RIAA #1, while Stallman disarms RIAA #2 in a flying manouvre.]
:Elaine: Thanks, Stallman!
:Stallman: 'Tis my pleasure.

:Elaine: So, wait - how did you know we were in trouble?
:Stallman: My friend here was tracking these thugs from his balloon. He called me and I thought I'd stop by
:[Doctorow slides down a rope in red cape & goggles.]
:Doctorow: -Hi! Cory Doctorow - It's a pleasure to meet you.

:Elaine: Balloon?
:Stallman: Aye. They're up there constructing something called a "Blogosphere."
:Doctorow: Yup! It's twenty kilometers up, just above the tag clouds.

:Bobby: Mom, I'm hungry.
:Mrs. Roberts: Hush! I'm coding. You ate yesterday.
:Stallman: You know, Roberts, GNU could use a good coder like you. Ever thought of joining us?
:Elaine: Maybe someday. Right now I've got an industry to take down. Music doesn't need these assholes.
:Doctorow: Begone! And never darken our comment threads again!

:Stallman: Well, you won't fix the industry with random exploits. You need to encourage sharing in the public mind.
:Doctorow: Hey; With your music and coding backgrounds, you should get into building better p2p systems.

:Elaine: What? Straight-up piracy?
:Doctorow: Sure- have you ever considered it? You'd make a wonderful dread pirate, Roberts

:[Epilogue]
:Elaine shared her ideas with Bram Cohen, who went on to develop BitTorrent.
:Mrs. Roberts spends her time developing for Ubuntu, and defacing the websites of people who make "your mom" jokes to her daughter. Elaine still stalks the net. She joins communities, contributes code or comments, and moves on. And if, late at night, you point a streaming audio player at the right IP at the right time - you can hear her rock out.
:~Happy Hacking.~

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cory Doctorow]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Elaine Roberts]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Mrs. Roberts]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Richard Stallman]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:1337|05]]

Talk:633: Blockbuster Mining

2013-06-13T12:59:05Z

LadyMondegreen: Created page with "Why do we think that this is Danish? The hair isn't the same and there are no other indicators. ~~~~"

Why do we think that this is Danish? The hair isn't the same and there are no other indicators. [[User:LadyMondegreen|LadyMondegreen]] ([[User talk:LadyMondegreen|talk]]) 12:59, 13 June 2013 (UTC)