explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2008: Irony Definition

2018-10-05T16:07:18Z

XenoZeno:

{{comic
| number = 2008
| date = June 18, 2018
| title = Irony Definition
| image = irony_definition.png
| titletext = Can you stop glaring at me like that? It makes me feel really ironic.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete| Needs still much more rework. - Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Irony is the statement of someone by using words that signify the opposite, typically in a humorous sense. It's a contradiction between a statement's stated and intended meaning. The adjective ironic characterizes irony but often in a much less humorous way. It has more the meaning like strange, interesting, unexpected, but sometimes also funny based on the expectations.

This joke presents a snapshot of an argument from [[Black Hat]] to [[Cueball]]. Black Hat expresses that it's strange how Cueball understands irony and on top of that he is also happy like everyone else presenting irony while the opponent is annoyed. Cueball is probably more upset because he knows Black Hat is a well known bad guy annoying other people.

Black Hat misuses the word ironic by saying that it's funny while that what he is saying isn't funny all.

In the title text Black Hat missuses the word ''ironic'' because he just means ''iconic''.

==Transcript==
:[Black Hat and Cueball are walking together, with Black Hat walking behind Cueball with his arms out and palms up. Cueball is visibly upset, as evidenced by the squiggle floating above his head and his balled up fists.]
:Black Hat: It's ironic how '''''you''''' know the definition of irony, yet '''''I'm''''' the one in this conversation who's happy.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Language]]

2054: Data Pipeline

2018-10-05T16:04:02Z

XenoZeno:

{{comic
| number = 2054
| date = October 3, 2018
| title = Data Pipeline
| image = data_pipeline.png
| titletext = "Is the pipeline literally running from your laptop?" "Don't be silly, my laptop disconnects far too often to host a service we rely on. It's running on my phone."
}}

==Explanation==
In the first panel [[Cueball]] shows [[Ponytail]] and [[White Hat]] a Data Pipeline he has constructed that, as he puts it, <nowiki>'collects and processes all the data we need'</nowiki>. This implies that the three are running some sort of project that requires data processing. Ponytail assumes that this data pipeline is an unstable mess of scripts that will cease to function correctly should any unexpected input be received. Cueball tries to claim it isn't, but his hesitation (including using the word "might") essentially states that this is very likely, although he seems to hope that it might not be. Ponytail then seems impressed and expresses this to him. She, however, gets interrupted by Cueball who tells her that the system just malfunctioned and collapsed. He, however, states that he can fix it, making it seem like this cycle of patching and collapsing could repeat infinitely, or until all problems have been patched. [[Code Quality|Knowing Cueball's code, though,]] it seems more likely he can't patch it.

In the title text, Ponytail or White Hat proceeds to question how such an important system can run on such a small computer. However, Cueball makes it worse by saying he uses his phone due to the better connection. While this might give the pipeline more uptime, it also means its system resources are far more limited.

This comic is a logical continuation of the Code Quality series ([[1513: Code Quality]], [[1695: Code Quality 2]] and [[1833: Code Quality 3]]), further highlighting Cueball's coding ineptitude and Ponytail's exasperation with it.

It's quite common for somebody who codes for enjoyment with most of their time to attempt to automate absolutely everything that is done. Whenever a rote task is seen, a programmer thinks, "why is a human doing this when the time could be spent making a computer do it automatically, forever?" Unfortunately, without the advent of strong artificial intelligence, one of the places this begins breaking down is in aggregating information from multiple sources.

People tend to publish their data via a variety of different channels, and as they are not programmers and don't share the value of consistency and computer-processability, it is all in completely different formats. Some data is only available in print. Some data is only available as photographs. Some data is only available as written reports. A certain kind of nerd will see this situation and become excited, seeing the opportunity to automate something that nobody else thinks is reasonable to put the energy into. They begin writing scripts that process all the different formats that all the data is in, and eventually get the whole thing working! They can then, in theory, make a number of mind-numbing data-processing jobs obsolete.

Google has put a lot of energy into conquering this challenge on many, many fronts around the decade of the 2000s, making data more processable everywhere, and possible hastening the advent of those strong artificial intelligences, which would thrive off of the availability of already-digitized information. A notable project was google books, where libraries were scoured for non-digital information and it was all painstakingly scanned. Additionally, organizations have been increasingly pressured to offer their information in standardized formats that can all be processed the same way. This continued pressure is giving more and more results, but because it must be implemented by humans who gain little immediately from the process, it is rare that adherence to the guidelines is universal.

The workaround of building many small programs that handle all the quirks is the domain of "scraping" -- downloading information intended to be presented to a human, running it through software that has been pre-programmed with what patterns to expect, and normalizing and making use of the data.
Anybody who has, as a mere individual, attempted this goal, quickly realizes that as soon as the data source has the smallest change, the data becomes garbage. Often it becomes garbage in a way that is laborious to hunt down and understand, and may not even be noticed. This would be tragic for a corporation that was relying on the results, and would be like a trojan horse, destroying them from the inside.

Privately, though, many hobbyists can make money by collecting data that is useful to them and processing it more effectively, using computer code, than their peers do. Because they are consistently personally invested in their data pipeline, they just hack up fixes as problems occur. One website that has been maintained this way for many years is piperka.net, which is run by a single hobbyist and provides a centralized place for tracking most webcomics, including xkcd itself, using this very method of data scraping. Additionally, many companies have refined data scraping to be quite effective and reliable, such as mint.com which allows customers to consolidate their financial information all in one place.

Artificial intelligence is developing to the point that some computers are scraping data very effectively and reliably, but usually creating advanced, robust, scraping algorithms is not worth the effort -- it is more efficient to get the providers of the data to just offer it in a normalized way, hire a human to do the task, or make money through something that doesn't require as diverse processing. Hence there has been this niche filled by those hobbyists willing to put the heuristic effort in.

Cueball's hesitant response in this comic has some similarities to [[410: Math Paper]].

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is standing with an open laptop, showing it to Ponytail and White Hat.]
:Cueball: Check it out - I made a full automated data pipeline that collects and processes all the information we need.

:[Ponytail is looking down at Cueball's laptop.]
:Ponytail: Is it a giant house of cards built from random scripts that will all completely collapse the moment any input does anything weird?

:[Borderless beat panel]

:[Cueball looks at his laptop.]
:Cueball: It... ''might'' not be.
:Ponytail: I guess that's someth-
:Cueball: Whoops, just collapsed. Hang on, I can patch it.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Cueball Computer Problems]]

2055: Bluetooth

2018-10-05T15:57:08Z

XenoZeno: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2055
| date = October 5, 2018
| title = Bluetooth
| image = bluetooth.png
| titletext = Bluetooth is actually named for the tenth-century Viking king Harald "Bluetooth" Gormsson, but the protocol developed by Harald was a wireless charging standard unrelated to the modern Bluetooth except by name.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by JOSIAH BLUETOOTH. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

[[Cueball]] is talking to [[White Hat]] about Bluetooth and wireless connectivity. He asks if it has become easier to stream audio via Bluetooth since he last used it. White Hat then replies that it has become an easy-to-use and streamlined service, where connecting devices is easy. Cueball is excited about this, before White Hat tells him he was lying and that Bluetooth is still as hard to use as ever.

This comic also references the common problem of audio playing through the wrong device when Bluetooth is activated.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:[Cueball and White Hat are talking, Cueball is holding a cell phone and wireless headphones]
:Cueball: I haven't used a wireless/Bluetooth thingy in like ten years. Is audio stuff still a nightmare?
:White Hat: Nah, it's great now.

:[Zoom in on White Hat]
:White Hat: You tap devices together twice to link them and they flash in sync. (It pairs using accelerometer timing and sound.) Tap them three times to disconnect.―You can pair multiple inputs and outputs and it handels it smoothly.
:Cueball (off screen): Nice!
:White Hat: It just works. Sound comes from where you expect.
:Cueball (off screen): Wonderful

:[Cueball and White Hat facing each other]
:White Hat: Haha, just kidding, it's a nightmare.
:Cueball: ''NOOOOOO!''
:White Hat: When I connect to my car, music starts blasting from my headphones while the car repeatedly plays a "NEW CONNECTION" chime.
:Cueball: ''This is not what Josiah Bluetooth intended!''

{{comic discussion}}

2055: Bluetooth

2018-10-05T15:50:16Z

XenoZeno: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2055
| date = October 5, 2018
| title = Bluetooth
| image = bluetooth.png
| titletext = Bluetooth is actually named for the tenth-century Viking king Harald "Bluetooth" Gormsson, but the protocol developed by Harald was a wireless charging standard unrelated to the modern Bluetooth except by name.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by JOSIA BLUETOOTH. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:[Cueball and White Hat are talking, Cueball is holding a cell phone and wireless headphones]
:Cueball: I haven't used a wireless/Bluetooth thingy in like ten years. Is audio stuff still a nightmare?
:White Hat: Nah, it's great now.

:[Zoom in on White Hat]
:White Hat: You tap devices together twice to link them and they flash in sync. (It pairs using accelerometer timing and sound.) Tap them three times to disconnect.―You can pair multiple inputs and outputs and it handels it smoothly.
:Cueball (off screen): Nice!
:White Hat: It just works. Sound comes from where you expect.
:Cueball (off screen): Wonderful

:[Cueball and White Hat facing each other]
:White Hat: Haha, just kidding, it's a nightmare.
:Cueball: ''NOOOOOO!''
:White Hat: When I connect to my car, music starts blasting from my headphones while the car repeatedly plays a "NEW CONNECTION" chime.
:Cueball: ''This is not what Josiah Bluetooth intended!''

{{comic discussion}}

1810: Chat Systems

2017-10-25T19:58:03Z

XenoZeno: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1810
| date = March 13, 2017
| title = Chat Systems
| image = chat_systems.png
| titletext = I'm one of the few Instagram users who connects solely through the Unix 'talk' gateway.
}}

==Explanation==
The comic consists of an {{w|Euler diagram}} showing a wide variety of {{w|Online chat|chat systems}} and their intersections. (Euler diagrams should not be confused with {{w|Venn diagram}}s, see more on this [[:Category:Venn diagrams|here]]). The comic demonstrates the complexity that can be involved in modern communications: simply remembering how to get in touch with someone can be a challenge.

Below is a [[#Chat systems|table]] with explanation for all 24 mentioned chat systems and below that a list of each system's [[#Euler intersections|intersections]] with the other systems. Several of the systems are already considered old, like ''The "chat" tab in an old {{w|Google Doc}}'', but some people keep using them, which is part of the joke. There only seems to be one "chat" system which could in no way be said to be an on-line chat system, and that is the ''Wall (bathroom)'' at the bottom, which refers to how people writes notes on public bathroom walls, making it an extra joke and possibly a reference to [[229: Graffiti]].

In the title text, [[Randall]] explains how he is one of the only few {{w|Instagram}} users to use the {{w|UNIX}} {{w|Talk_(software)|'talk' gateway}} (an old peer-to-peer chat system whereby users logged into the same UNIX system could privately communicate with each other in a full-screen interface.) But he doesn't tell how he had enhanced this old fashioned software.

===Chat systems===
The 24 chat systems with the number of stick figures inside are listed. Notice there are only 23 real systems, as one of the systems is a bathroom wall.
{| class="wikitable"
!System
!Number of people in group
!Explanation
!Intersects
|-
| {{w|SMS}}
|39
|Short Message Service; a text-based messaging system connecting most worldwide phone systems that had its beginnings in the 1980s and has since represented the most common form of data transmission for most people. It is principally used to send short text messages between mobile phones, but most phone carriers provide facilities to send-to-email or send-to-voice (for use with landline phones). Most major phone carriers also provide support for email-to-SMS.
|Slack, Hangouts, IRC, iMessage, Signal, Email, Snapchat, Whatsapp, Zephyr, FB Messenger, Instagram DM, BBM, Twitter DM, WeChat, Peach
|-
| {{w|Email}}
|35
|A popular form of electronic communication that saw first widespread use in the 1960s. It allows you to send electronic "letters" to people using pre-exchanged email addresses. Many people use this platform, hence the large size of the corresponding circle.
|Slack, Hangouts, IRC, iMessage, Signal, Whatsapp, Zephyr, FB Messenger, Instagram DM, BBM, Twitter DM, Skype, ICQ, Telegram
|-
| {{w|Hangouts}}
|9
|Google Hangouts is Google's instant messaging system. It can be used to share data and for video chat.
|SMS, Email, IRC, Slack, Signal
|-
| {{w|Signal_(software)|Signal}}
|8
| An app used for encrypted communications.
|SMS, Email, IRC, Slack, Hangouts, iMessage, Instagram DM, Zephyr
|-
| {{w|iMessage}}
|6
|Apple's SMS service
|Email, SMS, FB Messenger, Signal
|-
| {{w|IRC}}
|5
|Internet Relay Chat; a chat protocol from the late 1980's that still sees considerable but declining use today. It is an open, freely available protocol with many free client apps available. Communications are principally in text and users typically use an app to connect to an IRC server, which may in turn be connected to other IRC servers. Many clients also provide for file sharing. There are many client and server plugins that provide access to other protocols (such as IRC-Hangouts, etc).
|Email, SMS, Slack, Signal, Hangouts
|-
| {{w|Slack_(software)|Slack}}
|5
|A team instant messaging service
|Email, SMS, IRC, Hangouts, Signal
|-
| {{w|Twitter|Twitter DM}}
|4
| "Direct messages" between users on Twitter.
|Email, SMS
|-
| {{w|AOL Instant Messenger|AIM}}
|2
|AOL Instant Messaging service; a popular messaging system from the 1990s that suffered a severe decline in 2005 upon the release of Gmail and Google Chat. It is based on the closed source OSCAR protocol, but AOL created the TOC/TOC2 protocol specifications, and made specifications openly available, for third parties to connect to their service. There have been short-lived dalliances with other protocols since 2008; it has never had direct support for the other widely used protocols here.
|None
|-
|The "chat" tab in an old {{w|Google Doc}}
|2
|Google Docs is an online word processor reminiscent of Microsoft Word. One of the notable features is online collaborative editing, with a rudimentary chat feature for communication. Randall apparently communicates with someone using the chat in an old Google Doc.
|None
|-
| {{w|Facebook_Messenger|FB Messenger}}
|2
|Facebook's chat system.
|Email, SMS, iMessage
|-
| {{w|Instagram|Instagram DM}}
|2
|Direct Messaging, a feature of Instagram that allows users to post personal messages to each other.
|Email, SMS, Signal
|-
|{{w|Peach_(social_network)|Peach}}
|2
|Peach is a mobile-based social network introduced in January 2016.
|SMS
|-
| Telegram
|2
|Could refer to a cloud based instant messaging system by this name ({{w|Telegram (software)|Telegram}}), or to actually sending messages using {{w|telegrams}}. Telegrams were messages sent by electric telegraphy, which were often typed out and hand-delivered to the recipient. This was the first system for rapid communication across long distances that was widely available, originally developed in the 19th century. Naturally, telegraphy is now wildly obsolete (though some local services apparently do still exist) which would explain why Randall communicates with so few people that way.
|Email
|-
| {{w|Skype}}
|2
|Microsoft's chat client. It offers voice over IP (VOIP) video and audio calls, instant messaging and phoning from within the app.
|Email
|-
| {{w|WhatsApp}}
|2
|Billed as encrypted end-to-end chat, allows voice over IP (VOIP) chats, text chats, video and image sharing. Caters for group chat as well.
|Email, SMS
|-
| {{w|WeChat}}
|2
| Started off as a Chinese WhatsApp imitation. WeChat has become a full scale social media system, with its own news, games and payment system.
|SMS
|-
|{{w|Apache_HTTP_Server|Apache}} Request {{w|Server_log|Log}}
|1
|A file used by Apache HTML server to log page access requests by users, usually stored as access_log. Its use as a communications tool would require the user to embed their messages in URLs and the admin to look for the messages in the logs. It would be inconvenient and time consuming for both parties. It was implemented soon after here: [https://github.com/mdom/smokesignal github]
|None
|-
| {{w|BlackBerry Messenger|BBM}}
|1
|Blackberry message. A chat system available on {{w|BlackBerry}} phones, now largely obsolete.
|Email, SMS
|-
| {{w|Snapchat}}
|1
|Snapchat is an image messaging app.
|SMS
|-
|Wall (bathroom)
|1
|This is the only "other" joke in the comic as this is the only "system" not on-line. Apparently it is a chat system based around writing on the wall in the bathroom. Not an electronic system. It may thus be a reference to [[229: Graffiti]]. Leaving messages on public bathroom walls is a common form of {{w|graffiti}}. It may be used as a support for anonymous conversations. Alternatively, this could mean the person is an extreme introvert, and hides in his bathroom instead of interacting with others, by talking through the wall. It could also be a pun on "communicating through _____" as a bathroom wall is a physical object rather than an interface. It could also refer to someone who has a habit of talking through the wall to people in adjacent stalls of a public bathroom.
Alternately, there used to be a Facebook App called Bathroom Wall, which was an anonymous message board where people could both post and reply to posts. This was all anonymous by default, but users could attach a nickname to each individual post or reply in order to maintain a continuity, and even have a full conversation. It's possible that this is what Randall meant for this group, seeing as it was indeed a way to communicate online.
|None
|-
|{{w|Wall (Unix)}}
|1
|Short for "write all", the "wall" command copies its input to every user logged into the same Unix system, and so can be used as a primitive chat system.
|None
|-
| {{w|Zephyr (protocol)}}
|1
| Zephyr was designed as an instant messaging protocol and application-suite with a heavy Unix background.
|Email, SMS, Signal
|-
| {{w|ICQ}}
|1
|An older open-source instant messaging application.
|Email
|}

===Euler intersections===
*Skype - none, Email
*Email - none, Skype, SMS, Slack, Hangouts, IRC, ICQ, iMessage, Signal, WhatsApp, Zephyr, FB Messenger, Instagram DM, BBM, Telegram, Twitter DM
*SMS - none, Email, Slack, Hangouts, IRC, Snapchat, iMessage, Signal, WeChat, WhatsApp, Zephyr, FB Messenger, Instagram DM, Peach, BBM, Twitter DM
*AIM - none
*Slack - Email, SMS, Hangouts, IRC, Signal
*Hangouts - Email, SMS, Slack, IRC, Signal
*IRC - Email, SMS, Slack, Hangouts, Signal
*Snapchat - SMS
*ICQ - Email
*iMessage - Email, SMS, Signal, FB Messenger
*Signal - Email, SMS, Slack, Hangouts, IRC, iMessage, Zephyr, Instagram DM
*WeChat - SMS
*WhatsApp - Email, SMS
*Zephyr - Email, SMS, Signal
*FB Messenger - Email, SMS, iMessage
*Instagram DM - Email, SMS, Signal
*Peach - SMS
*BBM - Email, SMS
*Telegram - none, Email
*Twitter DM - none, Email, SMS
*The "chat" tab in an old Google Doc - none
*Apache Request Log - none
*Wall (Unix) - none
*Wall (bathroom) - none

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript| please verify}}
:[An Euler diagram with many circle like drawings for various chat systems is shown. Some circles overlapping others in complicated ways, others are single circles with no connections, but most are embedded into others. Inside the circles mainly the standard sticky figures like Cueball, Megan, Ponytail and Hairy are shown but there are also a few others.]

:[The list of items and its intersections from left top to right bottom is:]
:Skype - none, Email
:Email - none, Skype, SMS, Slack, Hangouts, IRC, ICQ, iMessage, Signal, WhatsApp, Zephyr, FB Messenger, Instagram DM, BBM, Telegram, Twitter DM
:SMS - none, Email, Slack, Hangouts, IRC, Snapchat, iMessage, Signal, WeChat, WhatsApp, Zephyr, FB Messenger, Instagram DM, Peach, BBM, Twitter DM
:AIM - none
:Slack - Email, SMS, Hangouts, IRC, Signal
:Hangouts - Email, SMS, Slack, IRC, Signal
:IRC - Email, SMS, Slack, Hangouts, Signal
:Snapchat - SMS
:ICQ - Email
:iMessage - Email, SMS, Signal, FB Messenger
:Signal - Email, SMS, Slack, Hangouts, IRC, iMessage, Zephyr, Instagram DM
:WeChat - SMS
:WhatsApp - Email, SMS
:Zephyr - Email, SMS, Signal
:FB Messenger - Email, SMS, iMessage
:Instagram DM - Email, SMS, Signal
:Peach - SMS
:BBM - Email, SMS
:Telegram - none, Email
:Twitter DM - none, Email, SMS
:The "chat" tab in an old Google Doc - none
:Apache Request Log - none
:Wall (Unix) - none
:Wall (bathroom) - none

:[Caption below the panel:]
:I have a hard time keeping track of which contacts use which chat systems.

==Trivia==
*There are [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/e/ef/1810_Chat_System_numbered.PNG 57 characters] in the comic.
*The ubiquity of standards - here, of messaging systems - was already covered in [[927: Standards]] and people's hesitation to switch off IRC was mentioned in [[1782: Team Chat]]. The same point about people using various chat systems was used in [[1254: Preferred Chat System]]. And famously the hidden chat room mentioned in [[1305: Undocumented Feature]], was later created by Randall through the [[:Category:April fools' comics|April fools' comic]] [[1506: xkcloud]] - see the [[1506:_xkcloud#Don.27t_contact_us|Don't contact us]] section.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Blondie]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Blondie]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Social networking]]

1810: Chat Systems

2017-10-25T19:55:38Z

XenoZeno: Describes what systems intersect each other

{{comic
| number = 1810
| date = March 13, 2017
| title = Chat Systems
| image = chat_systems.png
| titletext = I'm one of the few Instagram users who connects solely through the Unix 'talk' gateway.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|The main purpose of using an Euler diagram here is showing all the intersections. Nothing of them here are explained. Needs also rework on language.}}
The comic consists of an {{w|Euler diagram}} showing a wide variety of {{w|Online chat|chat systems}} and their intersections. (Euler diagrams should not be confused with {{w|Venn diagram}}s, see more on this [[:Category:Venn diagrams|here]]). The comic demonstrates the complexity that can be involved in modern communications: simply remembering how to get in touch with someone can be a challenge.

Below is a [[#Chat systems|table]] with explanation for all 24 mentioned chat systems and below that a list of each system's [[#Euler intersections|intersections]] with the other systems. Several of the systems are already considered old, like ''The "chat" tab in an old {{w|Google Doc}}'', but some people keep using them, which is part of the joke. There only seems to be one "chat" system which could in no way be said to be an on-line chat system, and that is the ''Wall (bathroom)'' at the bottom, which refers to how people writes notes on public bathroom walls, making it an extra joke and possibly a reference to [[229: Graffiti]].

In the title text, [[Randall]] explains how he is one of the only few {{w|Instagram}} users to use the {{w|UNIX}} {{w|Talk_(software)|'talk' gateway}} (an old peer-to-peer chat system whereby users logged into the same UNIX system could privately communicate with each other in a full-screen interface.) But he doesn't tell how he had enhanced this old fashioned software.

===Chat systems===
The 24 chat systems with the number of stick figures inside are listed. Notice there are only 23 real systems, as one of the systems is a bathroom wall.
{| class="wikitable"
!System
!Number of people in group
!Explanation
!Intersects
|-
| {{w|SMS}}
|39
|Short Message Service; a text-based messaging system connecting most worldwide phone systems that had its beginnings in the 1980s and has since represented the most common form of data transmission for most people. It is principally used to send short text messages between mobile phones, but most phone carriers provide facilities to send-to-email or send-to-voice (for use with landline phones). Most major phone carriers also provide support for email-to-SMS.
|Slack, Hangouts, IRC, iMessage, Signal, Email, Snapchat, Whatsapp, Zephyr, FB Messenger, Instagram DM, BBM, Twitter DM, WeChat, Peach
|-
| {{w|Email}}
|35
|A popular form of electronic communication that saw first widespread use in the 1960s. It allows you to send electronic "letters" to people using pre-exchanged email addresses. Many people use this platform, hence the large size of the corresponding circle.
|Slack, Hangouts, IRC, iMessage, Signal, Whatsapp, Zephyr, FB Messenger, Instagram DM, BBM, Twitter DM, Skype, ICQ, Telegram
|-
| {{w|Hangouts}}
|9
|Google Hangouts is Google's instant messaging system. It can be used to share data and for video chat.
|SMS, Email, IRC, Slack, Signal
|-
| {{w|Signal_(software)|Signal}}
|8
| An app used for encrypted communications.
|SMS, Email, IRC, Slack, Hangouts, iMessage, Instagram DM, Zephyr
|-
| {{w|iMessage}}
|6
|Apple's SMS service
|Email, SMS, FB Messenger, Signal
|-
| {{w|IRC}}
|5
|Internet Relay Chat; a chat protocol from the late 1980's that still sees considerable but declining use today. It is an open, freely available protocol with many free client apps available. Communications are principally in text and users typically use an app to connect to an IRC server, which may in turn be connected to other IRC servers. Many clients also provide for file sharing. There are many client and server plugins that provide access to other protocols (such as IRC-Hangouts, etc).
|Email, SMS, Slack, Signal, Hangouts
|-
| {{w|Slack_(software)|Slack}}
|5
|A team instant messaging service
|Email, SMS, IRC, Hangouts, Signal
|-
| {{w|Twitter|Twitter DM}}
|4
| "Direct messages" between users on Twitter.
|Email, SMS
|-
| {{w|AOL Instant Messenger|AIM}}
|2
|AOL Instant Messaging service; a popular messaging system from the 1990s that suffered a severe decline in 2005 upon the release of Gmail and Google Chat. It is based on the closed source OSCAR protocol, but AOL created the TOC/TOC2 protocol specifications, and made specifications openly available, for third parties to connect to their service. There have been short-lived dalliances with other protocols since 2008; it has never had direct support for the other widely used protocols here.
|None
|-
|The "chat" tab in an old {{w|Google Doc}}
|2
|Google Docs is an online word processor reminiscent of Microsoft Word. One of the notable features is online collaborative editing, with a rudimentary chat feature for communication. Randall apparently communicates with someone using the chat in an old Google Doc.
|None
|-
| {{w|Facebook_Messenger|FB Messenger}}
|2
|Facebook's chat system.
|Email, SMS, iMessage
|-
| {{w|Instagram|Instagram DM}}
|2
|Direct Messaging, a feature of Instagram that allows users to post personal messages to each other.
|Email, SMS, Signal
|-
|{{w|Peach_(social_network)|Peach}}
|2
|Peach is a mobile-based social network introduced in January 2016.
|SMS
|-
| Telegram
|2
|Could refer to a cloud based instant messaging system by this name ({{w|Telegram (software)|Telegram}}), or to actually sending messages using {{w|telegrams}}. Telegrams were messages sent by electric telegraphy, which were often typed out and hand-delivered to the recipient. This was the first system for rapid communication across long distances that was widely available, originally developed in the 19th century. Naturally, telegraphy is now wildly obsolete (though some local services apparently do still exist) which would explain why Randall communicates with so few people that way.
|Email
|-
| {{w|Skype}}
|2
|Microsoft's chat client. It offers voice over IP (VOIP) video and audio calls, instant messaging and phoning from within the app.
|Email
|-
| {{w|WhatsApp}}
|2
|Billed as encrypted end-to-end chat, allows voice over IP (VOIP) chats, text chats, video and image sharing. Caters for group chat as well.
|Email, SMS
|-
| {{w|WeChat}}
|2
| Started off as a Chinese WhatsApp imitation. WeChat has become a full scale social media system, with its own news, games and payment system.
|SMS
|-
|{{w|Apache_HTTP_Server|Apache}} Request {{w|Server_log|Log}}
|1
|A file used by Apache HTML server to log page access requests by users, usually stored as access_log. Its use as a communications tool would require the user to embed their messages in URLs and the admin to look for the messages in the logs. It would be inconvenient and time consuming for both parties. It was implemented soon after here: [https://github.com/mdom/smokesignal github]
|None
|-
| {{w|BlackBerry Messenger|BBM}}
|1
|Blackberry message. A chat system available on {{w|BlackBerry}} phones, now largely obsolete.
|Email, SMS
|-
| {{w|Snapchat}}
|1
|Snapchat is an image messaging app.
|SMS
|-
|Wall (bathroom)
|1
|This is the only "other" joke in the comic as this is the only "system" not on-line. Apparently it is a chat system based around writing on the wall in the bathroom. Not an electronic system. It may thus be a reference to [[229: Graffiti]]. Leaving messages on public bathroom walls is a common form of {{w|graffiti}}. It may be used as a support for anonymous conversations. Alternatively, this could mean the person is an extreme introvert, and hides in his bathroom instead of interacting with others, by talking through the wall. It could also be a pun on "communicating through _____" as a bathroom wall is a physical object rather than an interface. It could also refer to someone who has a habit of talking through the wall to people in adjacent stalls of a public bathroom.
Alternately, there used to be a Facebook App called Bathroom Wall, which was an anonymous message board where people could both post and reply to posts. This was all anonymous by default, but users could attach a nickname to each individual post or reply in order to maintain a continuity, and even have a full conversation. It's possible that this is what Randall meant for this group, seeing as it was indeed a way to communicate online.
|None
|-
|{{w|Wall (Unix)}}
|1
|Short for "write all", the "wall" command copies its input to every user logged into the same Unix system, and so can be used as a primitive chat system.
|None
|-
| {{w|Zephyr (protocol)}}
|1
| Zephyr was designed as an instant messaging protocol and application-suite with a heavy Unix background.
|Email, SMS, Signal
|-
| {{w|ICQ}}
|1
|An older open-source instant messaging application.
|Email
|}

===Euler intersections===
*Skype - none, Email
*Email - none, Skype, SMS, Slack, Hangouts, IRC, ICQ, iMessage, Signal, WhatsApp, Zephyr, FB Messenger, Instagram DM, BBM, Telegram, Twitter DM
*SMS - none, Email, Slack, Hangouts, IRC, Snapchat, iMessage, Signal, WeChat, WhatsApp, Zephyr, FB Messenger, Instagram DM, Peach, BBM, Twitter DM
*AIM - none
*Slack - Email, SMS, Hangouts, IRC, Signal
*Hangouts - Email, SMS, Slack, IRC, Signal
*IRC - Email, SMS, Slack, Hangouts, Signal
*Snapchat - SMS
*ICQ - Email
*iMessage - Email, SMS, Signal, FB Messenger
*Signal - Email, SMS, Slack, Hangouts, IRC, iMessage, Zephyr, Instagram DM
*WeChat - SMS
*WhatsApp - Email, SMS
*Zephyr - Email, SMS, Signal
*FB Messenger - Email, SMS, iMessage
*Instagram DM - Email, SMS, Signal
*Peach - SMS
*BBM - Email, SMS
*Telegram - none, Email
*Twitter DM - none, Email, SMS
*The "chat" tab in an old Google Doc - none
*Apache Request Log - none
*Wall (Unix) - none
*Wall (bathroom) - none

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript| please verify}}
:[An Euler diagram with many circle like drawings for various chat systems is shown. Some circles overlapping others in complicated ways, others are single circles with no connections, but most are embedded into others. Inside the circles mainly the standard sticky figures like Cueball, Megan, Ponytail and Hairy are shown but there are also a few others.]

:[The list of items and its intersections from left top to right bottom is:]
:Skype - none, Email
:Email - none, Skype, SMS, Slack, Hangouts, IRC, ICQ, iMessage, Signal, WhatsApp, Zephyr, FB Messenger, Instagram DM, BBM, Telegram, Twitter DM
:SMS - none, Email, Slack, Hangouts, IRC, Snapchat, iMessage, Signal, WeChat, WhatsApp, Zephyr, FB Messenger, Instagram DM, Peach, BBM, Twitter DM
:AIM - none
:Slack - Email, SMS, Hangouts, IRC, Signal
:Hangouts - Email, SMS, Slack, IRC, Signal
:IRC - Email, SMS, Slack, Hangouts, Signal
:Snapchat - SMS
:ICQ - Email
:iMessage - Email, SMS, Signal, FB Messenger
:Signal - Email, SMS, Slack, Hangouts, IRC, iMessage, Zephyr, Instagram DM
:WeChat - SMS
:WhatsApp - Email, SMS
:Zephyr - Email, SMS, Signal
:FB Messenger - Email, SMS, iMessage
:Instagram DM - Email, SMS, Signal
:Peach - SMS
:BBM - Email, SMS
:Telegram - none, Email
:Twitter DM - none, Email, SMS
:The "chat" tab in an old Google Doc - none
:Apache Request Log - none
:Wall (Unix) - none
:Wall (bathroom) - none

:[Caption below the panel:]
:I have a hard time keeping track of which contacts use which chat systems.

==Trivia==
*There are [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/e/ef/1810_Chat_System_numbered.PNG 57 characters] in the comic.
*The ubiquity of standards - here, of messaging systems - was already covered in [[927: Standards]] and people's hesitation to switch off IRC was mentioned in [[1782: Team Chat]]. The same point about people using various chat systems was used in [[1254: Preferred Chat System]]. And famously the hidden chat room mentioned in [[1305: Undocumented Feature]], was later created by Randall through the [[:Category:April fools' comics|April fools' comic]] [[1506: xkcloud]] - see the [[1506:_xkcloud#Don.27t_contact_us|Don't contact us]] section.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Blondie]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Blondie]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Social networking]]