explain xkcd:Community portal/Technical - Revision history

Nitpicking: /* Bug on the main page */ missing tag opener <

2026-04-03T00:40:54Z

‎Bug on the main page: missing tag opener <

42.book.addict at 17:42, 24 February 2026

2026-02-24T17:42:35Z

92.23.11.33: /* Interwiki media-linking errors. */

2026-01-16T21:11:04Z

‎Interwiki media-linking errors.

Firestar233: /* Interwiki media-linking errors. */

2026-01-16T19:15:59Z

‎Interwiki media-linking errors.

92.23.2.208: /* Interwiki media-linking errors. */

2026-01-10T18:53:34Z

‎Interwiki media-linking errors.

82.132.237.28: /* Interwiki media-linking errors. */ new section

2026-01-10T12:20:45Z

‎Interwiki media-linking errors.: new section

FaviFake: /* Main page comic number */

2025-12-17T18:39:54Z

‎Main page comic number

Firestar233: /* Main page comic number */ LATESTCOMIC already exists

2025-12-16T03:30:43Z

‎Main page comic number: LATESTCOMIC already exists

82.132.239.11: /* RSS FEED */

2025-12-06T15:10:13Z

‎RSS FEED

XkUjlmoh: /* RSS FEED → Working Native Solution */

2025-12-06T11:34:26Z

‎RSS FEED → Working Native Solution

← Older revision		Revision as of 00:40, 3 April 2026
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	[[User:Xkcdjerry\|Xkcdjerry]] ([[User talk:Xkcdjerry\|talk]]) 09:48, 7 February 2021 (UTC)		[[User:Xkcdjerry\|Xkcdjerry]] ([[User talk:Xkcdjerry\|talk]]) 09:48, 7 February 2021 (UTC)
		+
		+	The main page has a broken Div tag under "View comic discussion". I don't have the privileges to fix it. [[User:Nitpicking\|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking\|talk]]) 00:40, 3 April 2026 (UTC)

	== Occasional error via Cloudflare ==		== Occasional error via Cloudflare ==

@@ Line 230: / Line 230: @@
 :On the whole, though, it's a harmless quirk. And given the trivial nature of deliberately spoofing origins (even on top of assuming you get an effectively static NAT from your ISP in the first place) I don't personally see it as a problem to 'solve' this. But neither would I complain if the 'fix' were implemented if this query reminds someone that they ''were'' going to try and do the necessary tweak.
 :As a lay-answer, I hope that fills you in a little. ''If'' those who have more knowledge/control of the process want to add anything or correct me, I'm sure they'll do so as soon as they can, but here's a reply to keep you going for now... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.24|172.70.85.24]] 01:19, 20 November 2022 (UTC)
-:fyi it is supported in MediaWiki through <code>$wgCdnServers</code>. See [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Cloudflare#Integration_with_MediaWiki MediaWiki’s introduction]. {{unsigned|物灵|06:58, 6 April 2025}}
+:fyi it is supported in MediaWiki through <code>$wgCdnServers</code>. See [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Cloudflare#Integration_with_MediaWiki MediaWiki’s introduction]. {{unsigned|物灵|06:58, 6 April 2025 (UTC)}}
 ==Main page in categories==
@@ Line 277: / Line 277: @@
 == Way to contact the site hosters? ==
-As many have pointed out the software this wiki runs on is horribly outdated. WikiEditor also isn't here for some reason. Quite a bit of messages here have seen no action. Is there some kind of contact form to reach the hosters? {{unsigned|Aaron Liu|00:36, 10 October 2023}}
+As many have pointed out the software this wiki runs on is horribly outdated. WikiEditor also isn't here for some reason. Quite a bit of messages here have seen no action. Is there some kind of contact form to reach the hosters? {{unsigned|Aaron Liu|00:36, 10 October 2023 (UTC)}}
 : There are various levels of admin who do intervene, as and when jecessary, but I understand that the (active) ones closest to the actual hosting level of intervention are not really ready to do the (increasingly greater) degree of uprooting necessary to get a "working" system to be "marginally better working", by way of that very dangerous middle-ground of potentially being ruined entirely.
 : I appreciate and anticipate the counter-arguments regarding letting it go totally unupdated, of course, just I've personally seen enough failures (participated in some, or been the actual invokee, myself) to be very sympathetic to the "if it aint (too) broke, don't fix it" tendency. But that inertia is not the only factor, of course, and the full motivations (or lack of them) of those involved is not for a lowly IP like me to explain, even if I think I know... [[Special:Contributions/172.69.195.42|172.69.195.42]] 01:24, 10 October 2023 (UTC)
@@ Line 421: / Line 421: @@
 == Total amount of accounts created on this wiki? ==
-I was editing [[explain xkcd:Museum]] and I was wondering how many accounts have ever been created. Is there a way to access this? {{unsigned|DollarStoreBa'al|15:52, 17 March 2025}}
+I was editing [[explain xkcd:Museum]] and I was wondering how many accounts have ever been created. Is there a way to access this? {{unsigned|DollarStoreBa'al|15:52, 17 March 2025 (UTC)}}
 :Hey, I moved your message from the Coordination portal. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 16:26, 17 March 2025 (UTC)
 :The base information you need is from the special page that is https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Special:Log/newusers - although bear in mind that an overwhelming number of created accounts are spam-attempts (that get no further), so perhaps the count needs to be qualified as "users that have then gone on to post" (a few of which ''are'' still spam-only contributors, but now an insignificant amount rather than a probably overwhelming majoriy).
@@ Line 467: / Line 467: @@
 How hard would it be to make the CAPTCHA sticky, so that it doesn't need an extra interaction/mouse movement after previewing?
-Or, alternatively, to not display either the CAPTCHA or the Save Changes until after a preview. {{unsigned|JimJJewett20:40, 14 April 2025}}
+Or, alternatively, to not display either the CAPTCHA or the Save Changes until after a preview. {{unsigned|JimJJewett20:40, 14 April 2025 (UTC)}}
 :If you're going to Preview (which can often be a good idea), don't bother ticking the "I am not a robot". Previews (also the "Show Changes") are 'free' and don't need you to feed the CAPTHA machine.
@@ Line 498: / Line 498: @@
 ::Well anything would be better than the current situation, except a total shutdown. Why is nobody worried this entire wiki is dying in front of our eyes and the owner doesn't even remember it exists? Jesus --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 16:03, 27 May 2025 (UTC)
-:Same issue. What could be causing this? {{unsigned ip|162.158.114.253|14:49, 27 May 2025}}
+:Same issue. What could be causing this? {{unsigned ip|162.158.114.253|14:49, 27 May 2025 (UTC)}}
 ::The server's seemingly being hammered by a new batch of unregulated traffic, that's been hammering many other sites. Your attempts to connect are getting lost in the overload, until the instigators get bored, smarter/kinder or someone implements a better way to stop the offending connections better. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.160|172.70.162.160]] 16:41, 27 May 2025 (UTC)
@@ Line 900: / Line 900: @@
 "This page contains the following errors:
 error on line 463 at column 18: EntityRef: expecting ';'
-Below is a rendering of the page up to the first error." {{unsigned ip|172.71.241.19|20:38, 5 May 2025}}
+Below is a rendering of the page up to the first error." {{unsigned ip|172.71.241.19|20:38, 5 May 2025 (UTC)}}
 :I think this is the continuing issue as of [[#RSS Feed: XML not well-formed]], you're talking about. As far as I'm aware unfixed and (with the current smattering of active admins at their limits of admin-levels) unfixable. Because of a 'bare' ampersand (or two) being misinterpreted as a failed attempt at a character-entity reference. ''If'' that was fixed, without me noticing, then I'm sure someone will be along to try to fix your new issue too.
 :People have been trying to prod other people who can prod the server back into shape (insofar as that issue), but I've not yet been privy to anything coming of that, and presume you're just trapped in the exact same glitch. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.30|172.70.91.30]] 21:59, 5 May 2025 (UTC)
@@ Line 916: / Line 916: @@
 === RSS Feed doesn't seem to contain anything after 3 August 2025 ===
-There do not seem to be any new entries in the RSS Feed after the third of August. {{unsigned ip|216.212.38.209|16:01, 23 September 2025}}
+There do not seem to be any new entries in the RSS Feed after the third of August. {{unsigned ip|216.212.38.209|16:01, 23 September 2025 (UTC)}}
 :That's been noticed. But not much chance trying to fix that (manually adding in, if necessary) until we can properly (and manually?) fix the ampersand-D issues. For which there seems to be no-one with sufficient access. [[Special:Contributions/92.17.62.87|92.17.62.87]] 22:12, 23 September 2025 (UTC)
@@ Line 1,038: / Line 1,038: @@
 ?>
 </pre>
-{{unsigned ip|2a01:599:442:d8ec:967c:b1b4:cb3e:2bc2}} 20:08, 27 September 2025 (UTC)
+{{unsigned ip|2a01:599:442:d8ec:967c:b1b4:cb3e:2bc2}} 20:08, 27 September 2025 (UTC)}}
 ----

← Older revision		Revision as of 21:11, 16 January 2026
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	:For me, I do get the "File:Ambox warning blue construction.svg" redlinked, but the green icon of the transcript-incomplete box is successfully there. Well, this last time I checked, anyway. Yes, I think it has a habit of changing from time to time. [[Special:Contributions/92.23.2.208\|92.23.2.208]] 18:53, 10 January 2026 (UTC)		:For me, I do get the "File:Ambox warning blue construction.svg" redlinked, but the green icon of the transcript-incomplete box is successfully there. Well, this last time I checked, anyway. Yes, I think it has a habit of changing from time to time. [[Special:Contributions/92.23.2.208\|92.23.2.208]] 18:53, 10 January 2026 (UTC)
	:The file that the [[Template:Incomplete transcript\|Incomplete transcript]] template is trying to access from commons is [[commons:File:Ambox warning blue construction.svg]]. If you go to [[Media:Ambox_warning_blue_construction.svg]], it intermittently succeeds in finding the file and displaying the information about the image, while other times it displays the 404 page for files, even from just refreshing without performing a hard refresh. I have no experience with this, but it seems like something with the server or something like that. [[User:Firestar233\|guess who]] ([[User talk:Firestar233\|if you desire conversing]] \| [[Special:Contributions/Firestar233\|what i have done]]) 19:15, 16 January 2026 (UTC)		:The file that the [[Template:Incomplete transcript\|Incomplete transcript]] template is trying to access from commons is [[commons:File:Ambox warning blue construction.svg]]. If you go to [[Media:Ambox_warning_blue_construction.svg]], it intermittently succeeds in finding the file and displaying the information about the image, while other times it displays the 404 page for files, even from just refreshing without performing a hard refresh. I have no experience with this, but it seems like something with the server or something like that. [[User:Firestar233\|guess who]] ([[User talk:Firestar233\|if you desire conversing]] \| [[Special:Contributions/Firestar233\|what i have done]]) 19:15, 16 January 2026 (UTC)
		+	::This has been going on for {{diff\|403180\|a little while now}}. I've never seen any problem ''directly'' at the Media Commons end, myself, but the theory that something outside our control between the sites is intermittently blighting the 'check and fetch details' backend seems a fairly sound hypothesis. Could be solved, at least for the regularly reused amboxes, by someone uploading the relvent images locally. [[Special:Contributions/92.23.11.33\|92.23.11.33]] 21:11, 16 January 2026 (UTC)

← Older revision		Revision as of 19:15, 16 January 2026
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	Noting that I have a limited ability to directly ''check'' my conclusions, so I could easily be wrong. And (best case scenario?) the issue might even soon stop happening on its own as something subtle gets fixed behind the scenes, with no help from me or anyone else reading this. ;) [[Special:Contributions/82.132.237.28\|82.132.237.28]] 12:20, 10 January 2026 (UTC)		Noting that I have a limited ability to directly ''check'' my conclusions, so I could easily be wrong. And (best case scenario?) the issue might even soon stop happening on its own as something subtle gets fixed behind the scenes, with no help from me or anyone else reading this. ;) [[Special:Contributions/82.132.237.28\|82.132.237.28]] 12:20, 10 January 2026 (UTC)
	:For me, I do get the "File:Ambox warning blue construction.svg" redlinked, but the green icon of the transcript-incomplete box is successfully there. Well, this last time I checked, anyway. Yes, I think it has a habit of changing from time to time. [[Special:Contributions/92.23.2.208\|92.23.2.208]] 18:53, 10 January 2026 (UTC)		:For me, I do get the "File:Ambox warning blue construction.svg" redlinked, but the green icon of the transcript-incomplete box is successfully there. Well, this last time I checked, anyway. Yes, I think it has a habit of changing from time to time. [[Special:Contributions/92.23.2.208\|92.23.2.208]] 18:53, 10 January 2026 (UTC)
		+	:The file that the [[Template:Incomplete transcript\|Incomplete transcript]] template is trying to access from commons is [[commons:File:Ambox warning blue construction.svg]]. If you go to [[Media:Ambox_warning_blue_construction.svg]], it intermittently succeeds in finding the file and displaying the information about the image, while other times it displays the 404 page for files, even from just refreshing without performing a hard refresh. I have no experience with this, but it seems like something with the server or something like that. [[User:Firestar233\|guess who]] ([[User talk:Firestar233\|if you desire conversing]] \| [[Special:Contributions/Firestar233\|what i have done]]) 19:15, 16 January 2026 (UTC)

← Older revision		Revision as of 18:53, 10 January 2026
Line 1,112:		Line 1,112:

	Noting that I have a limited ability to directly ''check'' my conclusions, so I could easily be wrong. And (best case scenario?) the issue might even soon stop happening on its own as something subtle gets fixed behind the scenes, with no help from me or anyone else reading this. ;) [[Special:Contributions/82.132.237.28\|82.132.237.28]] 12:20, 10 January 2026 (UTC)		Noting that I have a limited ability to directly ''check'' my conclusions, so I could easily be wrong. And (best case scenario?) the issue might even soon stop happening on its own as something subtle gets fixed behind the scenes, with no help from me or anyone else reading this. ;) [[Special:Contributions/82.132.237.28\|82.132.237.28]] 12:20, 10 January 2026 (UTC)
		+	:For me, I do get the "File:Ambox warning blue construction.svg" redlinked, but the green icon of the transcript-incomplete box is successfully there. Well, this last time I checked, anyway. Yes, I think it has a habit of changing from time to time. [[Special:Contributions/92.23.2.208\|92.23.2.208]] 18:53, 10 January 2026 (UTC)

← Older revision		Revision as of 12:20, 10 January 2026
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	The comic number is now a full nine numbers off? What's happened? [[User:DollarStoreBa'al\|<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 16px;">--'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al\|<span style="color:#E3C6BE">DollarStoreBa'al</span>]]<sup>[[User Talk:DollarStoreBa'al\|<span style="color:#CC9A8B">Converse</span>]]</sup></span>]] ([[User talk:DollarStoreBa'al\|talk]]) 00:14, 23 November 2025 (UTC)		The comic number is now a full nine numbers off? What's happened? [[User:DollarStoreBa'al\|<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 16px;">--'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al\|<span style="color:#E3C6BE">DollarStoreBa'al</span>]]<sup>[[User Talk:DollarStoreBa'al\|<span style="color:#CC9A8B">Converse</span>]]</sup></span>]] ([[User talk:DollarStoreBa'al\|talk]]) 00:14, 23 November 2025 (UTC)
	:See the subsection two above this... [[Special:Contributions/2.98.77.121\|2.98.77.121]] 00:27, 23 November 2025 (UTC)		:See the subsection two above this... [[Special:Contributions/2.98.77.121\|2.98.77.121]] 00:27, 23 November 2025 (UTC)
		+
		+	== Interwiki media-linking errors. ==
		+
		+	The (currently present) Incomplete Transcript infobox for [[3192: Planetary Alignment]] has the image (that is officially Ambox_warning_green_construction.svg) represented by redlinked "40x40px" text, instead. (For me, right now... This might change, see below.) The Incomplete (Explanation) box currently shows its ''blue'' construction symbol correctly, but the very same Incomplete-tag infobox on various other recent comic pages have red "File:Ambox warning blue construction.svg" (for the exact same image as definitely shown in that page's Incomplete).
		+
		+	This also seems to apply to some other cross-wiki images, the most recent being the thumbnail image that is added into the Conic Sections comic. Although I just revisited the page to grab its details properly and it ''showed up properly'' again, without any page edits having been made to explain the different behaviours.
		+
		+	After a quick scan through recent comics (with or without Incomplete-tagging, fewer yet with Incomplete Transcripts in place) and not so recent ones which might have 'imported' images (all full comic pages having on-site 'uploaded' images, as standard, with no issues at all) I am forced to surmise that this is an issue affecting (inconsistently!) 'interwiki loan images', those images usually seemlessly available through a <code><nowiki>[[File:image name.ext]]</nowiki></code>-style inclusion (where the image hasn't been locally uploaded, but found through the tendency to use an external MediaWiki source), either directly or via some form of template-parameter specification (which ultimately boils down to a [[File:]]-call, or similar).
		+
		+	Regardless of the obvious issues about the local wiki version being a bit old, I'm wondering if this is due to (inconsistent) incompatibilities introduced at the external end of the traditional search-path for nonlocal image (and potentially other?) data. As often as not, it seems, the loading of a page asks the back-end to "fill in the details" of the externally-hosted file that the page source (or template transclusion) specifies and ''cannot find it'', so marks it as a redlinked item. Revisiting the page (unless it's treated as cached, at some point between browser and back-end and so repeats the last result) ''may'' have the same difficulty or may have it show up as expected. I suspect that, if I keep plugging away with a hard-refresh on [[3192]], the "blue construction" image will show up as redlinked and the "green construction" one will show (the opposite of the situation that brought me here).
		+
		+	One 'fix' is probably to get the MediaWiki images concerned and Upload them locally (for those that can do that), but that's a potentially unending process when further interwiki-images are added/re-encountered, show up as failed and more and more of them are 'officially' uploaded locally to mitigate every instance. Though it'd be easier than updating the backend here (assuming that is even the issue), and I've not found anyone anywhere else mentioning that it's an error created by an 'upstream change' in the wiki-ecosystem (breaking something, or 'over-improving' it, beyond our consistent level of connectivity). Also, the inconsistency bothers me.
		+
		+	If I had to guess, however, there's a "challenge" API which sometimes works with this Wiki's interwiki queries and sometimes is beyond it (but I don't have the background access to either end, or the 'middle' to check this theory out properly, it would just most obviously fit the observed facts). That could also be some gateway used between this and the 'motherload' server (surely not Cloudflare, same as occasionally complains between us and explainxkcd?) acting up occasionally, outwith any wiki-backend's control. One thing it isn't, is the MediaWiki end refusing/failing to send the proxied image to the browser, as it isn't ever a 'broken image' at my end, it being explainxkcd that has decided that it's an unfulfillable image request for which it enacts the redlinking-placeholder in leiu of the requested item being established as being normally present on the 'wikicloud'.
		+
		+	Noting that I have a limited ability to directly ''check'' my conclusions, so I could easily be wrong. And (best case scenario?) the issue might even soon stop happening on its own as something subtle gets fixed behind the scenes, with no help from me or anyone else reading this. ;) [[Special:Contributions/82.132.237.28\|82.132.237.28]] 12:20, 10 January 2026 (UTC)

@@ Line 1,087: / Line 1,087: @@
 ::::::I would like to vote for using extra=page and extra=comic. '''[[User:42.book.addict|<span style="font-family:Cormorant Garamond;font-size:9pt;color:#3a795e">42.book.addict</span>]]<sup>[[User talk:42.book.addict|<span style="font-family:Cormorant Garamond;font-size:6pt;color:#ce5f15">Talk to me!</span>]]</sup>''' 20:17, 24 November 2025 (UTC)
 ::::::The {{tl|LATESTCOMIC}} template contains only the latest comic number (currently {{LATESTCOMIC}}). theUSAFbot updates it whenever it uploads the new comic (and when other people change the template), so as long as the bot doesn't break it should always be up to date. it's already used in the main page to get copy the explanation from the latest comic and to get the percentage of incomplete explanations, so I think it should be used for consistency. [[User:Firestar233|guess who]] ([[User talk:Firestar233|if you desire conversing]] | [[Special:Contributions/Firestar233|what i have done]]) 03:30, 16 December 2025 (UTC)
 ==What If? Toolbar button==

@@ Line 1,085: / Line 1,085: @@
 :::::Simplest item is the first. Even the last isn't too complicated, for someone who has more than basic template-editing experience. (Please, nobody who has just followed the ill-advised "How to make a template" course in the FAQ. That's too basic for this, and also far too much "Hey guys, just make loads of templates, yeah!?" for comfort.)
 :::::Your choices, however. Perhaps discuss first, though? [[Special:Contributions/82.132.236.65|82.132.236.65]] 08:39, 23 November 2025 (UTC)
 ::::::I would like to vote for using extra=page and extra=comic. '''[[User:42.book.addict|<span style="font-family:Cormorant Garamond;font-size:9pt;color:#3a795e">42.book.addict</span>]]<sup>[[User talk:42.book.addict|<span style="font-family:Cormorant Garamond;font-size:6pt;color:#ce5f15">Talk to me!</span>]]</sup>''' 20:17, 24 November 2025 (UTC)
 ==What If? Toolbar button==

@@ Line 734: / Line 734: @@
 ==RSS FEED==
 I've created a megathread for the broken RSS feed since this keeps being brought up. [[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 14:26, 29 September 2025 (UTC)
 === RSS Feed: XML not well-formed ===
@@ Line 1,054: / Line 1,048: @@
 :Though you could try renaming the first (i.e. chronologically last) page that pops up. ''If'' it makes it update that entry (revealing the other D&D error as the new stopper), then make the second change... (surely if it's kick-started to respond to that, then it's kick-started to start adding new things, but no idea if you'd ''then'' need to change/unchange everything since the current last, in order to prompt them to be added). But my guess is that you'll change the page, nothing will happen, you'll wait... eventually you'll want to undo the change back to how it currently is. (Or look for every page that references the changed page to get them pointing at the new-name... as not leaving a Redirect page on the old name might be the only way to make it 'RSS official').
 :Or I'm totally wrong, and it's all much simpler. Can't test any of these hypotheticals and predictions myself. [[Special:Contributions/2.98.65.8|2.98.65.8]] 20:40, 27 October 2025 (UTC)
 == Fix Random Comic RNG ==