Template talk:comic

First and last?

How about adding links to 1 and LATESTCOMIC (with graphics matching xkcd's |> and <| perhaps)? J-beda (talk) 13:11, 8 September 2012 (UTC)

Imagesize

Can we kill imagesize, please? We almost never use it, and we have alternatives, like using the smaller "thumbnails" that you click through on the xkcd site as the images that we store. It'll let us link the image to the xkcd site too. Davidy²²(talk) 01:29, 27 November 2012 (UTC)

Have faith that eventually the image bug will be resolved! It probably won't but we can all dream. lcarsos_a (talk) 02:27, 27 November 2012 (UTC)

I just had a massive brainwave. We don't actually need to include imagesize if we're going to leave it empty. Since it's a named option we can specify any order of options, and omit those we don't need to use. I'm going to edit {{create}} (if I can figure it out to not include imagesize so it will just be an advanced user's option. Hopefully that will make you smile, in these dull days of spam fighting. lcarsos_a (talk) 22:15, 5 December 2012 (UTC)

Radiation et al

I had some spare time today so I went and made a modified version of this template that can handle undefined numbers such as in Radiation. Only catch is that it needs two other variables to be defined to keep the link valid... But I think that's a fair compromise to take another page off the incomplete explanations category. It could also allow for the addition of pages about the not-so-subtle jokes etc. in the what if series. The updated versions are over at a page in my userspace and its talk page. Pixali 02:07, 4 March 2015 (UTC)

Broken?

On unnumbered comics, this template displays "[[Expression error: Unrecognised punctuation character "{".|Next >]]". Forrest (talk)07:54, 27 August 2015 (UTC)

A user someplace made a workaround in a seperate template. I'll find it later. Davidy²²[talk] 08:03, 27 August 2015 (UTC)

 ✓ Done  - It was because 0 was created, so the logic that #ifexist:0 should be false failed. I changed it to default to -2 when number is not present, which will work as long as no one creates -1! Mark Hurd (talk) 11:13, 14 September 2015 (UTC)

Use https?

XKCD has supported https for a while, it might be a good idea to switch the generated links to https.

Kenzierocks (talk) 17:38, 20 October 2016 (UTC) kenzierocks

Done. Davidy²²[talk] 18:00, 20 October 2016 (UTC)

And reverted, apparently – why? --162.158.114.40 15:29, 7 January 2018 (UTC)

 ✓ Done  That's fixed now. --FaviFake (talk) 09:10, 26 April 2025 (UTC)

The template field called "titletext"

Bad choice for the "displayed name" of this ["titletext"] field

As a general rule, I DO like the idea of using the same character string, that is the name of a certain field in a given template, as the "displayed name" -- that is, what the user sees when the value of that field is being displayed.

However, in this case, the field that is [now] called the "titletext" field, is an exception to that general rule.

The "titletext" field is used to show (and maybe also to help "explain"?) the contents of a little pop-up with some "caption" or other text, that appears when one "hovers" his mouse over a certain XKCD cartoon.

I do not know why the field name "titletext" was chosen.

Some might even want to suggest, changing the spelling of the field name "titletext".

That might be ("also") an interesting debate ... but that is outside the scope of "my" comment today.

IMHO the character string "titletext" -- or even "title text" [two words] -- would NOT be a good choice for the "display name" of the field that is used for the contents of that little pop-up with some text that appears (it "pops up") when one "hovers" his mouse over a certain XKCD cartoon.

True, it does usually contain some ["caption" or other]"text"; so, the second half of that field name is not [absolutely] a misnomer. But ... the first half of that field name is a misnomer. It is NOT [anything LIKE] a "title"!

A "title" IS *** SHORT *** !

The *** title *** of a book (or magazine article) is NOT something that requires more BYTES to represent (or display) it, than the entire book or magazine article. It is SHORT.

This field (called "titletext") might sometimes be short ... but not very often. For the most recent XKCD I looked at, it (the pop-up "upon mouse hovering" text) contained MORE text than the entire XKCD cartoon over which my mouse was "hovering" when it [the value of this field] was being displayed as a pop-up. (Including dialog, "if any".)

So, I don't know what the "displayed name" of this ["titletext"] field should be. Nominations would be welcomed. But, IMHO, I do not vote for displaying it as [something like] "title text". IMHO, that is worse than [just] "unhelpful" ... it is actually confusing.

Any comments? Thanks! Mike Schwartz (talk) 19:02, 13 April 2017 (UTC)

HTTPS again

The template could link to the HTTPS version of xkcd. It seems like this was requested before, but reverted.

Also, while you're at it, the "www." in the link is superfluous and could also be removed.

-- 162.158.114.58 11:40, 19 September 2018 (UTC)

I don't know why it was reverted, but I think this is a minor issue because every http request is always redirected to a secure connection. This means I will change it back to https. But because I'm an old fashioned guy and we are using the WorldWideWeb the www remains. --Dgbrt (talk) 18:44, 19 September 2018 (UTC)

 ✓ Fixed both the unnecessary www and the nowrap of the button. --FaviFake (talk) 09:15, 26 April 2025 (UTC)

Wordrapping and Ordered list buttons

I would propose that the text of each of the "buttons" be put in a style where word-wrap is disabled. As is, on my smaller screens, the back button always word-wraps between the "|" and the "<". I believe adding a style attribute with "white-space: nowrap" to each item of the unordered list (<li>) would fix this.

Alternatively, adding the style attribute it to the whole list (<ol>) would keep the whole thing from word-wrapping. -- Previous comment was by User:Trlkly

Yup, this would also fix this bug:

which has been observed in at least the latest comic today. --NeatNit (talk) 18:22, 8 December 2019 (UTC)

 ✓ Done  I fixed it. --FaviFake (talk) 09:08, 26 April 2025 (UTC)

Broken link

At Blue Eyes, the button "Comic (October 11, 2006)" links to https://xkcd.com/blue_eyes.html/ and shows a 404 Not Found error message, however, the comic is at https://xkcd.com/blue_eyes.html, without the slash at the end. Can someone fix this? ObserveOwl (talk) 19:29, 7 July 2021 (UTC)

I did fix it a long time ago by adding a # at the end of the link in the template --FaviFake (talk) 16:13, 3 November 2024 (UTC)

 ✓ Done  Now I fixed it properly so we don't need a workaround. --FaviFake (talk) 08:35, 23 March 2025 (UTC)

add default class name to "bodyclass" input

For some reason, this template has a bodyclass input that, to my knowledge, is not used on any page whatsoever. If this is changed to a fixed class name, or even a defualt one, it would allow for much more intuitive changes for users that wish to use custom CSS for the wiki. someone, i guess (talk)

Title or Alt?

I think the "Title text" should be replaced by "Title/Alt text" --hi (talk) 00:38, 24 March 2025 (UTC)

Title text is the correct word, see Title text. --FaviFake (talk) 16:18, 24 March 2025 (UTC)

Random button should link to Special:RandomInCategory

currently the random button at the bottom center can go to any page, not just comic explanations. it should link to Special:RandomInCategory/All comics. also for earlier comics there is no random button which is kind of annoying if you are repeatedly randoming (which is the way i usually consume xkcds) —172.70.207.34 07:06, 26 April 2025 (UTC)

I agree it's not perfect, but if it linked to Special:RandomInCategory/All comics, then the extra comics wouldn't be in the pool and would never show up. Also, I din't think about the second point, you're right. Where should I place the button on the OG comics? I can't think of a good spot. --FaviFake (talk) 10:50, 26 April 2025 (UTC)

I also had this problem, I think it makes more sense to change it because on xkcd the random button only points to comics that are actually published. If someone wants to see other pages they can use the random button in the sidebar on this wiki or just go searching through the categories. In reply to adding a random button to the original comics, why not include two bottom bars? The grey one can be used on all of the comics and the white one can go below that for the original comics. 172.71.147.27 18:20, 27 April 2025 (UTC)

I don't like the idea of two bars. If there are two at the bottom, then there should be two at the top too, and we get to 4 total navbars, which isn't pretty or user-friendly.

> on xkcd the random button only points to comics that are actually published

Well, on xkcd the deleted or extra comics aren't available or explained. --FaviFake (talk) 08:28, 2 May 2025 (UTC)

Does anyone here know how to create a random link that fetches pages from two different categories? --FaviFake (talk) 10:12, 4 May 2025 (UTC)

That makes sense, but would it be possible to limit the random button to just comics because, as of now, the button might also take you to categories or user pages which isn't desirable. In addition could the extra comics have a bottom bar with a random button? (As of now extra comics just have a top bar with the comic name and no other buttons. It would be nice if they had a random button on the bottom as well.) I personally think three bars on the original comics wouldn't look too weird but I respect your opinion. 172.71.142.80 17:20, 4 May 2025 (UTC) (Same person as 172.71.147.27 but on a different wifi network)

> [...] would it be possible to limit the random button to just comics [...]

Yup that's what I was wondering. I asked this in the Technical portal. FYI, you can always go to a random page even in the OG comics by clicking the link in the left sidebar. --FaviFake (talk) 14:40, 5 May 2025 (UTC)

 ✓ Fixed the non-comic pages appearing. I used a new category: Category:All pages:

Pages are added to this category via the {{comic}} template. This category includes all the numbered comics in Category:All comics, but also the Category:Extra comics. Please see Template talk:comic#Random button should link to Special:RandomInCategory.

The other issue is still not fixed. --FaviFake (talk) 13:35, 11 May 2025 (UTC)