Talk:2067: Challengers

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
Jump to: navigation, search


New category elections

I've created a new category for elections: Category:Elections. Please help and add this category to other comics I've missed so far. --Dgbrt (talk) 09:47, 2 November 2018 (UTC)

Further discussions

Calling it now: lots of complaining about campaigning, by folks who prefer jokes. KangaroOS 06:25, 2 November 2018 (UTC)

Count me in. Though I feel I'm one of a group with a legitimate gripe, I'm not American, and thus am not affected by nor have any stake in this election, and to whom this election stuff is largely like the "Wah wah wah" stuff from Peanuts when adults talk. :) NiceGuy1 (talk) 06:58, 5 November 2018 (UTC)

There are hidden comics. I've found three so far: Attack ad comic in north half of Texas. Ballot measure comic in north half of California. Gerrymandering comic in north half of Washington. IronyIsGood 06:16, 2 November 2018 (AEST) 108.162.249.184 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Steve King comic in north-western Iowa
St Louis comic on the border of Missouri and Illinois 162.158.90.144 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
"Abigail Spanberger for Congress", just below Richmond, Virginia 172.69.54.165 08:17, 2 November 2018 (UTC)
"Only Poll That Counts" comic on border of California and Nevada, South West of Las Vegas 141.101.77.56 08:21, 2 November 2018 (UTC)
"I can see my house from here" in Washington DC 172.68.110.88 09:17, 2 November 2018 (UTC)
"If elected..." North Western Nebraska. -- ManSpider (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
"Carlymandering plan..." North Washington. 162.158.202.88 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Non-Republican/Democrat candidate found in Alaska, in green - only one I've found so far. 172.69.226.143 09:08, 2 November 2018 (UTC)

There is also one southwest of Dallas 162.158.202.88 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Serious bug report:

This damn thing must be geolocked or something, because apparently not being an American means I can't edit the map. I can't even get around it with a VPN. Help? 162.158.38.214 10:18, 2 November 2018 (UTC)

This map will be changed by US citizens on November 6, 2018. Nobody can edit this map at xkcd. --Dgbrt (talk) 10:33, 2 November 2018 (UTC)
The complain was about the fact non-US citizens can't "edit" it by voting. -- Hkmaly (talk) 23:42, 2 November 2018 (UTC)

Loading screen

please, include the loading screen in the explanation. --valepert (talk) 11:19, 2 November 2018 (UTC)

Someone has mentioned it at the first paragraph. This was also the first version uploaded by the BOT: File:challengers.png. --Dgbrt (talk) 12:09, 2 November 2018 (UTC)
Note that loading screen is only thing you see if you have old browser ... I suspect the used javascript is ES6. -- Hkmaly (talk) 23:43, 2 November 2018 (UTC)
"To see the full zoomable picture go to the original comic page." - really? I had to come HERE to see what xkcd was supposed to look like, under the assumption that a permanent "loading" message wasn't much of a joke. I'm glad there's something HERE that I can actually see. 172.68.189.163 08:01, 3 November 2018 (UTC)

Links to politicans

I'm not sure if we all haven't recognized that all larger names provide a link to a homepage. Maybe Randall has fixed an error right now. Nonetheless I've mentioned this in the first paragraph. --Dgbrt (talk) 12:26, 2 November 2018 (UTC)

It seems most links just use Google like this example: https://google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&btnI=1&q=kyrsten+sinema+senate+arizona which shows directly the first search result. --Dgbrt (talk) 13:41, 2 November 2018 (UTC)

What's with all the place names?

There are an immense number of placenames on the map - many of these look to be jokes. Maybe specific places you can go to vote or something? What's the deal with that? SteveBaker (talk) 12:58, 2 November 2018 (UTC)

These are US Landmarks as mentioned at the first paragraph. If you find a place that doesn't belong to this list it should be mentioned. --Dgbrt (talk) 13:10, 2 November 2018 (UTC)
Some further investigations on the json file gave me this:
  • 9 embedded comics
  • 17,643 labels, much more than the 2,500 landmarks. This includes all names so far.
Most links are just links to Google. --Dgbrt (talk) 13:41, 2 November 2018 (UTC)
I just can't believe my hometown in on it... with a wlink to it's wikipedia page. Linker (talk) 13:49, 2 November 2018 (UTC)
Besides actual place names, there are a lot of radio stations (Wxxx codes). Also, there's XKCD just on the left of the Boston label (Massachusetts). Is that where Randall lives? 108.162.229.10 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
There are other things, as well. Next to Ogden, Utah, there's a link to the Wikipedia article for the "Hi-Fi Murders," which is an event, not a landmark. 172.68.143.240 16:21, 2 November 2018 (UTC)
I'm pretty sure the landmarks are just all of the wikipedia pages that contain some kind of location information. That's why for example the wikipedia pages "List of largest summits" point to Alaska where the largest summit actually is. Similarly the {w|Xkcd} wikipedia page has a GPS coordinate in the 'Inspired activities' section, which points to Boston, the same place where the XKCD label is on the map. While there might be some easter egg there, I think the grey labels are simply just wikipedia pages with coordinates or other geolocatable texts in their contents. Sztupy (talk) 16:54, 2 November 2018 (UTC)
Went through the map-data.json file and confirmed that all gray labels match the wikipedia link, so I don't think there's going to be any intentional easter eggs there. Similarly can't find any discrepancies between the candidate's name and their google search results - they all seem to be autogenerated Sztupy (talk) 17:51, 2 November 2018 (UTC)

Any speculation as to why all the place names were included? These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For (talk) 16:23, 6 November 2018 (UTC)

Subcomics layout

I know the Editor FAQ about tables, but am I the only one who thinks the previous table layout for the subcomics was much easier to read? I find that with the current list layout, it is more difficult to ignore the transcript for those of us who don't need to read it.108.162.229.10 14:31, 2 November 2018 (UTC)

Could make the transcript collapsible maybe, and also move the images back from thumbnails into the main body, so they are close to the explanations? Sztupy (talk) 14:47, 2 November 2018 (UTC)
This is one of those overwhelming comics that can't be covered by a FAQ in general. But a table is still a bad layout because the text will grow and it's a horror to read it on a smartphone. Nonetheless the layout still needs some improvements. --Dgbrt (talk) 17:45, 2 November 2018 (UTC)
I've done an update to the layout. You often think too much about tables, a simple floating text with less headers looks much better. Right now the pictures are larger than the text, but I'm sure there will be more text soon. Otherwise we could reduce the size of the pictures slightly. --Dgbrt (talk) 18:00, 2 November 2018 (UTC)

Any speculation as to why all the interesting places were included on the map? And are they meant to be geographically correct? The ones in my neck of the woods are just conveniently placed lists, nowhere near their proper locations.

Candidate in wrong place?

Noticed Robert Arlett, the Republican challenger for US Senate from Delaware, is listed in Washington DC. --172.69.62.196 15:36, 2 November 2018 (UTC)

There are a bunch of errors we are going to need an errata section. Eastern Iowa has a link to the "murder of Yangjie Li" a murder that happened in 2016 in Germany maybe they meant the "Murder of Shao Tong" from 2014 a murder of one Chinese student of another while at university in Iowa. -- Echo Hotel (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
Yes, if you check the source of that wikipedia page you can see that it has a GPS coordinate set that points to Hollywood Bld, Iowa City. It was likely added by mistake from the content creator and was never removed. Sztupy (talk) 18:32, 2 November 2018 (UTC)

Carlymandering Carly is Canadian, so not eligible to vote in US elections. The result in the Carly district should be zero all tie, usually resulting in drawing lots for the winner. Any non-zero result would be clear evidence of election fraud.162.158.75.142 16:27, 2 November 2018 (UTC)

House

Alternately, the "I can see my House from here" could refer to the U.S. House of Representatives, in Washington DC, which theoretically represents all US voters. Many of the ballots being cast are to fill House of Representatives seats at the Federal level. Leftcontact (talk) 17:23, 2 November 2018 (UTC)


Speck in the title image It looks like there's a speck of minuscule text in the comic title header image, in the lower right side. Is this readable to anyone, or is he messing with us? 162.158.79.101 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Nahh, it's just some random pixels, probably left there from az earlier edit of the subtitle: [1] --141.101.77.116 10:59, 6 November 2018 (UTC)

Blank map? The map is blank on my iPad, is this happening to anyone else? Herobrine (talk) 23:21, 2 November 2018 (UTC)

iPad 3 released in Spring 2013 here, max iOS of I think 9.4.3, and all I get is the "Loading..." image. I partially suspected the lack of anything might be the gag, but had figured on the truth, that it was probably one of the more complicated comics that don't do anything on my iPad (like Umlaut or Hoverboard or that Garden one, though those were on my iPad 1, and the latter didn't do anything on my computer, either). NiceGuy1 (talk) 06:53, 5 November 2018 (UTC)

Is he taking petitions to change landmarks? Im going to assume YES. It seems like the most Randall thing to do. Why wouldnt he? I would like to stake my claim as first and offer replacing John F. Kennedy High School (Mt. Angel, Oregon) with John F. Kennedy High School (Bloomington, Minnesota). Choochoobob123 (talk) 04:41, 3 November 2018 (UTC)


Map of interesting features It is nice to have the "map of interesting features", but it is not explained at all. There is not even a key to distinct the red, blue and green X-es. They seemingly all indicate the comics to zoom in, when you read the line above. Only Trivia helps to give an idea, what they could stand for.--Lupo (talk) 07:30, 3 November 2018 (UTC)

You can hover over them for a tooltip (only works on desktop), and click for a link Sztupy (talk) 11:48, 3 November 2018 (UTC)

Higher office v better chances.

So there are these two criteria for font size--higher office and better chances. One wonders what's the formula for weighting the two.

And why not map to two parameters, for example using font size for office, uh, height, and using color saturation for chances of success?

I'm quite ready for someone to jump in and explain how this has been answered, or is moot. --Radiowonderland (talk) 16:40, 3 November 2018 (UTC)

If it were me, I would have multiplied the two metrics. 162.158.92.16 21:27, 3 November 2018 (UTC)
Higher offices are simple, predictions about chances are more like looking through the looking glass... Randall, like most of us failed on this in 2016. Nonetheless I started a paragraph on this issue, help me to fix. --Dgbrt (talk) 23:12, 3 November 2018 (UTC)

Header text

@Dgbrt can you explain this edit, removing the additional header text? That was in the header at the time I added it here. –P1h3r1e3d13 (talk) 23:24, 5 November 2018 (UTC)


Missing Candidate

Not sure if I'm missing something, but Scott Walker is the current incumbent running for Wisconsin governor against Tony Evers. He doesn't appear to be on the map at all. 162.158.74.27 00:08, 6 November 2018 (UTC)

The candidates on the map are only challengers, not incumbents. –P1h3r1e3d13 (talk) 00:53, 6 November 2018 (UTC)