2220: Imagine Going Back in Time

Imagine Going Back in Time

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Title text: I wonder what the trendy adults in 2019 who are too cool for Pokemon will be into. Probably Digimon!

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Explanation

Cueball is checking his Pokémon Go app to check on the status of a Pokémon he had previously left in a gym (to defend it against the other two teams in the game). In the gym he sees that another player named "Reelect Trump 2020" has left a frog Pokémon, which is now standing next to his. Cueball, evidently not a fan of President Trump or his supporters, finds it distasteful to be indirectly associated with someone whose political views he finds unpleasant. Alternatively, it may simply be that Cueball doesn't want politics injected into a game that he plays for fun.

When he remarks on this to Megan, she observes how strange that remark would sound if he said it to his younger self from 20 years ago. Normally when people say, "imagine going back in time", they are merely constructing a hypothetical scenario to illustrate how rapidly society has changed over the years. Megan is likely pointing out that the idea of Donald Trump becoming the President of the United States (let alone coming up for re-election) would have seemed very farfetch'd just 20 years ago. However, it turns out that Cueball somehow actually does have the time-travel technology required to pull this off, and so he takes Megan's suggestion literally and goes back in time 20 years to do exactly what she suggested: he repeats the statement to his younger self to see what his reaction will be.

Unfortunately, past Cueball (in the year 1999) chooses to focus on a completely different aspect of the statement: the fact that Pokémon - a game that past Cueball sees as a children's game - will still somehow be popular in 20 years, and that his adult self is still playing it. These observations make Cueball feel uncomfortable, as they highlight the fact that he is spending time on pursuits that his younger self sees as frivolous or childish. He gets defensive and starts to argue with his younger self.

When his younger self begins to call it a sobering and cautionary tale, it may dawn upon present Cueball that he may just have changed how his former self will behave. (Could he, in the new iteration, never even begin playing Pokémon Go, and thus present Cueball may disappear and a different version of himself will exist 20 years later? Or could he have seeded encouragement for himself being more readily connected to all things Pokémon in the intervening years, putting himself further ahead of the resurgence in its popularity?) Or else future-Cueball is just frustrated at how past-Cueball is failing to notice his intended revelation — and in turn is failing to appreciate past-Cueball's own naive but still insightful interpretation.

Pokémon is a media franchise that debuted in 1996 in Japan as both a video game and a trading card game. It was originally designed for and marketed to younger children (the tie-in cartoon series constantly emphasizes its main characters are ten years old), with a design, aesthetic and gameplay that were optimized for a younger audience. Since then, and up to 2019, there have been a total of eight generations of video games on consoles. As the franchise continued to thrive and evolve, it's gone through multiple generations, including Pokémon Go, an augmented reality game for smartphones. These latest versions, in particular, have become popular with (and marketed to) adults, some of whom grew up playing the earlier generations.

In 1999 in North America, only the first generation of Pokémon video games had been released, consisting of Pokémon Blue and Pokémon Red and the anime-based spin-off Pokémon Yellow for the Nintendo Game Boy/Game Boy Color. The second generation of Pokémon video games would not even be announced in Japan until November 1999, and advertising for the North American release would begin in December of 1999. A person living in 1999, who has only seen the first generation, with no official confirmation that a second generation was even being considered, and unable to predict the nostalgia market that would appear later, would quite plausibly wonder about its popularity 20 years later.

Donald Trump was the president of the United States at the time of publishing, elected in 2016. Even during his campaign, the idea of his election was considered absurd in many circles, as he had never held any kind of public office, and had no background that would lend itself to expertise in government or public policy. Prior to his election, he was primarily known as a New York real estate mogul and host of the 2003 reality television show The Apprentice. While he'd been teasing the idea of a presidential run since the 1980s, and indeed was seeking the Reform Party candidacy in 1999 (at the advice of then-Governor of Minnesota Jesse Ventura, another actor-turned-politician), most people did not take the idea seriously, and the concept of him actually being President of the United States would have been hugely unexpected to most Americans in an earlier era. 1999 Cueball might regard the name "Reelect Trump 2020" as an ironic joke, like a campaign button for Vermin Supreme or the Sweet Meteor Of Death.

Randall released a comic about Pokémon Go less than a week after its release back in July 2016: 1705: Pokémon Go. But Pokémon in general has been a recurring theme in xkcd long before Pokémon Go was released.

Pepe the Frog is an internet meme that has become associated with Donald Trump after his use of it during his presidential campaign. The use of a frog Pokémon, therefore, is a callback to this internet phenomenon.

The Pokémon left in the gym is most likely Politoed, the only official frog Pokémon released in the game at the time of publication. It comes from the tadpole series with Poliwag that evolves into Poliwhirl which by using a King's Rock can be evolved to Politoed (instead of to Poliwrath). There are other frog-like Pokémon in the game which are scheduled to be added to Pokémon Go, but where people who dislike Trump might have chosen Toxicroak, it seems an unlikely choice by a fan that hopes Trump is reelected!

This comic's joke is similar to one used in the 1985 science-fiction film Back to the Future, in which Doc Brown (of 1955) is shocked to learn that Ronald Reagan would be the President of the United States in thirty years' time, when in 1955 Reagan was a TV actor.

Digimon, as mentioned in the title text, is another media franchise which is similar to Pokémon in some ways, though it is sometimes perceived as more "cool" and "adult" oriented. Its popularity in North America rose around 1999 with the airing of its anime series, but never became as popular as Pokémon.

This was the first of two time travel comics in less than a week, as the one two comics after this one, 2222: Terminator: Dark Fate, also had future Cueballs travel back to visit their past self.

Transcript

[Cueball talks to Megan while looking at his smart phone.]

Cueball: Ugh. A player named "Reelect Trump 2020" put a frog Pokemon in the gym next to mine.

[Megan puts her hand to her face. Cueball is holding a device in his hand with an antenna. He uses the other hand to move a stick on the device.]

Megan: Imagine going back in time and saying that to yourself 20 years ago.

Cueball: Oh, I have a time machine! I'll try that.

[A sound effect between panels, likely the sound of Cueball's time machine.]

Bzzzzt

[Two Cueballs standing, facing each other. The one on the right is holding the handheld device, and is thus Cueball from 2019. He is apparently repeating his statement to the other Cueball from 1999, with only the last 3 words shown. He gestures towards the left Cueball. Above the left Cueball there is a frame with a caption:]

1999

Cueball from 2019: ...next to mine.

[Cueball from 1999 is shown, with Cueball from 2019 speaking off panel.]

Cueball from 1999: I see.

Cueball from 1999: Pokemon is still popular in 2019?

Cueball from 2019: Yeah.

[Cueball from 2019 is holding a finger up in front of Cueball from 1999.]

Cueball from 1999: And it's cool for people your age to play it?

Cueball from 2019: OK, I did not come here to be mocked.

Cueball from 1999: This is a sobering cautionary tale.

Cueball from 2019: Listen, self...

Trivia

• The idea of people extending their childhood hobbies into adulthood was explored in a more positive light in 219: Blanket Fort and 150: Grownups. The blurred line between childhood and adulthood is a recurring theme on xkcd.

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Discussion

I wonder if Randall had a particular "frog pokemon" in mind? Croagunk, Toxicroak, Froakie, Frogadier, Greninja...? 172.69.44.150 19:58, 25 October 2019 (UTC)

Hint: First, Pokemon Go didn't finished deploying generation 5 pokemons yet. Second, Trump is totally toxic. -- Hkmaly (talk) 23:17, 25 October 2019 (UTC)

The Poliwhirl family dates from Generation 1 and is the "original" frog pokémon. --162.158.122.36 23:59, 25 October 2019 (UTC)

Yes so fur sure the frog Pokémon Politoed from gen 2, since the Poliwag is tadpoles. I agree that Toxicroach or Croagunk would fit better with Trump in Randall's view, but it is a reelect Trump fan, so he would most likely use a green frog that is not "ugly". Have added this to the description with link to page with picture. --Kynde (talk) 22:08, 26 October 2019 (UTC)

Agree that Politoed is the most likely, but contrary to what the page says currently, croagunk and toxicroak have been in the game for a few months now. (I just had a bunch of croagunk in my area and evolved a toxicroak, which is why I had them in mind when I made my previous comment.)172.69.44.150 20:13, 28 October 2019 (UTC)

"... and I suppose Marla Maples is the first lady!" 172.68.38.88 20:04, 25 October 2019 (UTC)

I know that Randall, and by extension Cueball, are not enthusiastic about the idea of dealing with a player who goes by "Reelect Trump 2020", but what does it mean that there is a frog Pokemon in the gym alongside? In other words, is Cueball's annoyance just that there is a Trump-promoting player in the game or is there more to it than that? --172.69.90.46 20:16, 25 October 2019 (UTC)

I see that at least you made the connection to the original "Back to the Future" when Marty meets Doc in 1955 and tells him that Ronald Reagan is President. RAGBRAIvet (talk) 06:04, 28 October 2019 (UTC)

Definitely the Trump-promoting, as Toxicroak wouldn't be that hard pokemon to remove, with max CP 2488. Wait, "next to mine"? Ok, so he plays same team as Cueball and Cueball CANT remove it due to that. -- Hkmaly (talk) 23:17, 25 October 2019 (UTC)

And it is not a toxic pokémon when it is a fan of Trump that put it in! See above. --Kynde (talk) 22:08, 26 October 2019 (UTC)

The frog Pokemon is likely a reference to Pepe the Frog, which is a meme popular with Trump supporters--172.68.90.112 20:52, 25 October 2019 (UTC)

Trump was quite sufficiently (in)famous by 1999. Remember that he divorced his most famous wife, Ivana, in 1991. His various business and romantic failures ventures were regular tabloid fodder throughout the 90s. If you think a 1999 person would have never heard of Trump, you're obviously too young to be using the internet younger than I am. I think the main joke in this comic is that Cueball goes back expecting his younger self to go, "wait, re-elect WHO??", but his younger self doesn't even bat an eyelash at that part. 173.245.52.175 21:03, 25 October 2019 (UTC)

Famous, yes. Expected to became president, no. And young Cueball might be too young to care about tabloids and celebrities. -- Hkmaly (talk) 23:17, 25 October 2019 (UTC)

Nobody - not even Randall - is suggesting ANYBODY didn't know who Trump was in 1999. He's been quite famous for decades. The surprise here is that he's president, not who he is. NiceGuy1 (talk) 03:29, 26 October 2019 (UTC)

He was famous enough to be a recognizable cameo in Home Alone 2 with no explanation (and Home Alone 2 was basically the holiday movie at the time, since no one liked Home Alone 3), but that fame was nothing compared to how famous he'd become later--162.158.122.36 15:07, 27 October 2019 (UTC)

There is a Home Alone 3? oO Elektrizikekswerk (talk) 14:05, 28 October 2019 (UTC)

Has no one considered that we have been "dumbed down" to the point that so-called adults playing Pokemon and so-called adults voting for Trump are inextricably linked and are symptoms of the same malaise - a general inability to think for ourselves and a deep susceptibility to marketing, advertising and following the herd108.162.241.148 03:05, 26 October 2019 (UTC)

Yes, but nobody important. 172.69.34.98 03:11, 26 October 2019 (UTC)

Adults playing Pokemon just means they’re happy doing what makes them happy, why should someone be ashamed of it? 162.158.166.141 10:35, 26 October 2019 (UTC)

Yes, I play Pokémon Go, I'm in my forties, and most of the other players I play with are adults although here it has had a revive with the kids in school again. I get a lot of fresh air and more exercise than I got before starting to play 2,5 year ago. And with Randall's obsession with Pokémon and his knowledge about the games mechanics he most likely plays it himself. There are millions of adults playing every day as it is one of the most downloaded apps in app store. --Kynde (talk) 22:08, 26 October 2019 (UTC)

If *children* are mocking you for being childish, you *should* probably sit down and think about it for a moment. The thought seems to have struck Randall, too. --162.158.90.66 21:58, 28 October 2019 (UTC)

Just as I remember reading in a 1969 textbook that Ronald Regan was going to someday be elected President if (then current) political trends that became the “southern strategy” weren’t addressed, I also remember reading at least one op-Ed piece in the late 1990’s that if the political parties didn’t clean house and get rid of undue influence from big donors that someday Donald Trump would become President. There were people worried about Trump in 1999.162.158.62.129 04:13, 26 October 2019 (UTC)

I can't help but wonder if the wording of the title text is meant to invoke another shocking reveal when considering what "trendy adults" really are into these days.--Henke37 (talk) 15:30, 26 October 2019 (UTC)

What's with the width of this comic? It's too wide, and it breaks out of the standard xkcd.com layout a little bit. --NeatNit (talk) 16:31, 27 October 2019 (UTC)

I noticed this, too. Has this happened before? -- Dtgriscom (talk) 14:47, 28 October 2019 (UTC)

20 years ago, I was a whiny little shit and would have probably ranted that I'm to cool for Pokemon, instead of just admitting that it looks interesting and would have wanted a gameboy to play it myself. 172.69.55.22 10:10, 28 October 2019 (UTC)

I am not sure which I find more disturbing. Randall's apparent unthinking Trump Derangement Syndrome (I would have imagined him too intelligent to fall for mere politics) or the fact that Explain XKCD seems to have been invaded by Goldman Sachs advertising. If you are going to use an ad rotator, could you at least set it to display DIFFERENT adverts on the same page? I don't need to see the same advert 3 times. Seebert (talk) 12:55, 28 October 2019 (UTC)

In all fairness, I must point out that it is Cueball giving an kneejerk anti-Trump reaction in this comic, not Randall himself. While Randall does often project his own views through the characters of his comic, we cannot say for certain that that is the case here. In the past he has often created characters with incorrect or strawman positions in order to make a point or to satirize them. Hawthorn (talk) 13:46, 28 October 2019 (UTC)

Hmm, It seems to me that today's Cueball's (TP) dismay with the past's Cueball's (PC) reaction isn't about Trump, it's about calling him old and questioning his continued Pokemon-ing. This seems more in line with my impression of his priorities in life. With the two of them together, they could easily lose track of the 2nd half of the original odd statement and go off on the "what are you saying about me?" tangent - which makes the "I didn't come here to be mocked!" make a little more narrative sense. PC doesn't show any interesting in the Trump aspect, merely the idea of TP's still playing and being 20 years older, seems to be worth his consideration. I don't see it as changing the future sort of thing, don't you have to kill your grandfather or something to do that? Afbach (talk)

I had the feeling that old Cueball dies/disappears, because young one decides not to do childish things at age 40, altering the future. 172.68.226.16 10:19, 30 October 2019 (UTC)

Do you all think we should add the Multiple Cueballs tag to this comic? Because...um...yeah. --Account (talk) 19:35, 11 November 2019 (UTC)

This page is an archive of discussions from [[the now-deleted explain xkcd page "Advertise here"]]. Note: This page is kept for historical purposes. Do not alter it except to archive new discussions.

Don't add new topics here. Go here instead.

Whitelisting

I did this WHITE HAT listing, and I just see this picture at the left side: Your Ad... But do I know if "www.projectwonderful.com" is just Black HAT? I do whitelist this page (expainxkcd), not more. --Dgbrt (talk) 21:17, 27 September 2013 (UTC)

Whitelisting isn't short form for anything, it just means that you allow certain sites to pass through your adblocker. That image that you're seeing means that we don't have any advertisers running ads in your region currently, and clicking it will just tell you how you can advertise with us. If you can see that image, you're doing it right. EU tends to be less popular than our global traffic, despite EU being second in ad impressions only to our US traffic. An awful lot of our advertisers don't seem to be savvy enough to target EU manually, but if you have a business that you represent that you would like to promote through us, click on the bit of text that says "Your ad here, right now: $3.90" and try making an account and bid yourself on our EU/US space. Davidy²²[talk] 22:50, 27 September 2013 (UTC)

Miscellaneous observations

Looking at the ad stats, the ads with the highest click rates (value for money) are grayscale. Moving ads tend to have similar click rates to ordinary, colored ads, and our ad provider seems to have had a recent shoot in popularity with kickstarter projects. Just a few curiosities that I've noticed recently. Davidy²²[talk] 08:26, 13 October 2013 (UTC)

Full Disclosure on Lunarpages Ads

We should probably explain the Lunarpages ad, because an awful lot of our users really hate ads. Lunarpages is our new host, and they offered to give us dedicated scalable server space with unlimited bandwidth for free in return for a .jpg banner ad on our sidebar. That's a pretty big deal, because it shaves off about $700 of yearly fees, plus potentially unlimited overage charges with their standard bandwidth limit. If comic number 1190 had happened and we were on that bandwidth cap, we would have had to fork out up to $600 per month, which would make this wiki very costly to maintain indeed. By going with this ad deal, we can eliminate all unpredictable costs, allowing us to use our Project Wonderful ad money to pay for webpage caching/CDN services and buy ad space on other websites to spread the joy. With no ads, all of the above would put a ~$2000-3000 dent in our pockets per year. With ads earning at their current rate, we can very comfortably pursue things like our current dedicated hosting or cloudflare to make the site faster without actually having to pay out our own money or beg users for donations. Our ads are small in terms of file size, and they only take up space in the sidebar that Mediawiki would have otherwise left blank. That's not much to pay for substantially faster server hardware and essentially free advertising. Davidy²²[talk] 16:50, 31 October 2013 (UTC)

Updated this a bit. --Jeff (talk) 02:09, 20 November 2013 (UTC)

Donations

Can we make donations instead of looking at ads? If so, add a link in the adblock message. 108.162.219.74 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

We can probably put that in our adblock message, I'll get the donation link. Donations in the past haven't been enough to pay for what we have now, but you can totally donate and keep adblock on if you want. If donations start performing well enough in the future, we might even be able to drop the ads entirely. That's pretty far off at the moment though. Davidy²²[talk] 20:43, 12 November 2013 (UTC)

Well, how much do you make from ads, per viewer? I would guess that a typical donation would be larger? I don't see any donation links, though. 173.245.52.211 16:48, 19 December 2013 (UTC)

You can donate via in dollars via Paypal or via Bitcoin. We will make these more prevalent shortly. --Jeff (talk) 15:02, 24 December 2013 (UTC)

If you sell a product, you may also consider advertising with us. Clicking on the "Your ad here" message on the side of the page should take you to our advertiser page, and you can use the money you were gonna donate to get some publicity for your stuff at the same time. Davidy²²[talk] 07:22, 25 December 2013 (UTC)

Animated ads

Hello, I just wanted to say that the current ad banner displayed in Europe would be somewhat annoying enough for me to reactivate my ad blocker. Now I gave it a bit of extra tolerance because of its hyper-relevant topic (and in a way I was happy to be informed of the Bobcatinabox project), but I think this banner is getting too animated and distracts too much when reading the website's content. The first form this ad took was that static image, which I prefer a lot and by the way got my interest enough to click on.

I find the message displayed when using an ad blocker ("It seems you are using noscript,...") sincerely convincing, especially the part saying "our ads are restricted to unobtrusive images and slow animated GIFs." It made me immediately disable mine when that message appeared some time ago, and since then I've been okay with static or quietly animated banners; but basically my point is that animated ads like this one could drive users, frustrated from the distracting effect, to activate their ad blocker.

So maybe the ad banners moderation should require less animation? I'm of course interested in any other view on the matter.

Cos (talk) 12:59, 15 May 2014 (UTC)

Unfortunately, we can't specify a maximum speed for ads; the checkbox only lets us allow or disallow animated GIFs. We accept ads on a per-advertiser basis, so when we accept an advertiser, they're clear to change and put up new ads whenever they want, so they can vary the images they show without us having to say yes every time a change is made. That particular guy had actually been rejected before and told to slow down the animation, which he did initially. I'll talk to the advertiser about it. Davidy²²[talk] 17:24, 15 May 2014 (UTC)

Well, thanks for this reply (and sorry for the delay of mine), that explains and addresses pretty much everything about that issue. - Cos (talk) 14:27, 21 May 2014 (UTC)

I've disabled adblock for the site but this projectwonderful banner is extremely annoying, so I have no recourse but to enable it back. Things jumping around on the periphery of your viewing field are extremely annoying. I already hate the advertiser company, but I don't want to hate explainxkcd too - I actually like the site. That's why I am disabling the ads. 108.162.215.10 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Huh. Which site was it, in particular? We can get that dealt with in short order. Davidy²²[talk] 03:48, 5 July 2015 (UTC)

The image is http://www.projectwonderful.com/img/uploads/pics/22694-1385223182.gif and the link leads to http://theworstthingsforsale.com/tag/safe-for-work/. Still can see it right now. --108.162.215.10 20:13, 10 July 2015 (UTC)

Not sure what's happening here. That guy's ads shouldn't be getting auto-approved. Dealt with it for now. Davidy²²[talk] 05:45, 11 July 2015 (UTC)

Again, this ad features WAY to much obnoxious animation. Enough to make me re-enable adblock. I usually enjoy the explain xkcd ads, but this ad fits my description for the most obnoxious kind of ad there can be: a weird, inexplicable animated gif. Suspender guy (talk) 14:57, 10 July 2015 (UTC)

Huh. We allow ads on a per-advertiser basis, and that guy had a static ad in his initial submission. Ads from that site have been disabled for the time being. Davidy²²[talk] 16:13, 10 July 2015 (UTC)

Augh! It's back again! Suspender guy (talk) 15:01, 13 July 2015 (UTC)

Welp, changed to an actual block this time. Hate doing that to a guy who's been with us for a while. Davidy²²[talk] 02:58, 14 July 2015 (UTC)

Hello, same thing again with this animated ad for "Epic Escape". My earlier message two years ago (the one that started this section) applies in every bit: I like the site and I'm happy to whitelist it, especially when it promises ads "restricted to unobtrusive images and slow animated GIFs", but for me that one goes against that. I usually give a friendly look to the explain xkcd ads, but when one gets distracting even after you've looked at it, that's when friendliness becomes frustration and I reach for the adblocker. Cos (talk) 09:06, 24 March 2016 (UTC)

If there's ever an ad that annoys you, you can just report it and we'll deal with it. I approved that guy's ad when it was different, and we have our approval system set up so that if their initial ad image gets approved and they change it, their changes are automatically approved. It's to make things more convenient for us and them, but sometimes they switch to something like what you're seeing after they're approved. I might consider just barring animated gifs entirely, advertisers seem to be misusing it more often than not. The guy's blocked now. Davidy²²[talk] 05:22, 26 March 2016 (UTC)

Annoying animated ad with Sailormoon is here again :( Looks like trusting the advertizers is always a mistake. I'm reenabling my adblocker.

Spelling/Grammar

It says "ads than masquerade as operating system dialog boxes", using "than" instead of "that" (Can be fixed quick) —Artyer (talk) 17:44, 8 September 2014 (UTC)

Done. Davidy²²[talk] 17:46, 8 September 2014 (UTC)

Maybe link to PW?

Greets: Just a quick suggestion that maybe the "It seems you are using noscript," text in the sidebar should include a link to the PW page? I suggest that since the Advertise Here page has its link hidden under a "here" link. (In other words, let's make the PW link a little more visible.) --173.245.55.126 14:20, 27 July 2015 (UTC)

Oh, I guess I didn't do it because you can already get there from the bottom of the ad box, the little message at the bottom of the sidebar and the ad description page itself. I guess it'd be useful, I'll do it in a bit. Davidy²²[talk] 06:52, 28 July 2015 (UTC)

It seems you are ignoring my DNT header

which is stopping me from considering whitelisting your site. Users use the DNT header to express to a web server that they do not want to be tracked intrusively by third party companies (or you). If you think you would find revenue helpful, please consider honouring DNT headers. --162.158.152.185 12:50, 4 November 2015 (UTC)

False Positive NoScript detection

I'm getting the message in the sidebar that I'm using noscript... right above a banner for Lunarpages. Trick is, I'm not using NoScript, or in fact any Ad-Blocking at all. The closest thing I have to an Ad-Blocker is Flashblock, which merely prevents Flash objects from loading until clicked on, (Functionality which is now built in to Chrome and enabled by default, I might add) and Firefox's built-in Pop-up Blocker. Using Firefox 43.0.4 -Graptor --173.245.54.23 12:33, 25 January 2016 (UTC)

The lunarpages is a static image that uses zero javascript. The ad just above that is loaded with a little bit of javascript by an ad provider called Project Wonderful, and their code seems to not be rendering correctly on some builds of firefox. The noscript message is also static text, which the ad is supposed to render over and becomes visible when the ad fails to load. I'll report this as a bug and see what I can do about it. Davidy²²[talk] 05:22, 26 March 2016 (UTC)

Firefox issue is still ongoing. It seems to have a non-js fallback of some sort which doesn't work. On the plus side, the banner looked interesting enough to want to enable JS to click it (which was a strange experience). 108.162.246.191 20:17, 25 August 2017 (UTC)

A "strange experience" is an error message meaningless like "it doesn't work". NoScript is a sophisticated AddOn to Firefox and I recommend this only for advanced users. Broken or blocked links inside a page can always cause strange looking pages, mostly when a style sheet is missing because it's not loaded from a blocked part. This is a little bit like: Don't try it at home unless you really know what you are doing. But clicking "Allow all this page" in the preferences, waiting for the reload, checking again if there is something more to allow which wasn't visible before, finally it has to work. If not, YOUR NoScript is broken and reinstalling may still not work because there is too much chaos left at your installation folders. But that's a ticket for the NoScript people, this site works fine (for me with that AddOn). --Dgbrt (talk) 20:52, 25 August 2017 (UTC)

I'm also getting a message in the sidebar that I'm using noscript ("It seems you are using noscript, which is stopping our project wonderful ads from working."), when I'm not intentionally using any kind of ad-blocker. I am using Chrome, so assuming the previous comment about how Flashblock is built into Chrome is correct, this could be a Flashblock issue. 162.158.62.225 17:30, 17 April 2017 (UTC)

I'm also getting the message in the sidebar that I'm using noscript, but I'm not. I am using Privacy Badger in an older Firefox -- it triggers Red on staticxx.facebook.com and www.projectwonderful.com , and Yellow on several other sites, totaling 10 trackers.

This is still an issue, I *am* using noscript but have whitelisted this site and project wonderful, and refreshed the page. --162.158.88.116 09:26, 4 July 2018 (UTC)

Clarification on advertising rates

Regarding the bid amounts on the project wonderful page, is the number the amount per day? For example, the graph at the moment shows a bidding amount that varies between about $4 to $9. Does that mean the earnings of this site are about $4 to $9 per day? Nev (talk) 11:22, 15 October 2016 (UTC)

The prices are per day, yes. There are four different regions that project wonderful lets people bid on, US, Europe, Canada and the rest of the world. Bids for the US tend to be high, and the starting price is also slightly higher. Earnings can vary day on day as advertisers don't always want to advertise on Project Wonderful. If we're looking at averages, income from the last few months has been about $4 a day. Davidy²²[talk] 21:14, 15 October 2016 (UTC)

Hacking themed/related sites not encouraging damaging activity

I am considering taking out an advert for my hacking themed site, Haaksploits, which I hope to have up and running in a MVP state within a month. The focus is on using computers in new and exciting ways, which includes some focus on traditional penetration testing techniques such as cross-site scripting, password brute forcing, port scanning and SQL injection -- which of course do have legitimate commercial outlets; far more, indeed, than ever was the case previously --, as well as information on security and general data-gathering, and basic tutorials on things like Linux, C++ and similar. Some reference to Mr Robot may also exist here and there :op. To this end would it be possible to get further definition on what would be considered an 'exploit' etc or if there may be some leeway on this, if the site can be proven to be trustworthy and responsible in its disclosures? To be clear there will be nothing mentioned on the site that doesn't a) have a legitimate use b) encourages illegal activity.

With these things in mind, would the site likely be accepted as valid, would the name potentially need to be changed, or would there be any other stipulations, including removal of some of the previously outlined content (perhaps 'walling some of it off' with a different site name and alternative branding)? At this stage of development a full rebrand wouldn't be *too* difficult, and the main pain points of re-registering the SSL with the domain name might even fix some minor issues I've been having with the cert chain.

I am very keen to have an advert on this site as it seems potentially close to the perfect audience I want once my website is properly up and running, so any clarification on this would be very welcome.

If the site goes on to generate significant revenue I would also be more than willing to increase the price paid for the ad above the ticket price, as I believe in giving back to the community and have got a lot of enjoyment from this resource.

While the site is live on a production server, I don't want to link directly to it, as it is not in a complete state at present, and the majority of content requires further infrastructure work to implement. However, I would be willing to provide a sample if it will help getting an advertisement on this site accepted. Peterdcarter (talk)

Although the "Advertise Here" page says ads will only appear on the sidebar, ads are appearing in the middle of explanations. This is incredibly disruptive. Please stop. Unpopular Opinions (talk) 17:29, 7 January 2020 (UTC)

Ads in the middle of explanations + sexual content

This page says that you only sell ads for the side bar, but I get a very large number of ads in the middle of the text, interrupting the explanation. There are also sexually explicit ads quite regularly... See https://ibb.co/wsrGm99 https://ibb.co/pJTzC7K https://ibb.co/Vqkqy2w https://ibb.co/qM8W4wT https://ibb.co/bzYDxmV Please do something about it… Fractal (talk) 07:18, 27 July 2020 (UTC)

I'm wondering about this as well. I haven't seen any sexual content, but there are definitely multiple ads in explanations, instead of just the 160x600 "skyscraper" ads you claim to exclusively sell. Bischoff (talk) 10:58, 15 October 2020 (UTC)

The link to buy ad space is BROKEN

You guys might be able to get more advertisers if the link to buy ad space wasn't broken.

Agreed. The Project Wonderful ad network shutdown in 2018. Three years later, this page still points there. Admins, please update with details about the new advertising scheme and what guardrails, if any, are in place to insure ads are useful and acceptable to the community here. Thanks! Mwarren (talk) 14:35, 18 June 2021 (UTC)

Google ads

Note: This topic is contained in a separate Talk page and was transcluded into the talk pages of new comics. This is to maintain a single discussion on the ads which affect all of explain xkcd. Click the "[edit]" button above to add comments about ads. --NeatNit (talk) 22:20, 3 November 2019 (UTC)

When looking at the article page, I'm seeing several Google ads splashed across the full width of the article space, breaking it up randomly and making it more difficult to read (it sometimes interrupts the Transcript, for example, and also randomly crops up in the already-hard-to-read Discussion box). It looks awful. Is anyone else seeing them? I understand that ads are needed to pay for Explain XKCD's server costs, but they're really detrimental to the article. Hawthorn (talk) 13:13, 28 October 2019 (UTC)

Yeah, I'm seeing them, too, and I agree. ExplainXKCD is one of the few pages on my AdBlock white list. Please don't make me reconsider my decision. Elektrizikekswerk (talk) 13:47, 28 October 2019 (UTC)

Thank you for creating the new section. Yes, not only am I seeing them invade the text, but invade the text three times with the same advert. Perhaps we need a new tag to make room for advertising 172.68.174.22 13:59, 28 October 2019 (UTC)

I've added a tall screenshot of this to the right. Just from the thumbnail it's easy to see how disruptive it is to the page. --NeatNit (talk) 21:06, 28 October 2019 (UTC)

Oh, yours have images? Mine don't - they're just big white blocks with some text in them (which I think is even more disruptive since they are harder to distinguish from body text). But still, yeah, absolutely not a fan of this at all. It makes the site feel incredibly tacky. Hawthorn (talk) 21:34, 28 October 2019 (UTC)

Yes I also see them with pictures and it is horrible. :-( Will try to see if making a Admin requests will help... --Kynde (talk) 10:34, 29 October 2019 (UTC)

I'm not seeing them in the explanation - Maybe they fixed that? - but like FOUR times in the comments, which seems excessive. It seems less obtrusive than as described here - and shown, thanks NeatNit - but it still seems disgusting. They should keep them unobtrusive, like they've always been on the side. NiceGuy1 (talk) 05:17, 1 November 2019 (UTC)

I find it interesting that this Ad topic block is appearing on multiple comics (I saw it on 2221, where I added my other comments, then 2222, now this is 2220, and I see the same comments, including mine). I also find it interesting that after I left each comment on 2221 - between the comic's comment section and this one, like 8 edits or so, I kept finding things to say or corrections to my comments - I refreshed the page to see my edit show up, and after a couple I stopped seeing ads. Either there's a daily quota or it remembered that I closed each ad? Maybe a combination? NiceGuy1 (talk) 05:51, 1 November 2019 (UTC)

The topic showing up in multiple comic discussing is my doing - because this topic affects all of explainxkcd, I want to make sure it's always visible in the latest comic. I used wiki transclusion to do this. The discussion is actually held in Talk:2220: Imagine Going Back in Time/Ads and is inserted (transcluded) in all the other talk pages. --NeatNit (talk) 12:50, 2 November 2019 (UTC)

Oh, then may I say Way to go! I completely concur, this is an ongoing topic. (Though the ads seem gone now, at least for me) NiceGuy1 (talk) 05:11, 8 November 2019 (UTC)

Since the ads seem gone now, it seems like this section can stop being added to every new comic (though in my opinion it should remain on the relevant comics that were published during this dark time, I think 2220 until like 2225 or so...) NiceGuy1 (talk) 05:35, 10 November 2019 (UTC)

I'm only seeing 1 ad, always (regardless of which comic's explanation I'm seeing) after the second paragraph, always with pictures. The existence of the ad doesn't annoy me as much as the fact that it'll sometimes load after I've already read past that point, pushing the text I am reading down. --162.158.123.103 16:47, 29 October 2019 (UTC)

Click the X and report the ads for reason "Ad covers content". Maybe they'll even do something about it! 108.162.246.59 16:54, 30 October 2019 (UTC)

The thing is, that looks more like a complaint against the particular ad. Even picking "covers content" I get a response "Okay, we'll try not to show this ad any more". My objection isn't to the particular ad, it's to the EXISTENCE and PLACEMENT of the ad. I don't care what's IN the ad, it shouldn't be there at all! I accept the evil necessity of ads, just don't shove them down my throat, encouraging more people to use the ad blockers the obnoxious sites always whine about. NiceGuy1 (talk) 05:17, 1 November 2019 (UTC)

NiceGuy1 is correct. The complaint button is against a single advert, not against the advert block placement. It's not unlike filling a complaint against a business renting a billboard because you have a problem with where the billboard is placed. The business renting the space has no control over where the billboard is. 172.68.38.64 04:35, 2 November 2019 (UTC)

I'm not seeing these ads right now, have they been removed entirely? --NeatNit (talk) 12:41, 2 November 2019 (UTC)

I don't see them anymore either. Only the one on the left below the navigation bar remains, which has always been there and doesn't bother me. Bischoff (talk) 07:42, 4 November 2019 (UTC)

Ok, never mind. After I posted this and went back to the page the ads are back as well. Bischoff (talk) 07:42, 4 November 2019 (UTC)

All I see are the letters "Ads". Seems my Firefox blocks it. --162.158.91.71 13:57, 5 November 2019 (UTC)

I do not see any additional adds, but some additional linebreaks in between the pages, which fit the places described by those, seeing adds. Using Chrome on a company computer... So I do not know what exactly the settings are, but generally it does not block adds. (I even see the lunarpages add on the left) --Lupo (talk) 12:26, 6 November 2019 (UTC)

Last Wednesday (6 to 7 days ago), according to the time stamps on my previous comments above, I was seeing 4 or 5 ads in a rather short comment section (which went away after a few refreshes after a few comments). Now I see none. Maybe whoever turned them on saw the negative reaction and turned them back off? Or maybe they only needed a quick cash injection and turned it off after they got what they needed, LOL! NiceGuy1 (talk) 05:07, 8 November 2019 (UTC)

They indeed seem to have vanished. Elektrizikekswerk (talk) 14:42, 8 November 2019 (UTC)

I'm going to stop adding this conversation to new comics for the time being, because it seems like the ads have gone. It's weird though; no admin has commented on this. If you still see ads, let me know! --NeatNit (talk) 05:37, 10 November 2019 (UTC)

I removed this from the talk page for all but the first comic after it was first posted (as on that page there where also discussion on adds) --Kynde (talk) 15:04, 12 November 2019 (UTC)

Seems like there are no admins active at the moment... --Kynde (talk) 15:04, 12 November 2019 (UTC)

I still have areas on parts of some pages (e.g. in the discussion part of 1109 from time to time, which are according to the inspect tool, frames for google adds. They either cover part of the text, so I cannot click/mark it (what I often do to find the line I am reading in easier, or just to have my hand busy), or they create big interuptions of the text. --Lupo (talk) 10:57, 14 November 2019 (UTC)

December return of the ads

The horizontal ads are back. Noticed some on 2227 and decided to report back to this thread that the issue has not fully ended. ChessCake (talk) 13:47, 4 December 2019 (UTC)

Yes, I got them too. Also in the past weeks I got containers/placeholders in some places, which, according to the inspecting tool, where also for adds. Since today or yesterday they are fillign with adds again. --Lupo (talk) 13:52, 4 December 2019 (UTC)

I'm seeing them too.

They're back.

Ahiijny (talk) 14:48, 4 December 2019 (UTC)

The top-level div for one of those ad elements has class google-auto-placed ap_container. Possibly related: https://techcrunch.com/2018/02/21/google-debuts-adsense-auto-ads-with-machine-learning-to-make-placement-and-monetization-choices/ https://wpadvancedads.com/adsense-in-random-positions-auto-ads/ https://stackoverflow.com/questions/51183831/prevent-adsense-auto-ad-from-showing-ad-in-specific-area Ahiijny (talk) 14:56, 4 December 2019 (UTC)

Yup, they're back... I've transcluded this page in the latest comic's discussion page, and I've added a new screenshot here (more disruptive than the one Ahiijny showed). I've also made a comment on User talk:Davidy22, hopefully he'll receive an email about that. This stinks. --NeatNit (talk) 23:35, 11 December 2019 (UTC)

Yes they are back with a vengeance. Sadly it seems neither Davidy or Dgbrt are active anymore or replies to any messages written on their pages. They are the two last admins that have been active here. But Davidy has not been for more than two years (2017) and it has been some times since Dgbrt was active (march 2019)... PS I'm not an admin, just very active ;-) --Kynde (talk) 14:35, 12 December 2019 (UTC)

As of today, I am seeing fullwidth ads, but only in the talk page space. Aside from the usual sidebar ads, the rest of the explanation page doesn't have any. --Aaron of Mpls (talk) 21:45, 17 January 2020 (UTC)

After being fixed again, it now appears that users are seeing the erroneously placed ads again. Not a very nice April Fool's joke... ProphetZarquon (talk) 14:20, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

I've just started to get some huge ads that basically take up my entire screen. Have we gotten any updates at all? Opalmagpie (talk) 02:59, 23 September 2020 (UTC)

I've got full-width ads in the discussion box, but nowhere else, which is interesting, and also FLIPPING ANNOYING! Darn it, those ads are taking up the discussion box and I hate it. (Note: Just really noticed the ads) Sarah the Pie(yes, the food) (talk) 23:20, 30 March 2021 (UTC)

I have spotted video advertisements on the website. I fear this issue is only getting worse with time now. If this isn't just me, we should probably start to insert this back into new comics' Talk pages. ChessCake (talk) 18:54, 13 April 2021 (UTC)

Notified Jeff, he checked the ad settings for the wiki, and the broken ads should finally be fixed! I went and checked a few pages, and I don't see the ads appearing in random positions anymore. Hopefully this concludes the issue. Herobrine (talk) 00:08, 13 May 2021 (UTC)

i used to think that pokemon was a rip-off of digimon, and it went back in time 10 years to use the idea before digimon. this is wrong^{[citation needed]} Squishmallow fan (talk) 02:22, 10 February 2024 (UTC)
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