https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&user=173.245.54.47&feedformat=atomexplain xkcd - User contributions [en]2024-03-29T14:05:13ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.30.0https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1693:_Oxidation&diff=121890Talk:1693: Oxidation2016-06-13T12:30:18Z<p>173.245.54.47: Title text</p>
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<div><!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~--><br />
The white balance is off in this comic. [[User:Mikemk|Mikemk]] ([[User talk:Mikemk|talk]]) 04:39, 13 June 2016 (UTC)<br />
:Where? I checked it in gimp and the white balance is fine. In fact, the .png file for this comic uses the greyscale colour mode.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.130|141.101.98.130]] 09:57, 13 June 2016 (UTC)<br />
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Maybe Randall drew this one on paper, which had already started oxidizing before it was scanned. ;D<br />
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.91|108.162.216.91]] 08:36, 13 June 2016 (UTC)<br />
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I thought the arthropods mentioned were meant to be a reference to pubic lice (crabs). [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.42|141.101.104.42]] 06:11, 13 June 2016 (UTC)<br />
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Okay, who else had immediately thought of Skitter? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.11.43|172.68.11.43]] 09:52, 13 June 2016 (UTC)<br />
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There's no reason to think the Title Text is from Megan to Pony tail. It could just as easily be the other way around. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.47|173.245.54.47]] 12:30, 13 June 2016 (UTC)</div>173.245.54.47https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1673:_Timeline_of_Bicycle_Design&diff=119085Talk:1673: Timeline of Bicycle Design2016-05-01T14:45:27Z<p>173.245.54.47: </p>
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<div>I have deleted the entire paragraph with the Alternatively, explanation that this could be an analogue to the process of meiosis and pregnancy... It seems extremely far fetched to me... [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:01, 27 April 2016 (UTC)<br />
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Seconded. This is a bizarre comic, and there will be a bizarre explanation, but that is clearly not it. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.70.181|141.101.70.181]] 13:04, 27 April 2016 (UTC)<br />
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That 1860 bike looks like the {{w|American Star Bicycle}}, but the year doesn't match. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.79.49|141.101.79.49]] 13:10, 27 April 2016 (UTC)<br />
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(Moved here from explanation:)<br> The randomness of the designs reminds me of the strange designs produced by the genetic evolution AI in the game BoxCar2D.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.80.78|141.101.80.78]] 15:05, 27 April 2016<br />
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This comic strongly remind me of http://boxcar2d.com/ [[User:Dorus|Dorus]] ([[User talk:Dorus|talk]]) 14:24, 27 April 2016 (UTC)<br />
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I third the above comments. It could also help explain the title text, as the 1955 panel shows a broken and failed cycle, which can happen when a detrimental mutation (like weak wheel linkages) is selected by the AI to be passed on. {{unsigned ip|173.245.54.52}}<br />
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Would have seconded it, only looks like I'm fourthing it, instead. Also I adjusted 1925's transcript description as the numbers were wrong. (I also suspect it's related to the stabilisation applied to the [https://postalheritage.wordpress.com/tag/pentacycle/ Pentacycle], only without visible in/out-of-page stability. (Because the third dimension doesn't exist? Well apart from 1900 that looks to be a bicycle version of the [http://www.thisvictorianlife.com/cycling.html Rudge], with a solid insert to the spoked wheel ('poor man's disc-wheel' kit?) obscuring all but the spurious over-wheel drive-chain and the rider's head.) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.137|141.101.98.137]] 15:09, 27 April 2016 (UTC)<br />
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Can you include the 'Alternatively,' explanation down here so I (and presumably others) don't have to wade through the page's history? We could list all sorts of far-fetched explanations, it has definitely happened on other comics. {{unsigned ip|108.162.242.135}}<br />
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I have a feeling that this is related to the idea that nobody can draw a bicycle. For example, [https://www.behance.net/gallery/35437979/Velocipedia this artist created 3D renderings of bicycles drawn by strangers]. [[User:Rael|Rael]] ([[User talk:Rael|talk]]) 14:51, 27 April 2016 (UTC)<br />
:I'm not certain there's a relation, unless it's Randall pointing out that it's rather difficult for him to draw a bicycle while maintaining a simple stick-figure theme? Regarding that guy's experience asking strangers to draw a bicycle: Most people do not draw very well. At all... Many people can't even draw faces very well & we look at faces *all the time*. We're predisposed to spot faces even when they're not there, yet most people get the proportions wrong. I'm not sure why he was surprised that most people couldn't draw a mechanically accurate representation. Bicycles are moderately complex machines that many people feel overwhelmed by, to the point of omitting otherwise advantageous equipment, such as multiple gears. {{unsigned ip|141.101.98.25}}<br />
::Well, as you could see, most of the people who tried to draw bicycles were able to at least sketch something that resembled a bicycle. You don't have to be an artist to get the basic idea down. The thing I found more interesting was that many of the drawings were just plain wrong (e.g. the chain going all the way between the front and back wheels) or lacked significant parts. In some cases, it's clear that the drawer just overlooked one or two things - easy to do - and in other cases, it shows that the person actually had difficulty recalling the basic structure of a bicycle. Everyone who participated clearly knows what a bike is and, from a practical standpoint, how it works. But from a brain-sciences perspective, there's a difference between the symbolic memory of a bicycle (I know what it is and how to use it, and I can remember what color mine is, etc.) and detailed visual memory (I know all the parts and can reconstruct them visually). That's what's being exposed in that experiment. :)<br />
::That said, I agree that I don't think there's a strong relation between this comic and that experiment. I think it's more likely that Randall is poking fun at both genetic algorithms (perhaps self-learning AIs) and design prototyping (throw a bunch of stuff at the wall and see what sticks). [[User:KieferSkunk|KieferSkunk]] ([[User talk:KieferSkunk|talk]]) 16:56, 29 April 2016 (UTC)<br />
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Does anyone else think the 1980 bike resembles a horse-drawn carriage minus the horses? Specifically, the two long parts Megan is holding look like reins. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.122|108.162.246.122]] 16:06, 27 April 2016 (UTC)<br />
: This one rather makes me think of a chopper, only without the engine. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.49|108.162.229.49]] 16:49, 27 April 2016 (UTC)<br />
:: Indeed, there is a movement for both chopper and lowrider bicycles. I have seen both and the 1980's bicycle looks almost like a lowrider bike I saw in Arvada CO probably in 2014. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.89|162.158.255.89]] 17:29, 27 April 2016 (UTC)<br />
The 1980 design is reminiscent of long-wheelbase recumbent bicycles, which were originally designed in the 1930s and enjoyed a resurgence starting in the later 20th century. An Iowa company produced a bicycle called a 'Linear' about this time which did have extremely long handlebars; steering it was more like using a tiller on a boat. The fallacy here is using a chaindrive to power the (steerable) front wheel; this simply would not work. [[User:RAGBRAIvet|RAGBRAIvet]] ([[User talk:RAGBRAIvet|talk]]) 20:18, 28 April 2016 (UTC)<br />
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I came here thinking I did not get the joke. After reading the description I see I am not the only one. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.119|108.162.246.119]] 16:23, 27 April 2016 (UTC)<br />
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: Same here. I think the joke is just Randall exaggerating actual bicycle designs. Either that or it's "The Evolution of the Bicycle" in an alternate reality. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.62|173.245.52.62]] 17:30, 27 April 2016 (UTC)<br />
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Is the point of the timeseries that while most things in biology evolve gradually over time (think all of those Evolution of Man t-shirts), undergoing great changes in form, we basically hit all the possible bicycle designs in the first 20 years and it has gone along essentially unchanged ever since? There are specialty bikes made possible by new frame materials, but they are all "Safety Bicycles". The takeaway of the comic could be either about the simplicity of the solution to the bicycle "problem", or about the difference between engineered design and the natural selection. [[User:Peregrinus|Peregrinus]] ([[User talk:Peregrinus|talk]]) 17:27, 27 April 2016 (UTC)<br />
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The 1955 design reminds me of the movie "Rubber". http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1612774/ Is that too tenuous of a connection?<br />
[[User:ChrisPwildcat|ChrisPwildcat]] ([[User talk:ChrisPwildcat|talk]]) 19:11, 27 April 2016 (UTC)<br />
: I definitely made the same connection. (Wow, the scene where the tire stares into its own reflection & remembers all of its actions so far... I felt empathy for that tire. WTH?) The 1955 design definitely implies that the wheels are trying to kill Cueball. {{unsigned ip|141.101.98.25}}<br />
:: Perhaps you are feeling sorry for the 1955 tires. That is because you are crazy. The 1980 design is much better. &lt;/ikea&gt; :) [[User:KieferSkunk|KieferSkunk]] ([[User talk:KieferSkunk|talk]]) 14:38, 29 April 2016 (UTC)<br />
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This reminds me of certain videos I watched about evolution, in sequence, the picutres could be describe various models (some of them apparently unfit, thus discontinued) of bicycles as if they were derived from the laws that govern evolution (random mutation and natural selection). [[Special:Contributions/198.41.243.242|198.41.243.242]] 21:42, 27 April 2016 (UTC)<br />
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Could the 1955 design be backwards cheese rolling? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.44|173.245.54.44]] 21:54, 27 April 2016 (UTC)<br />
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(Re: 1955) "This is obviously the most ridiculous of all of these designs" - clearly, someone has really badly misspelt the word "awesome" here. Please fix. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.92|141.101.98.92]] 08:12, 28 April 2016 (UTC)<br />
:And the text I quoted is no longer in the article. Muahahaha, the power of the talk page! [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.92|141.101.98.92]] 15:58, 28 April 2016 (UTC)<br />
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Someone using the 2016 bicycle wouldn't be very welcome in Skyrim (milkdrinkers...) [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.79|108.162.219.79]] 14:36, 28 April 2016 (UTC)<br />
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This could be an example of a (badly parameter-ed) genetic algorithm. {{unsigned ip|108.162.237.244}}<br />
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I added a table describing each bicycle design (not copied from the transcript), naming things the design is similar to (e.g. unicycles, Pennyfarthings, etc.), and what's wrong with it. :) [[User:KieferSkunk|KieferSkunk]] ([[User talk:KieferSkunk|talk]]) 14:36, 29 April 2016 (UTC)<br />
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1940 bicycle: Megan looks as if she is propelling her bike like a Venetian gondola.[[User:These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For|These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For]] ([[User talk:These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For|talk]])<br />
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;Categories<br />
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Quick question: I noticed this explanation is included in "Category:Multiple Cueballs". Is this correct? It stands to reason that we may just have the same Cueball appearing in multiple photos as he attempts to demonstrate how to use each bike design. If we do consider this an instance of multiple Cueballs, should we also have a category for multiple Megans, since she appears three times as well? [[User:KieferSkunk|KieferSkunk]] ([[User talk:KieferSkunk|talk]]) 17:17, 29 April 2016 (UTC)<br />
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I'm almost certain he is making fun of https://vimeo.com/73581450</div>173.245.54.47https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1672:_Women_on_20s&diff=1186731672: Women on 20s2016-04-25T14:24:10Z<p>173.245.54.47: /* Explanation */ Mention security</p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1672<br />
| date = April 25, 2016<br />
| title = Women on 20s<br />
| image = women_on_20s.png<br />
| titletext = I get that there are security reasons for the schedule, but this is like the ONE problem we have where the right answer is both easy and straightforward. If we can't figure it out, maybe we should just give up and just replace all the portraits on the bills with that weird pyramid eye thing.<br />
}}<br />
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==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|The transcript needs work.}}<br />
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This comic portrays a series or press conferences with a US Treasury spokesperson to summarize and ridicule the recent controversy over the upcoming redesign of US currency. <br />
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American currency has never had a woman as the primary portrait on paper currency, which is widely seen as a real problem. Responding to this issue, the Treasury Department initially planned to replace {{w|Andrew Jackson}} with a woman, to be chosen by public voting. {{w|Trail of Tears}} is a reference to the forced relocations of Native American peoples that Andrew Jackson conducted during his presidency. This is now seen as a human rights violation on a massive scale, and is presented as a reason why Andrew Jackson should not be honored on American currency.<br />
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The voting process selected {{w|Harriet Tubman}}, a 19th century abolitionist and a major figure in the {{w|Underground Railroad}} system which freed American slaves. Cueball is clearly pleased and excited about this prospect.<br />
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At this point, bureaucratic and political complications arise. The Treasury Department announces that, instead of replacing Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill, she would replace {{w|Alexander Hamilton}} on the $10. The reason given is that the $10 bill was scheduled for redesign first. A reporter asks why they can't simply change the schedule, but doesn't get a clear answer.<br />
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This plan is complicated when {{w|Hamilton_(musical)|a Broadway musical}} about the life of Alexander Hamilton comes out and becomes massively popular. This creates a flood of interest in Hamilton, and makes replacing his portrait politically complicated. The spokesperson suggests putting both Hamilton and Tubman on the $10 bill, but the reporters clearly think this is an unnecessary compromise.<br />
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Finally, the spokesperson announces that they will put Tubman on the $20 bill, but their schedule demands that they do the $10 bill first. They decide to put a "mural to women" on the new $10 bill to try and contain the tension until new $20 bill is released. The reporters point out that the Treasury has total control over the release of currency, so the simpler solution is just to change the schedule, but they're apparently ignored.<br />
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In the final panel, the spokesperson mentions that Jackson's portrait will still appear on the new $20 bill, seriously weakening the symbolism of replacing him. This is likely an effort to head off the complaints of traditionalists, but is seen here as an unfortunate attempt to avoid taking a real stand.<br />
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The title text reiterates that this is a rare case in politics in which there's a clear and simple solution. The Treasury has the authority to redesign currency and change the release schedule however they like. That makes all the compromises and backtracking unnecessary: they could simply replace Jackson with Tubman and release the new $20 bill whenever they choose. He appears frustrated with the artificial constraints that are holding back what should be a simple and straightforward process. (The title text does acknowledge that it takes time to evaluate a redesign's resistance to counterfeiting.)<br />
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The mention of the "weird pyramid eye thing" is a reference to the {{w|Eye of Providence}}, which is an old and somewhat arcane symbol that appears on the US $1 bill. Munroe seems to be using this as an example of the outdated and frankly strange design of American currency, the implication that using that on all our bills would constitute giving up on every having a design relevant to the modern world.<br />
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==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript}}<br />
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:[Panel labeled '2015']<br />
:[Cueball is sitting at a computer.]<br />
:Website: Petition: Replace Andrew "Trail of Tears" Jackson with a woman on the $20 for the 100th anniversary of women's suffrage in 2020.<br />
:Cueball: Hey, good idea!<br />
:Website: Vote for your three picks:<br />
:[Three Drop-Down Menus]<br />
:1: Harritet Tubman<br />
:2: Eleanor Roosevelt<br />
:3: Rachel Carson<br />
:Cueball: Tubman for #1, definitely.<br />
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{{comic discussion}}</div>173.245.54.47https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1669:_Planespotting&diff=1182721669: Planespotting2016-04-18T21:55:06Z<p>173.245.54.47: /* Explanation */</p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1669<br />
| date = April 18, 2016<br />
| title = Planespotting<br />
| image = planespotting.png<br />
| titletext = No, a hydroplane doesn't land on water--that's an aquaplane. A hydroplane is a plane that gets electric power from an onboard water reservoir with a tiny dam and turbines.<br />
}}<br />
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==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|So far mainly a list. Could be listed better either bullet or in a table.}}<br />
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[[Cueball]] and a [[:Category:Characters with Hats|man with a hat]] are out '''planespotting''', or {{w|Aircraft_spotting|aircraft spotting}}, a hobby where tracking the movement of aircraft allows plane fans to see as many different types of planes as possible. A knowledgeable spotter would just by the silhouette and maybe the engine sound of the plane be able to tell what type of plane it is. (And may be rather proud of the fact, if he can tell this before one of the other spotters...) <br />
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The plane in the comic is most likely a {{w|Bombardier Dash 8|Bombardier Q400}}, a twin-engine regional turboprop with a T-tail as depicted.<br />
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The man with the hat asks Cueball to identify the airplane flying overhead. Cueball (or [[Randall]] qua the caption), who "assumes" he knows a lot about planes gives a long, nonsensical answer, proving that he does not. As mentioned in the caption he never actually checked if what he thought he knew was fact or fiction. As it turns out it is mainly fiction, but of course with some reference to real planes or vehicles. (Due to the fact the characters are drawn in silhouette it is impossible to determine whether the character with the hat is [[Black Hat]] or [[White Hat]] or some other character).<br />
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*'''Boeing''': {{w|Boeing}} is a company that designs and builds aircraft, although not the Q400. It is one of the best known Aerospace companies in the world, so putting this in front is not a way of displaying any particular knowledge of planes.<br />
*'''Q404''': The reference to Q404 is close to the Q400 but although it is indeed a vessel, it is not a plane but a {{w|French submarine Astrée (Q200)|French submarine}} captured by Germany during World War II. [[404]] also refers to an error shown when a specific internet address or file is not found, or as in this case, the plane is not found!<br />
*'''Twin-engine''': {{w|Category:Twin-engined_aircraft|Twin-engine}} refers to aircraft with two engines, so at least Cueball got that right.<br />
*'''Quad band''': Communication equipment that can use 4 different radio frequency bands is called {{w|Quad band}}.<br />
*'''MiG''': {{w|MiG}} is a Russian manufacturer of military aircraft, formerly the Mikoyan-and-Gurevich Design Bureau. However, MIG-380 is a type of welding equipment ({{w|metal inert gas}}, 380V).<br />
*'''Hybrid vehicle''': A {{w|Hybrid vehicle}} is able to use more than one distinct power source. The most common combination is a combustion engine and an electric motor.<br />
*'''Dual wield''': {{w|Dual wield}}ing is using two weapons, one in each hand. It is highly unlikely that the aircraft is dual-wielded by its pilot, and it is equally ridiculous to imagine that the plane is dual-wielding anything.<br />
*'''Mk.''': "Mk." (or Mark) is usually used to specify a model number using a Roman numeral. <br />
*'''IVII ''': IVII is not a standard number in the {{w|Roman_numerals|Roman numeral system}}, under standard rules it would be written like VI = 6. On the other hand, it could be a mishmash way of writing "42", (IV = 4, II = 2) which could then make it a reference to the {{w|Phrases_from_The_Hitchhiker's_Guide_to_the_Galaxy#Answer_to_the_Ultimate_Question_of_Life.2C_the_Universe.2C_and_Everything_.2842.29|Answer to Life, The Universe, and Everything}} according to {{w|Douglas Adams}}' {{w|The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy}}, something referenced before in xkcd, for instance in [[1608: Hoverboard]] if you got [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/1/1c/42_coins.PNG 42 coins]. The correct way to say 42 in Roman numerals is XLII.<br />
*'''Turbo diesel''': {{w|Aircraft_diesel_engine|Turbo diesel}} engines are sometimes used in aircraft.<br />
*'''797''': The {{w|Boeing 797}} has never been produced, but a hoax design has been circulating the Internet since the mid-2000's.<br />
*'''Hydroplane''': A hydroplane either refers to {{w|aquaplaning}} a very undesirable activity of a wheeled vehicle crossing shallow water, or a type of {{w|hydroplane (boat)|boat}} for which hydroplaning is the desired mode of travel. <br />
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In the title text the concept of hydroplane is mixed up with other concepts, none of which has anything to do with airplanes:<br />
*'''Aquaplane''': An aquaplane is a similar to a short {{w|surfboard}}, on which a person stands while the board is pulled by a speedboat. The correct name for a plane that lands on water (on purpose) is a {{w|seaplane}}.<br />
*'''Dam and turbines''': Powering an aircraft with a miniature {{w|hydroelectric dam}} connected to an on-board reservoir is an absurdity. The energy that powers hydroelectric plants come from the potential energy released by a mass of water as it falls. But because the plane is lifting the water reservoir in addition to its own weight, such a dam could never produce enough energy.<br />
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Only three weeks prior to this comic, [[1660: Captain Speaking]] was released only with a drawing of a plane in the air, where the captain eventually finds out that his plane is probably a Boeing...<br />
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==Transcript==<br />
:[Cueball and a man with a hat is seen in silhouette standing on the ground looking towards the sky. A fixed wing aircraft can be seen in the sky, also in silhouette.]<br />
:Man with hat: What's That Airplane?<br />
:Cueball:Oh, That's a Boeing Q404 twin-engine quad-band mig-380 hybrid dual-wield Mk. IVII Turbodiesel 797 Hydroplane.<br />
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:[Caption below the panel:] <br />
:I've always assumed I'm one of those people who knows a lot about planes, but I've never actually checked.<br />
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{{comic discussion}}<br />
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[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Characters with Hats]] <!-- no reason to assume it is Black Hat, and not certain enough that it is White Hat --></div>173.245.54.47https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1665:_City_Talk_Pages&diff=116988Talk:1665: City Talk Pages2016-04-08T17:43:09Z<p>173.245.54.47: </p>
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<div>I redid the numbering in the transcript to be consistent with the comic. Unfortunately that added blank lines around the indented section, which looks a little awkward. Perhaps someone with better markup skills than me can fix it.[[User:NotLock|NotLock]] ([[User talk:NotLock|talk]]) 16:51, 8 April 2016 (UTC)<br />
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So now does Wikipedia have to lock down every talk page to prevent xkcd-inspired vandalism edits? [[User:Z|Z]] ([[User talk:Z|talk]]) 17:14, 8 April 2016 (UTC)<br />
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Aren't all of these points based on actual wikipedia talk pages? I came by to find the links to them. Maybe this is a big Whooosh for me, but i'd bet i'll not be the last person to think this. [[User:Harodotus|Harodotus]] ([[User talk:Harodotus|talk]]) 17:23, 8 April 2016 (UTC)<br />
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Andrew Lloyd Webber has two "b"s.<br />
[[User:Shakhteremeslo|Shakhteremeslo]] ([[User talk:Shakhteremeslo|talk]]) 17:41, 8 April 2016 (UTC)<br />
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Is the "it's apparently not a mistake" line a possible reference to citogenesis? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.47|173.245.54.47]] 17:43, 8 April 2016 (UTC)</div>173.245.54.47https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1652:_Conditionals&diff=1142911652: Conditionals2016-03-07T14:37:50Z<p>173.245.54.47: /* Explanation */ Added explanation of flavor text~~~~</p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1652<br />
| date = March 7, 2016<br />
| title = Conditionals<br />
| image = conditionals.png<br />
| titletext = 'If you're done being pedantic, we should get dinner.' 'You did it again!' 'No, I didn't.'<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
Cueball is having a conversation via text message. His conversation partner uses a conditional "if-then" statement, as might be found in formal logic or in a computer programm. WHen such a statement is used in a computer program, the computer will check to see if a certain condition, such as a variable value being equal to some constant, is true or false. If it is true, it will execute the code in the "then" section.<br />
<br />
For example:<br />
comic = "xkcd"<br />
if (comic = "xkcd")<br />
then print "xkcd"<br />
<br />
When this pseudocode is run by a computer, the computer would print "xkcd" because the condition (does comic = xkcd?) is true, since the variable comic was assigned the value "xkcd".<br />
<br />
Conditionals are also used in formal logic. A possible form is "if A then B", meaning that if the first part of the statement (A, the premise or antecedent) is true, the second part (B, the conclusion or consequent) is asserted to be true.<br />
<br />
For example:<br />
"If you are reading this then you probably read xkcd."<br />
<br />
An equivalent form of such a statement is "B if A":<br />
"You probably read xkcd if you are reading this."<br />
<br />
The humor of the comic arises from Cueball's interaction with an invitation for a social meeting, which is put to him casually in the form of a “B if A” statement, as a formal conditional statement: if Cueball wants to hang out, then his conversation partner will be in his city. This does not imply anything about where the partner will be if Cueball does ''not'' want to hang out; they could be in the city or anywhere else (a conditional statement makes no assertions about the truth or falsity of its conclusion if its premise is false).<br />
<br />
Since the person is only guaranteed to be in the city if Cueball wants to hang out, he asks them where they will be if he doesn't. The other person makes an excuse to drop their invitation, apparently tiring of his insistence on his overly-pedantic interpretation. Hence the caption observes that being pedantic with regard to conditionals is likely to make your friends disinclined to hang out with you.<br />
<br />
Under the intended interpretation, "if you want to hang out" is shorthand for the conditional statement "we can hang out, if you want to hang out", with the consequent "we can hang out" being implied. "I'll be in your city tomorrow" is not part of the conditional statement and only serves to provide background.<br />
<br />
In the flavor text, the initiator of the conversation then presents an "If A, then B" conditional in which all necessary context is present in the sentence. The person responding (probably Cueball) mistakenly asserts that the speaker made the same mistake as the previous exchange, to which the initiator correctly replies, "No, I didn't." The intent is to show that because the initiator still believes that Cueball is still being pedantic, then he believes that it is not a good idea to have dinner together.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript}}<br />
<br />
:[Cueball is texting on a phone with a friend]<br />
<br />
:Friend: I'll be in your city tomorrow if you want to hang out.<br />
:Cueball: But where will you be if I ''don't'' want to hang out?<br />
:Friend: You know, I just remembered I'm busy.<br />
:Why I try not to be pedantic about conditionals.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Language]]</div>173.245.54.47https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=802:_Online_Communities_2&diff=110647802: Online Communities 22016-02-04T19:06:12Z<p>173.245.54.47: /* MMO Isle */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 802<br />
| date = October 6, 2010<br />
| title = Online Communities 2<br />
| image = online_communities_2.png<br />
| titletext = Best trivia I learned while working on this: 'Man, Farmville is so huge! Do you realize it's the second-biggest browser-based social-networking-centered farming game in the WORLD?' Then you wait for the listener to do a double-take.<br />
}}<br />
A [http://xkcd.com/802_large/ larger version] of this picture can be found by clicking the comic on xkcd.<br />
{{TOC}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Not all of the regions are fully explained. Many labels aren't even mentioned outside of the transcript. Some towns need to be added for example.}}<br />
This comic shows a map of internet communities where the size of each region roughly corresponds to its size, and its proximity to other regions indicates similarities.<br />
<br />
This is the successor of [[256: Online Communities]]. It differs in that it is updated, and furthermore, instead of using the ''membership'' of whichever service to determine its size on the map, it uses its "daily social activity."<br />
<br />
The map actually has two super−maps intended to show the relative usage of types of communication: the online community map is surrounded by the much larger "countries" of E−Mail, SMS ("Instant Messaging") and "Cell Phones," which in turn are surrounded by the even huger "Spoken Language." It is unclear whether "Cell Phones" is intended to represent an independent region, or whether it is meant to be a sub-region of "Spoken Language." The ambiguity is exacerbated by the fact that cell phones are the primary medium of SMS, and are also used to access email and online communities. It's also unclear why other forms of communication, such as handwritten letters, are not included.<br />
<br />
At the title text [[Randall]] explains that, using his definition of "most activity per day," Farmville is actually the ''second'' most popular social-network farming game - the Chinese game Happy Farm was more popular at the time. This strikes many English-speaking xkcd readers as odd, because Farmville is much more famous, leading one to wonder how the it could not be the most played. The phrase "browser-based social-networking-centered farming game" is an example of an [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OverlyNarrowSuperlative overly-narrow superlative.]<br />
<br />
===Facebook Region===<br />
The Facebook region deals with social networks, that is, websites oriented towards having people meet.<br />
<br />
'''{{w|Facebook}}''' is a social networking site that allows people to meet old real−life friends and make new friends that share similar interests. One of its most notable features is that a member can update a "status" or make normal posts about the happenings of the member's life, complete with pictures, other members "liking" these posts. The size of the Facebook region is not exaggerated; most websites seem to allow "liking" their content or allow/require logging in the website with a Facebook account. There even are cell phones with a "Facebook" button!<br />
<br />
*'''{{w|FarmVille}}''' and '''{{w|Farm Town}}''' are Facebook games in which users manage farms. '''{{w|Happy Farm}},''' the Chinese game that inspired the other two, does not require Facebook integration, so it is separated by a solid line from Facebook. The "Unethical Bay" refers to how these games tend to addict players into constantly buying virtual items of questionable value.<br />
<br />
*'''People You Can't Unfriend''' refers to people whom, due to real-life expectations and relationships, unfriending them is difficult, no matter how you really feel about them.<br />
<br />
*'''Blatherskite River''' refers to the conversations on Facebook, which may be long yet devoid of general meaning or logic.<br />
<br />
*'''Data Mines''' refer to the data mining that Facebook does with the interests of its members. This fuels the profitable advertising business at the expense of customer trust.<br />
<br />
*'''Plains of Awkwardly Public Family Interactions''' refer to how interactions with family members on Facebook suddenly become more awkward because everyone on Facebook (and sometimes ''off'' Facebook, given that you do not necessarily need to log in if you want to see someone's Facebook account) if you are discussing with your family through post comments.<br />
<br />
*'''524,287 Strong for Mersenne Primes''' refers to the communities who gain followers for a cause. A {{w|Mersenne prime}} is a prime number that is 1 less than a power of 2; 524287 is the 7th known Mersenne prime.<br />
<br />
*'''Jungle-Bay Mountains of "It's Complicated"''' refers to one of Facebook's options as to what a user's relationship status currently is. A Jungle-Bay Mountain is a complicated and undefined climate, hence the complication.<br />
<br />
*'''"Old Facebook" Resistance''' refers to Facebook's earlier users, who have often resisted (and resented) changes made to Facebook as it became more popular. <br />
<br />
*'''Privacy Controls''' is located on the map surrounded by a Lava Pool, which is a reference to how difficult it is to find the privacy controls within Facebook.<br />
*'''Niche Market Mountains''' refers to social networks aimed towards more niche markets are located. Similar to how mountains tend to be isolated from mainland, niche social networks tend to be just that: niche, without much interaction with the general populace.<br />
*'''Charred Wasteland of Abandoned Social Networks''' refers to the tons of websites wanting to take advantage of the success of websites like Facebook to compete or even overpower with them. Even so, these websites tend to not have the userbase or even the expertise towards the long-term, hence they become wastelands: environments devoid of life, except the few life forms that are from these wastelands (in this case, the ones who are loyal to the website or which are sadly few). <br />
*In the Charred Wasteland stands '''{{w|Ozymandias}}''', the titular broken statue of Shelley's poem. In the poem, only "two vast and trunkless legs of stone" and a "shattered visage" are all that remain of the once-great statue and both of these features are present in the comic. According to the poem, the pedestal before the broken statue reads "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings..." hence "friend of friends" below Ozymandias on the map.<br />
*In the north are the '''Duckface Mountains''' and the '''Red Cup Mountains'''."Duckface" refers to [http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/duck-face this incredibly obnoxious facial expression], and "red cup pictures" are any pictures containing party-goers holding disposable red plastic beverage cups. Facebook is absolutely flooded with both types of pictures.<br />
*In the south is '''Buzzword Bay'''. {{w|Buzzword}}s are words and phrases that make you sound a lot more topical than you actually are, used to garner attention; again, Facebook status updates are commonly filled with buzzwords.<br />
<br />
While Facebook is the largest "country" of the Facebook Region, there are a lot of smaller "countries" that represent smaller social networks.<br />
<br />
*Below Facebook (and "Old Facebook' Resistance") is '''{{w|Diaspora (social network)|Diaspora}}''', a fully open-source, decentralized, privacy-respecting-and-expecting alternative to Facebook. From what this map tells, Diaspora is little-known, even if Facebook is taken out of the context.<br />
*'''{{w|StudiVZ}}''' is a German-speaking social network similar if not a ripped-off version of Facebook.<br />
*'''{{w|XING}}''' is a German-speaking social platform similar to LinkedIn.<br />
*'''{{w|Ning (website)|Ning}}''' is a service to create custom social websites. Its free services shut down in 2010.<br />
*'''{{w|Taringa!}}''' is a Spanish-speaking social network that is based on a forums. Copyrighted material is frequently found there.<br />
*Next to the Euro(pean) Gulf is '''{{w|Skyrock (social network site)}}''', a French-speaking social network.<br />
*'''{{w|Wer-kennt-wen}}''' is a German-social network somewhat like MySpace.<br />
*'''{{w|Nasza-klasa.pl}}''' or NK, is a Polish-speaking social network based on school relationships.<br />
*'''{{w|Badoo}}''' is a social network primarily based on dating and picture-sharing.<br />
*'''{{w|Classmates.com}}''' is a service in which the user can meet classmates that came from the same high school. The website is probably best known by its memetic advertisement that said [http://dudemanphat.blogspot.com/2005/10/how-am-i-supposed-to-care-about-nick.html "She married him??!! And they've got 7 kids??"] (Incidentally, [http://seattletimes.com/html/businesstechnology/2003325519_adcouple27.html there is more to the coupled picture than what the advertisement says.])<br />
*'''{{w|Myspace}}''' is a social networking website that is a kind of proto-Facebook: users could customize their one-page websites with whatever they wanted, make their interests and daily lives public, and interact with other users. Back in the mid 2000s, MySpace was the largest social network, many people using the website; however, the surprisingly-less-customizable Facebook ended up taking the place of MySpace. The "bands" country of MySpace refers to how a lot of bands in the day advertised and interacted using the website. Indeed, the latest incarnation of MySpace (in terms of 2013) is more oriented towards band members.<br />
*'''{{w|LinkedIn}}''' is a social network aimed towards people in the workplace, which is why it is adjancent to '''Corporate Bay'''.<br />
*'''{{w|Orkut}}''' was one of Google's first social networks before Google made [https://plus.google.com/ Google+]. It shut down in 2014.<br />
*'''{{w|Hi5}}''' is a social network that is very popular among people in Latin America.<br />
*'''{{w|Renren}}''' ('''「人人」''', "people" in Chinese) is "a Chinese copy of Facebook."<br />
*'''{{w|Bebo}}''' was a social network popular in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It went bankrupt in 2013 and will move away from social networking and into apps.<br />
*'''{{w|Friendster}}''' - One of the first major social networks, it has fallen way off in usage in recent years and was eclipsed by MySpace. It is still popular in Asia.<br />
*'''{{w|VK (social networking website)|Vkontakte}}''' or VK, is the second largest social network service in Europe after Facebook. It is available in several languages, but particularly popular among Russian-speaking users around the world.<br />
*'''{{w|Netlog}}''' is a Belgian social networking website specifically targeted at the global youth demographic.<br />
*'''{{w|Mixi}}''' is an online Japanese social networking service.<br />
*'''{{w|Qzone}}''' is a social networking website, which is big in China. According to a report published by Tencent, possibly surpassing other social networking websites like Facebook and MySpace in China.<br />
*'''{{w|Tuenti}}''' is a Spain-based, social networking service, that has been referred to as the "Spanish Facebook."<br />
*'''{{w|Cloob}}''' is a Persian-language social networking website, mainly popular in Iran. After the locally (and internationally) popular social networking website Orkut was blocked by the Iranian government, a series of local sites and networks, including Cloob, emerged to fill the gap.<br />
*'''{{w|Kaixin001}}''' is a social networking website which ranks as the 13th most popular website in China and 67th overall.<br />
*'''{{w|Piczo}}''' was a privately held blog website for teens. In November 2012, Piczo.com shut down.<br />
*'''{{w|Odnoklassniki}}''' is a social network service for classmates and old friends. It is popular in Russia and former Soviet Republics.<br />
*'''{{w|Adult FriendFinder}}''' is a pornographic dating site.<br />
*'''{{w|Match.com}}''' is a dating site, mainly targeted at people looking for marriage.<br />
*'''{{w|Ok Cupid}}''' is another dating site, however it has been owned by Match.com since 2011.<br />
*'''{{w|PlentyofFish}}''' is yet another dating site, also owned by Match.com since June 2015.<br />
*'''{{w|Sulawesi}}''' is a real-life island in the Indonesian archipelago. It also appears in 256: Online Communities.<br />
<br />
stuff<br />
<br />
===YouTube Region===<br />
The YouTube region refers to websites that are based on user-created content.<br />
<br />
'''[https://www.youtube.com/ YouTube]''' is the definitive video website where people can upload videos with the purpose of public viewing, ranging from home movies through official music videos through Let's Plays of people playing video games to questionably-legal uploads of cartoons and films. Google had purchased YouTube.<br />
<br />
Many of the sites on the map are just references to {{w|viral video}}s at {{w|YouTube}}:<br />
*'''Viral Shores''' refers to how viral videos (whether they be viral marketing or simply memes) tend to proliferate on YouTube.<br />
*'''Britney''' likely refers to pop singer {{w|Britney Spears}} and the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHmvkRoEowc "Leave Britney Alone" guy].<br />
*'''Maru Gulf''' refers to Maru the Cat, a YouTube celebrity [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/676:_Abstraction also mentioned in xkcd].<br />
*'''Prairie Dog Habitat''' likely refers to the viral video [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1Y73sPHKxw Dramatic Chipmunk] (which is actually a Prairie Dog).<br />
*'''Rick Rolling Hills''' references, well, {{w|Rickrolling}}. More information [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ here]. The "deserted" note likely refers to how Rick Astley himself is tired of the meme, or again, how people tend to leave the video upon getting "Rick Roll'd," never actually going to the video with the express purpose of viewing the video.<br />
*'''Lunar Landing Soundstage''' is, of course, a reference to the {{w|Moon landing conspiracy theories}}, which Randall has railed on before.<br />
*'''{{w|OK Go}} Bay''' refers to the band "OK Go" who have multiple viral music videos on YouTube, most famously [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTAAsCNK7RA "Here it goes again"] featuring treadmills.<br />
<br />
The '''HTML5 swamp''' refers to YouTube's spotty support of HTML 5 (an update on HTML that is frequently touting its media capabilities, making HTML 5 a viable alternative to Flash). Of course, by the time the comic was written, HTML 5 was still in its infancy. The Music Video Bay refers to the amount of music videos (official or otherwise) are present in YouTube.<br />
<br />
Other counties of the YouTube region include:<br />
*'''[https://vimeo.com/ vimeo]''', a website where people tend to showcase artistic content that they made on their own, notably independent studios.<br />
<br />
Snob Sound:<br />
*'''[https://secure.flickr.com/ Flickr]''', a website where people can upload and share photographs they took.<br />
*'''[http://fotolog.com Fotolog]''', a photo website very popular in South America in 2004-2008, which was used as a social network.<br />
*'''[http://www.last.fm/ Last.fm]''', a music website that is notable of its "scrobbling" feature.<br />
*'''[http://www.deviantart.com/ deviantArt]''', the largest art website, where people can upload, sell, and buy not only art itself, but also video, audio, Flash-work, and even skins (the original purpose of deviantArt). While many big-name/professional people and organizations have their works in deviantArt, the site is more infamous for the large amount of people who upload low-quality fan-art and fan-characters, most notably of media from Japan. Another point of infamy is the large amount of drama that can happen in the website.<br />
<br />
*'''[https://www.newgrounds.com/ Newgrounds]''', a website that hosts art, (Flash-based) videos, audio, and (Flash-based) games to which other users can comment and rate. Even so, content from Newgrounds tends to be obscene, though there is a filtering system if a viewer does not wish to see obscene content.<br />
*'''[http://www.chatroulette.com/ Chatroulette]''' is a website where people are randomly paired up with each other and video/text chat.<br />
*'''{{w|Brickshelf}}''' is the online resource for {{w|LEGO}} fans.<br />
*'''[https://tumblr.com/ Tumblr]''', where people could make a blog and post text, pictures, video, audio, quotes, and links. The most distinguishing feature is the ability to "reblog" these posts from other's people's blogs into the user's own blog. Notable features of Tumblr include sketchblogs (where people upload their sketches), Ask blogs (where people answer questions other users ask, the moderators of these blogs usually pretending to be a character from a form of media), and the large amount of "social justice" (where people fight against racism, sexism, and other forms of negative discrimination). (See also [[1043: Ablogalypse]].)<br />
*'''{{w|b3ta}}''' is a popular British website, described as a "puerile digital arts community" by The Guardian.<br />
<br />
<br />
The '''Isle of teenagers who just discovered macroeconomics''' is a joke about how teenagers tend to think that the world and the economy are a lot simpler than they actually are. Combined with the typical internet mindset, this leads to a lot of teenagers posting blogs and videos and comments on blogs and videos describing how idiotic the government and other red-tape-related adults are.<br />
The '''Snob Sound''' could refer to the large amount of people who look down on others in the surrounding websites (one example being an original artist looking down on people who draw mainly fan-art). '''The Iraq''' is a reference to Miss Teen USA 2007, Ms. Teen South Carolina - Lauren Katlin said "I believe that our education like such as in South Africa and the Iraq everywhere like such as...the US should help the US and should help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the asian countries so we are able to build up our future." The usage of "the iraq" became a meme.<br />
<br />
===Twitter Region===<br />
*'''Bieber Bay''' is a reference to {{w|Justin Bieber}} a pop singer whose singing sprouted on YouTube and became very popular on Twitter and other social media. He is very much vilified because of his rather feminine appearance and his hordes of fans (called "Beliebers") that seem to support him to ridiculous extents. Lately, though, Justin Beiber has taken a "bad boy" attitude because of all the Beliebers who are willing to defend him no matter what, him partaking in a lot of questionable activities that include tattoos, questionably-legal substances, and buying prostitution, thus lowering his popularity in the general populace.<br />
*'''{{w|Google Buzz}}''' is a former social network attempted by Google. It has since been shut down.<br />
*'''Bit.Ly Mountains''' is a reference to the URL shortening service {{w|bit.ly}}.<br />
*'''Kanye's Isle of Sadness''' is a reference to the musician {{w|Kanye West}}, whose Twitter, at the time, was [http://www.buzzfeed.com/mlew15/25-of-kanye-wests-most-thought-provoking-tweets-h0se famously introspective and stream-of-consciousness].<br />
*'''Sarah Palin USA''' is the Twitter handle of former politician {{w|Sarah Palin}}.<br />
*'''Clueless Politician Coast''' is a reference to the number of politicians on Twitter and other social networks who repeatedly share clueless updates that more often create an uproar than help their election chances.<br />
*'''Desert of Food Updates''' is a reference to the number of pictures of food that are shared on social media (especially Twitter). There has even been some controversy on posting such pictures.<br />
*'''Journalists Trying to Find the Cutting Edge''' is referencing journalists on Twitter trying to keep up with the way that news is gathered and delivered now, despite usually working for a newspaper that publishes once a day.<br />
*'''SHAQ''' is a reference to the former NBA basketball player, {{w|Shaq}}.<br />
*'''{{w|identi.ca}}''' is an open source social networking and micro-blogging service, being an alternative to Twitter.<br />
*''' Breaking! Waves''' is a pun on the fact that so many people used the word "Breaking" at the beginning of tweets that do not warrant that tag that the word has lost most of its meaning and become a joke. It is a pun because waves "break" on the shore.<br />
*'''Web 3.0''' refers to the unofficial term {{w|Web 2.0}}. In this case, "Web 1.0" refers to websites that give information to users. Web 2.0 refers to websites where the users themselves create content. Web 3.0 has sometimes been used as a term. For {{w|semantic web}}, a machine-readable version of the web, but this usage is far from universal.<br />
*'''Hashtag games whose popularity confuses and depresses you''' refers to the game where a user posts something under a particular hashtag and others respond with their own ideas, all tagged under the same phrase. This has been very popular for no clear reason, as Randall notes.<br />
<br />
===Geotagged Bay===<br />
*'''{{w|Yelp}}''' is a website where people post reviews of real-life public locations (one example being restaurants).<br />
*'''{{w|Geocaching}}''' is a worldwide GPS scavenger hunt where users upload positions of caches and others will find them and log it online.<br />
*'''{{w|Foursquare}}''' is a location-based social network.<br />
*'''Latitude''' refers to {{w|Google Latitude}}.<br />
<br />
===Troll Bay and the Sea of Memes===<br />
*'''{{w|Reddit}}''' is the self-described "front page of the Internet" in which users submit stories, photos and videos and the best are "up-voted" to the top of the page.<br />
*'''{{w|Help:Using talk pages|Wikipedia Talk Pages}}''' refer to the pages where Wikipedia editors discuss how to improve articles.<br />
*'''{{w|Wikia}}''' is a 3rd party wiki software, used in the making of the user-editable encyclopedias of just about any subject matter.<br />
*'''{{w|StumbleUpon}}''' is a website-sharing service.<br />
*'''{{w|Delicious (website)|Delicious}}''' is a bookmarking and bookmark-sharing service.<br />
*'''{{w|Digg}}''' is a former competitor to Reddit in the social-news sphere, but now has been sold and restarted as an aggregator of news stories.<br />
*'''{{w|Slashdot}}''', labeled "/." on the map, is a technical news site.<br />
*'''{{w|Fark}}''' is a community website that allows members to comment on news articles from other sites.<br />
*'''{{w|YTMND}}''' is an acronym for "You're The Man Now, Dog!" It's also a community in which users can create meme-type nonsense by playing music over an image (either static or animated).<br />
<br />
===Skype Region===<br />
The Skype Region refers to different IM, or Instant Messaging services, that enable almost-real-time text chatting between multiple people. These often allow services like voice chat and even video calls.<br />
<br />
*'''{{w|Skype}}''' is, according to Randall, the most popular of these among the internet. It has many features to allow peer-to-peer voice chats, as well as allowing calls to be made at a price to actual phones.<br />
*'''{{w|AIM}}''' or AOL Instant Messenger is a chat client created by AOL.<br />
*'''GG''' is {{w|Gadu-Gadu}} and instant messenger client popular in Poland.<br />
*'''{{w|Yahoo Messenger}}''' is an instant messenger client by Yahoo.<br />
*'''{{w|Google Talk}}''' is a voice/video chatting service from Google (that Google has been replacing with Hangouts). Google Talk also has an invasion fleet at its shores.<br />
*'''{{w|ICQ}}''' is an older messaging service, albeit with an 18+ requirement (despite pornography not being the point of ICQ).<br />
*'''{{w|Windows Live Messenger}}''', or "MSN", was the messaging service of Microsoft before Microsoft bought Skype. MSN was useful in that people could draw and send pictures to other chatters.<br />
*'''{{w|UseNet}}''' was one of the original ways to communicate on the internet, though people can download (copyrighted) files through the service. Since it is still in use by some, it gets the tag "Still Around!" on the map.<br />
*'''{{w|IRC}} Isles''' refers to the ancestor of Internet-powered chatting. People would have connected to a server and spoke publicly. IRC is still in use (per 2014, notably in getting help from users4. One of those isles is #xkcd which is an IRC community around [[xkcd]].<br />
<br />
===Bay of Drama===<br />
*'''{{w|FanFiction.net}}''' is a website where people can submit their fanfiction (stories by fans written about other peoples' media, normally that about popular media). The website tend to have people that are not helpful to those who legitimately want critique of their own stories.<br />
*'''{{w|Xanga}}''' is a blogging service that, while popular at its time, lost out to...<br />
*'''{{w|LiveJournal}}''' was the most popular blogging service before Tumblr.<br />
*'''ONYD''' - Reference to {{w|Oh No You Didn't}}, which is explained in the Blogosphere region.<br />
*'''{{w|Dreamwidth}}''' is a LiveJournal fork emphasizing its open-source nature.<br />
<br />
===Blogosphere===<br />
The Blogosphere region contains several general {{w|blog}} topics.<br />
*'''{{w|photo blog|Photo Blogs}}''' are commonly used to chronicle the lives of the authors through photographs.<br />
*'''Diary Blogs''' are another popular use of blogs (and, in fact, the original use) where authors write commentary about their lives.<br />
*'''Bay of Grammar Pedantry''' deals with the fact that, whether due to a lack of proper education, a habit of using "chat-speak" in the text-limited SMS and MMS, or simply due to the (generally) more relaxed nature of the Internet, blog authors tend to write with horrible composition, a point of annoyment to a lot of other people due to the subsequent increased difficulty of reading the horribly-written material.<br />
*'''Fandom Blogs''' are blogs created by a "{{w|fandom}}" which is a community of fans. A fandom blog deals with the subject matter of the respective fandom.<br />
*'''Sea of Zero (0) Comments''' refers to blogs that get very little attention and therefore have no comments.<br />
*'''SpamBlog Straits''' references spammers who use blogs to increase the number of links to their site to try to game search engines.<br />
*'''OffTopic.com''' is a general interest forum that refers to itself as "the largest general discussion forum on the internet."<br />
*Many more straightforward blogs, including:<br />
**'''Writing/Poetry'''<br />
**'''Gossip Blogs'''<br />
**'''Political Blogs'''<br />
**'''Music Blogs'''<br />
**'''Tech Blogs'''<br />
**'''Business Blogs'''<br />
**'''Corporate Blogs'''<br />
**'''Religious Blogs'''<br />
**'''Miscellaneous Blogs'''<br />
*'''Blog Blogs''' - These can refer to blogs that talk about the matter about blogging itself, though they can also refer to blogs which authors use in talking about blogging.<br />
<br />
===Blogosphere (Core Region)===<br />
Gossip Blogs: <br />
Each blog below focuses on gossip surrounding celebrities and other well-known persons.<br />
*'''{{w|Jezebel}}''' is a liberally feminist blog, hosted by Gawker.<br />
*'''{{w|deadline.com|Deadline}}''' is an online entertainment news magazine.<br />
*'''{{w|TMZ}}''' is a celebrity news website.<br />
*'''{{w|Gawker}}''' is a blog that is the host of other blogs.<br />
*'''LJ Oh No They Didn't''' - LiveJournal {{w|Oh No They Didn't}} - Oh No They Didn't, also known as ONTD, is the largest community on LiveJournal with over 100,000 members. The community focuses on celebrity gossip and pop culture with most of its posts aggregated from other gossip blogs.<br />
*'''Doucheblog''' refers to blogs that were once insightful but that spiraled into long rants due to relationship changes of their authors.<br />
*'''Isle of Mockery''' is a reference to the fact that some of what these blogs do is mock celebrities or other for doing or saying stupid things on camera.<br />
<br />
Liberal Blogs: <br />
Each blog below focuses on American political news with a "liberal" or "progressive" slant. These blogs tend to lean for the Democratic party.<br />
*'''{{w|Huffington Post}}''' is a news blog.<br />
*'''{{w|Paul Krugman}}''' is an American economist who considers himself a liberal.<br />
*'''{{w|Daily Beast}}''' is a news and opinion website focusing on politics and pop culture.<br />
*'''{{w|Talking Points Memo|TPM}}''' is a political journal run by Josh Marshall.<br />
*'''{{w|Ezra Klein}}''' used to have his own site at the Washington Post, but is now the editor of [Vox.com]. <br />
*'''{{w|Think Progress}}''' is a political news blog.<br />
*'''{{w|Daily Kos|Kos}}''' is another political blog.<br />
<br />
Bay of Flame:<br />
*'''{{w|Politics Daily}}''' is a political journalism website launched by AOL.<br />
*'''CNN Political Ticker''' is CNN's political blog.<br />
*'''{{w|Mediaite}}''' is a news and opinion blog covering politics and entertainment in the media.<br />
*'''{{w|NY Times}}''' is one of the most famous newspapers, thus the comparatively large size of its island.<br />
*'''{{w|The Talk}}''' is a talk show on CBS that discusses the latest headlines "through the eyes of mothers."<br />
*Libertarian Isle (shaped like a {{w|Nolan Chart}})<br />
<br />
Conservative Blogs: <br />
Each blog below focuses on American political news with a "conservative" or Republican slant.<br />
*'''{{w|Pajamas Media}}''' is a media company and operator of conservative news.<br />
*'''{{w|Michelle Malkin}}''' is a conservative blogger, political commentator, and author.<br />
*'''{{w|Hot Air}}''' is a news blog founded by Michelle Malkin.<br />
*'''{{w|RedState|Red State}}''' is a political blog.<br />
*'''{{w|American Thinker}}''' is a daily online magazine focused on politics.<br />
*'''{{w|Townhall}}''' is a web publication and print magazine.<br />
<br />
Tech Blogs:<br />
*'''{{w|Boy Genius Report}}''' is a weblog that focuses on technology and consumer gadgets.<br />
*'''{{w|Gizmodo}}''' is a news and opinion blog, hosted by Gawker, that talks about life's more technological matters.<br />
*'''{{w|Engadget}}''' is another technology-oriented, albeit independent, blog.<br />
*'''Crunchgear''' is a blog that reviews gadgets and other hardware.<br />
*'''{{w|Techcrunch}}''' is an online publisher of technology industry news.<br />
*'''{{w|Joystiq}}''' is a news and opinion blog that focuses on gaming.<br />
*'''{{w|Kotaku}}''' is another gaming-oriented news/opinion blog, the main difference beig that Kotaku is owned by Gawker. <br />
<br />
Assorted:<br />
*'''{{w|BoingBoing}}''' is "i blog about wonderful things", the topics being quite random.<br />
*'''{{w|Lifehacker}}''' is another Gawker blog, is a blog that teaches people how to simplify their lives through 'lifehacking', that is, using their resources in creative wayss. While the subject matter is life in general, there is a significant technological slant.<br />
*'''{{w|Deadspin}}''' is a sports and sports gossip blog founded by Will Leitch.<br />
*'''Meatorama''' is a blog that talks about cooking meat.<br />
<br />
===QQ Region===<br />
*'''Baidu Baike''' (「百度百科」, "Baidu Encyclopedia") and '''Hudong''' (「互动百科」, "Interactive Encyclopedia" ) are two Chinese online encyclopedias. Baidu Baike is powered by the same company as Baidu, the search engine popular in China.<br />
* The '''Ma Le Ge Bi''' and the '''Grass Mud Horse Bay''' could refer to the {{w|Baidu 10 Mythical Creatures}}.<br />
* The '''Location of Jia Junpeng''' refers to the Internet meme of {{w|Jia Junpeng}} in 2009 in China.<br />
*'''{{w|Tencent QQ}}''' is a Chinese instant messaging program.<br />
*In English communities "QQ" has several more common definitions:<br />
**An {{w|emoticon}}, representing a face with two large, crying eyes.<br />
**A synonym for "rage quit", in which a video game player quits the game out of sheer frustration. It originated in ''Warcraft II'' multiplayer, where pressing Ctrl+Q+Q would quit the game, and became more widely known in ''World of Warcraft''.<br />
**These definitions are commonly combined, usually to mock the "rage quitter".<br />
*The Gulf of China refers to how sites in the region are based in People's Republic of China ("Red China"). The '''Great Firewall''' refers to {{w|The Great Firewall of China}}, a pun on {{w|The Great Wall of China}}. Similar to how The Great Wall of China was meant to keep intruding nations out of the then-capital of the city, The Great Firewall of China is meant to keep visitors from visiting censored websites. However, either a VPN or remote access to a computer in a "freer" country can circumvent the Firewall. Oddly other Chinese websites (Qzone, Renren etc.) are not enclosed in this zone.<br />
<br />
===Forums Islands===<br />
Forums are websites where one person post a topic to which other people can discuss.<br />
<br />
While the map has a zoomed in version, this article shall discuss the two bigger islands, first.<br />
<br />
*'''[http://www.2ch.net 2channel]''' is a Japanese imageboard that was actually the original inspiration for 4chan.<br />
*'''[http://www.craigslist.org/about/sites Craigslist]''' is a classified advertisement website with sections devoted to just about everything... which formerly included prostitution services, hence the '''The Former Site of Adult Services'''.<br />
<br />
In the zoomed-in map, there is the following:<br />
*'''[https://www.4chan.org/ 4chan.org]''' is an {{w|imageboard}} in which people can upload pictures while others comment on them. The website is infamous for its loose/often non-existent rules, incredibly vulgar userbase, source of new memes, and spawning of trolls. 4chan's random board, known internally as '''/b/''', is almost constantly flooded with porn and image macros. This is why Randall's incarnation of 4chan is shaped like a penis.<br />
*'''420chan''' and '''7chan''', other imageboards in the style of 4chan. Their relative lack of popularity and derivative nature leads a lot of 4chan users to mock them; hence, their position on Randall's map suggests that they're mere wads of semen.<br />
*'''Encyclopedia Dramatica''', labeled '''ED''' on the map, is a wiki site dedicated to chronicling internet memes and other noteworthy sites, events, people, and anything else that catches their attention, generally in a very satirical manner. The site is heavily populated by 4chan users. Many people are offended by the articles and talks that go on in the wiki and forum, which is perhaps the reason that it appears to be represented as a wad of sperm. The image of sperm also makes sense since ED is used as a messaging center for the group "[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anonymous_(group) Anonymous]" which is represented in the map as part of the testicles of the 4chan island(see below at the gulf named Anonymous).<br />
*'''Tunnel to Habbo''' is a reference to [http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/pools-closed the 2006 Habbo Hotel Raids], in which hundreds of 4chan Anons simultaneously logged onto Habbo Hotel and proceeded to be as obnoxious as possible, standing in formations of swastikas and penises or body-blocking the swimming pools.<br />
*'''{{w|Catbus}} Route''' is likely a reference to {{w|Lolcat}}s in general.<br />
*'''[http://www.ebaumsworld.com/ eBaum's World]''' is a media-hosting website founded by Eric Bauman. The site has lost a lot of traffic after (quite valid) accusations of stolen content.<br />
*The gulf labelled '''{{w|Anonymous (group)|Anonymous}}''' is most likely a reference to the leaderless, anonymous international network called "[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anonymous_(group) Anonymous]" which is composed of (mainly) anarchic activist hackers. Anonymous was created on the /b/ messaging board of 4chan, hence why the bay of Anonymous is on the coast of /b/. Also, the fact that the bay is in the "testicles"(/b/) of the 4chan island "penis" is referring to how Anonymous was created on 4chan, in the same way that sperm is created in the testicles of a penis, possibly a subtle jab at the group.<br />
<br />
To the south and east is an archipelago of islands representing various regional and special-interest forums. Moving clockwise from 4chan island is<br />
* '''Storm 2K''' is an online website hosting information on tropical cyclones and tools for tracking them, and has a forum with multiple categories and threads for discussion on tropical cyclones, as well as multiple tropical cyclone models and reconnaissance information.<br />
* '''Skyscraper city''' is an internet forum website for skyscraper hobbyists and enthusiasts.<br />
* An island containing two websites related to women, namely<br />
** '''Wizaz.pl''' is a Polish website, presumably for women, with a forum filled with discussions mainly about beauty, health, women, hobbies, and fun.<br />
** '''Baby and bump''' is a self-described "pregnancy forum, baby and parenting community."<br />
An island contaning<br />
** '''ForoCoches''' is a very popular Spanish(as in from Spain) forum maintained by the Spanish government and mainly about automobiles, but holds discussions on virtually any topic.<br />
** '''Bodybuilding.com''' is(as you can hopefully tell) a website for bodybuilders. It contains a forum for general discussions on bodybuilding that includes topics such as supplements, exercises, and nutrition.<br />
** '''Bokt.nl''' calls itself the largest community on the topic of horses. A Dutch website, it holds topics about virtually anything involving horses.<br />
** '''Cruise Critic''' is a website with a large forum about cruises in general.<br />
* '''Lay it low''' is a website for discussing lowriding(changing a car so that its ground clearance go lower than the clearance of the original design from the manufacturer.<br />
* '''Two plus two'''<br />
* An island containing:<br />
** '''Fan forum'''<br />
** '''Face the jury'''<br />
** A smaller nearby island is '''Datalounge'''<br />
* An island containing gaming-related sites<br />
** '''D2JSP'''<br />
** '''EA UK'''<br />
** '''Gametrailers'''<br />
* Smaller islands next to the D2JSP island are<br />
** '''Steam powered'''<br />
** '''World of players'''<br />
** '''Nedgaf'''<br />
** '''Overclock'''<br />
* A smaller island of regional and special-interest forums:<br />
** '''[http://digitalspy.com/ Digital Spy]''', a British media and entertainment news service<br />
** '''[http://www.onliner.by/ onliner.by]''', a Belarusian digital technology forum<br />
** Zona Ford<br />
** '''[http://lowyat.net/ lowyat]''', a large Malaysian technology forum<br />
** exbil<br />
** '''[http://www.macrumors.com/ MacRumors]''', an Apple news and discussion site<br />
** Adjacent to this, an island labelled '''[http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/ Whirlpool Forums]''', a large Australian broadband and technology forum. The drawing reflects Australia being an island continent separated from other countries.<br />
* An island made up of several European forums:<br />
** '''[http://www.jlaforums.com/ JLA Forums]'''<br />
** '''[http://www.fok.nl/ fok.nl]''', a Dutch forum site that is one of the largest internet communities in the Netherlands<br />
** '''[http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/ The Student Room]''', a British forum and wiki for secondary and tertiary students<br />
** '''[http://www.boards.ie/ boards.ie]''' "Now Ye're talking", a popular Irish forum site<br />
** '''[http://www.forum.hr/ forum.hr]''', a Croatian forum<br />
** '''rus-chat''', possibly a reference to [http://rus-chat.de/ rus-chat.de]<br />
* The largest single-site island is [http://www.somethingawful.com/ SomethingAwful], a website that is meant to showcase all things "awful". SomethingAwful also has a large trollbase, but they tend to be more honorable than the ones from Encyclopedia Dramatica and 4chan. One example is there being a spotty holding of the no-furries rule in the forums. The forums themselves are famous because of the holding of the Let's Plays of [http://lparchive.org/Dangan-Ronpa/ Dangan Ronpa] and [http://danganronpa2mirror.tumblr.com/ Super Dangan Ronpa 2], which had cooked up public interest to the point of there being an English-language release of the games. (Note that, due to these Let's Plays being in a forums that frequently hides behind a "paywall" that requires a paid account before accessing, the links provided go to their mirrors.)<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:'''Map of Online Communities'''<br />
:Size on map represents volume of Daily Social activity (posts, chat, etc). Based on data gathered over the Spring and Summer of 2010.<br />
<br />
:[Two insets on the upper left-hand corner shows that this map is a tiny portion of the huge continent of Spoken Language, encompassing portions of the Internet, Email, and Cell Phones (SMS).]<br />
<br />
:[The largest landmass on the map by far, which takes up nearly the entire northern half of the map is "Facebook" - with large states in the south-east of the country labeled 'Farmville' and 'Happy Farm'. There is a much smaller state to the west of these called 'Farm Town'. To the north of these states is a large swath of unremarkable land entitled 'Northern Wasteland of Unread Updates.' This is directly north of the large Dopamine Sea.<br />
<br />
:A peninsula on the south-west, just below the Plains of Awkwardly Public Family Interactions, houses many tiny states, such as MySpace, Orkut, LinkedIn, Bebo, & Hi5. It is bordered on the south by Buzzword Bay, which contains several islands of varying sizes. Among these are YouTube and Twitter (the largest), which are separated by the Social Media Consultant Channel. To the south-east of Twitter, across the Sea of Protocol Confusion, is another, equally large island. Most of it is Skype, with the north having two largish states called AIM and Windows Live Messenger. On the south-west part of the island are two smaller states called GG and Yahoo Messenger.<br />
<br />
:The Island of Skype is extremely close to, but separated by the Great Firewall (a dashed line), the large landmass of QQ. It's north shore is the Gulf of China and Grass Mud Horse Bay. Outside of these bays, over the Great Firewall are two islands called Craigslist and 2Channel.<br />
<br />
:In the Dopamine Sea, off the southern shores of Farmville and Happy Farm, is MMO Isle. Its largest state is WoW, with Runescape, Lineage, Maple Story, Habbo, and the Mountains of Steam among its notable landmarks. To the southeast of the island is the Gulf of Lag, in which sits the CDC Games island, with Eve Online.<br />
<br />
:To the east of Twitter is Troll Bay, with such islands as Reddit and Reddit, Digg, Stumbleupon, Delicio.us, and Wikipedia Talk Pages. To their south are the IRC isles, of which one is the tiny island of #xkcd.<br />
<br />
:East of these islands, and north of Skype island, is the Sea of Memes. In this sea, to the north of Craigslist and 2Channel, is an archipelago of tiny islands. There is an inset, labeled 'Forums.' (See below.)<br />
<br />
:To the southwest of Twitter island, in the Sea of Opinions, are the blog islands. These lie south of the islands in Buzzword Bay, as well. The northernmost islands in this group are centered around the Bay of Drama, on which can be found Diary Blogs, Gossip Blogs, and Livejournal. Gossip Blogs share an island with Political, Music, and Tech Blogs. To the north of this island is a smaller island called Photo Blogs. South of Diary Blogs, and off the southwest coast of Music blogs is a smaller island called Fandom Blogs. South of Tech Blogs, off of which sprouts the small peninsula of Business Blogs, is the Spamblog Straits. On the other side of the straits is a large island made up of Miscellaneous Blogs, with two states demarcated as Religious Blogs and Blog Blogs. Southwest of the Blog Islands is the Sea of Zero (0) Comments.]<br />
<br />
:[An inset of a group of islands in the sea of memes located on the lower right corner of the map, labeled 'Forums'. The largest by far is 4chan and /b/. Also found here are D2JSP, JLA Frums, Fan Forum, Something Awful, and many smaller ones, too numerous to list here.]<br />
<br />
:[The northeastern third of Gossip/Political/Tech Blogs island is another inset labeled 'Blogosphere (Core)'. This can be found on the lower left corner of the map. Two peninsulas in Political Blogs bookend the Bay of Flame -- these are Liberal Blogs and Conservative Blogs. Between them lie several tiny islands such as Politics Daily, CNN Politcal Ticker, and Mediaite. Off the coast of Liberal Blogs lies the island of NYTimes, off the coast of Conservative Blogs is Libertarian Isle. Between the two lies The Talk. The northern peninsula of Tech Blogs contains places such as Gizmodo, Engadget, Joystiq, and Kotaku.] <br />
<br />
:[Text found between the two insets, which are directly below the main map.]<br />
:ABOUT THIS MAP<br />
:Communities rise and fall, and total membership numbers are no longer a good measure of a community's current size and health. This updated map uses size to represent total social activity in a community -- that is, how much talking, playing, sharing, or other socializing happens there. This meant some comparing of apples and oranges, but I did my best and tried to be consistent.<br />
<br />
:Estimates are based on the numbers I could find, but involved a great deal of guesswork, statistical inference, random sampling, nonrandom sampling, a 20,000-cell spreadsheet, emailing, cajoling, tea-leaf reading, goat sacrifices, and gut instinct (i.e. making things up).<br />
<br />
:Sources of data include Google and Bing, Wikipedia, Alexa, Big-Boards.com, StumbleUpon, Wordpress, Akismet, every website statistics page I could find, press releases, news articles, and individual site employees. Thanks in particular to folks at Last.fm, LiveJournal, Reddit, and the New York Times, as well as sysadmins at a number of sites who shared statistics on condition of anonymity.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics with color]]<br />
[[Category:Large drawings]]<br />
[[Category:Internet]]<br />
[[Category:Online Communities]]<br />
[[Category:Rickrolling]]</div>173.245.54.47https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1608:_Hoverboard&diff=105684Talk:1608: Hoverboard2015-11-25T01:54:02Z<p>173.245.54.47: restoring deleted content</p>
<hr />
<div>Here are all the secret passages marked I could find: http://imgur.com/a/fKE1Q --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.220|162.158.91.220]] 00:50, 25 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Well, this will be the next incomplete explanation for a while. -[[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.165|162.158.90.165]] 21:58, 24 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Yes, one thing to note is how to get the hell out of the cave near the volcano [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.159|108.162.249.159]] 22:38, 24 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
The image is made up of small images with addresses of the form http://xkcd.com/1608/XXXX:-YYYY+s.png (although not every coordinate inside the bounds has an image associated). A script could probably dump out all the images and paste them together. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.6|108.162.216.6]] 22:46, 24 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
West -- Under Lava Pools -- Elon Musk's Secret Volcano Base (not as enjoyable as you might expect).<br />
<br />
The Starship out east contains, among other things, Darth Vader, apparently explaining Steven Universe to a subordinate. (Steven and the Crystal Gems can be found a the west end of the ship, near an ice cream cooler.) The same ship contains an elaborate homage to the original Prince of Persia.<br />
<br />
There, have at thee an image! [[User:Arch-TK|Arch-TK]] ([[User talk:Arch-TK|talk]]) 22:58, 24 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
There are 168 coins spread throughout the map according to the source code [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.53|173.245.54.53]] 23:03, 24 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
When using a device, instead of saying "use arrow keys to move", it says "tilt to move, tap to jump". It's also a lot harder to control.<br />
<br />
It's actually 169 coins (t.length). --[[Special:Contributions/188.114.111.129|188.114.111.129]] 23:22, 24 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I got 153 coins!! :D There's two starships, one's a star destroyer with an expansive maze dropping regular torpedoes on the other. May be noteworthy that there are various references to Star Wars and Steven Universe throughout. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.13|108.162.221.13]] 23:27, 24 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
The second starship is the TantiveIV, Leia's ship at the beginning of episode 4. Note directly below the Tantive, the terrain seems to be sand dunes. Also there are two more space ships by the volcano; an X-wing at a gas station and an Apollo Command Module.<br />
<br />
https://xkcd.com/1608/tigl.js - Looks like there's an easier to read version of the code there. Maybe that'll help someone with extracting all the images.<br />
<br />
I've got all the images downloaded. Zipping/uploading now. Should I post a link here when complete or what's the best way to share these? I'm also working on setting up a zoomable map. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.53|173.245.54.53]] 23:57, 24 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
The collision detection is glitchy. I keep landing/bumping against platforms I'm far away from. Is getting stuck against walls normal? --[[Special:Contributions/199.27.130.234|199.27.130.234]] 00:01, 25 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Tiles are located here in a zip: https://up1.ca/#Gi51KPFyPRELe0T1D6q9Mw All I did was iterate over http://xkcd.com/1608/X:-Y+s.png from X=[916...1116] and Y=[916...1116]. I'm working on putting a zoomable map together. If anyone has interest in helping we could hop on IRC? [[User:Jcox|Jcox]] ([[User talk:Jcox|talk]]) 00:15, 25 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I've written a zsh script to iterate over all possible tiles (does anyone know the height limits? the source only gives the left and right limits) and glue them together into one giant file. I'll upload the results as soon as it's finished. [[User:Arch-TK|Arch-TK]] ([[User talk:Arch-TK|talk]]) 00:17, 25 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I don't think it's limited vertically at all. I found a zoomable map on the reddit topic http://codepen.io/KyleDavidE/full/605dc87b614ff6b2bd716f4c6f640203/ (by kyledavide) [[User:Miraries|Miraries]] ([[User talk:Miraries|talk]]) 00:21, 25 November 2015 (UTC)Miraries<br />
<br />
Here's a zoomed out map of all the game area: https://i.imgur.com/rNU9ZgN.png. From ''luke_in_the_sky'' at Reddit [https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/3u4sy1/xkcd_1608_hoverboard/cxc1245]. --[[Special:Contributions/188.114.111.129|188.114.111.129]] 00:35, 25 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Alright, the full png of the entire map is almost finished, I should have used white tiles as blank tiles but I guess I can fix that up in gimp, and I'm not sure how to account for the 1 pixel overlap with just imagemagick convert. The last step is to merge allthe layer images into one giant image, wish my laptop the best of luck! [[User:Arch-TK|Arch-TK]] ([[User talk:Arch-TK|talk]]) 01:00, 25 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Someone beat you to it, but keep on it: that one doesn't have right limit tiles. https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/3u4sy1/xkcd_1608_hoverboard/cxc0p8x --[[Special:Contributions/188.114.111.129|188.114.111.129]] 01:19, 25 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Perhaps we can change the screenshot at the top to this? It's a quickly hacked overview of the entire map: http://imgur.com/Mz9arHz [[Special:Contributions/199.27.129.167|199.27.129.167]] 01:27, 25 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
: I think it might make more sense to just add it as another image, mediawiki supports this after all. The syntax should be: <nowiki>[[File:filename.png|thumb|Subtitle|alt=alt]]</nowiki> [[User:Arch-TK|Arch-TK]] ([[User talk:Arch-TK|talk]]) 01:34, 25 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
<br />
[http://files.mckaysalisbury.com/xkcd/hoverboard.html] This one loads all of the images quickly (From the xkcd site), and uses browser zooming. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.47|173.245.54.47]] 01:29, 25 November 2015 (UTC)</div>173.245.54.47https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1608:_Hoverboard&diff=105681Talk:1608: Hoverboard2015-11-25T01:29:33Z<p>173.245.54.47: adding a quick and dirty one.</p>
<hr />
<div>Here are all the secret passages marked I could find: http://imgur.com/a/fKE1Q --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.220|162.158.91.220]] 00:50, 25 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Well, this will be the next incomplete explanation for a while. -[[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.165|162.158.90.165]] 21:58, 24 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Yes, one thing to note is how to get the hell out of the cave near the volcano [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.159|108.162.249.159]] 22:38, 24 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
The image is made up of small images with addresses of the form http://xkcd.com/1608/XXXX:-YYYY+s.png (although not every coordinate inside the bounds has an image associated). A script could probably dump out all the images and paste them together. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.6|108.162.216.6]] 22:46, 24 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
West -- Under Lava Pools -- Elon Musk's Secret Volcano Base (not as enjoyable as you might expect).<br />
<br />
The Starship out east contains, among other things, Darth Vader, apparently explaining Steven Universe to a subordinate. (Steven and the Crystal Gems can be found a the west end of the ship, near an ice cream cooler.) The same ship contains an elaborate homage to the original Prince of Persia.<br />
<br />
There, have at thee an image! [[User:Arch-TK|Arch-TK]] ([[User talk:Arch-TK|talk]]) 22:58, 24 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
There are 168 coins spread throughout the map according to the source code [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.53|173.245.54.53]] 23:03, 24 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
When using a device, instead of saying "use arrow keys to move", it says "tilt to move, tap to jump". It's also a lot harder to control.<br />
<br />
It's actually 169 coins (t.length). --[[Special:Contributions/188.114.111.129|188.114.111.129]] 23:22, 24 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I got 153 coins!! :D There's two starships, one's a star destroyer with an expansive maze dropping regular torpedoes on the other. May be noteworthy that there are various references to Star Wars and Steven Universe throughout. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.13|108.162.221.13]] 23:27, 24 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
The second starship is the TantiveIV, Leia's ship at the beginning of episode 4. Note directly below the Tantive, the terrain seems to be sand dunes. Also there are two more space ships by the volcano; an X-wing at a gas station and an Apollo Command Module.<br />
<br />
https://xkcd.com/1608/tigl.js - Looks like there's an easier to read version of the code there. Maybe that'll help someone with extracting all the images.<br />
<br />
I've got all the images downloaded. Zipping/uploading now. Should I post a link here when complete or what's the best way to share these? I'm also working on setting up a zoomable map. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.53|173.245.54.53]] 23:57, 24 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
The collision detection is glitchy. I keep landing/bumping against platforms I'm far away from. Is getting stuck against walls normal? --[[Special:Contributions/199.27.130.234|199.27.130.234]] 00:01, 25 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Tiles are located here in a zip: https://up1.ca/#Gi51KPFyPRELe0T1D6q9Mw All I did was iterate over http://xkcd.com/1608/X:-Y+s.png from X=[916...1116] and Y=[916...1116]. I'm working on putting a zoomable map together. If anyone has interest in helping we could hop on IRC? [[User:Jcox|Jcox]] ([[User talk:Jcox|talk]]) 00:15, 25 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I've written a zsh script to iterate over all possible tiles (does anyone know the height limits? the source only gives the left and right limits) and glue them together into one giant file. I'll upload the results as soon as it's finished. [[User:Arch-TK|Arch-TK]] ([[User talk:Arch-TK|talk]]) 00:17, 25 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I don't think it's limited vertically at all. I found a zoomable map on the reddit topic http://codepen.io/KyleDavidE/full/605dc87b614ff6b2bd716f4c6f640203/ (by kyledavide) [[User:Miraries|Miraries]] ([[User talk:Miraries|talk]]) 00:21, 25 November 2015 (UTC)Miraries<br />
<br />
Here's a zoomed out map of all the game area: https://i.imgur.com/rNU9ZgN.png. From ''luke_in_the_sky'' at Reddit [https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/3u4sy1/xkcd_1608_hoverboard/cxc1245]. --[[Special:Contributions/188.114.111.129|188.114.111.129]] 00:35, 25 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Alright, the full png of the entire map is almost finished, I should have used white tiles as blank tiles but I guess I can fix that up in gimp, and I'm not sure how to account for the 1 pixel overlap with just imagemagick convert. The last step is to merge allthe layer images into one giant image, wish my laptop the best of luck! [[User:Arch-TK|Arch-TK]] ([[User talk:Arch-TK|talk]]) 01:00, 25 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Someone beat you to it, but keep on it: that one doesn't have right limit tiles. https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/3u4sy1/xkcd_1608_hoverboard/cxc0p8x --[[Special:Contributions/188.114.111.129|188.114.111.129]] 01:19, 25 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Perhaps we can change the screenshot at the top to this? It's a quickly hacked overview of the entire map: http://imgur.com/Mz9arHz [[Special:Contributions/199.27.129.167|199.27.129.167]] 01:27, 25 November 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
[http://files.mckaysalisbury.com/xkcd/hoverboard.html] This one loads all of the images quickly (From the xkcd site), and uses browser zooming. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.47|173.245.54.47]] 01:29, 25 November 2015 (UTC)</div>173.245.54.47https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:102:_Back_to_the_Future&diff=67183Talk:102: Back to the Future2014-05-12T21:51:52Z<p>173.245.54.47: </p>
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<div>[[User:Rikthoff|Rikthoff]] ([[User talk:Rikthoff|talk]]) I noticed the character on the right has hair in the first two frames, but is bald in the last frame... Two persons?<br />
<br />
[[User:Rikthoff|Rikthoff]] ([[User talk:Rikthoff|talk]]) The issue date might be off. All files since #101 have been created on April 11th, 2006. Anyone with an actual issue date?<br />
I agree with Rikthoff, I don't think this is Cueball. Being bald is one of his main features and this guy definately has hair.--[[User:Popuppete|Popuppete]] ([[User talk:Popuppete|talk]]) 13:42, 12 September 2012 (UTC)<br />
<br />
[[User:tesshavon|tesshavon]] Could it be possible that Megan's dad died because of something the other character (let's not call him Cueball until we know for sure) did in the future to "make sure his parents got together and helped his dad to be less of a loser"?<br />
<br />
:It's more likely to have been the result of a airliner full of jet fuel crashing into the tower, causing it to burn and collapse. Megan is probably thinking that Cueball (I'm still going to call him Cueball, sorry) could maybe have alerted somebody that this was going to happen. In the past. Him having access to a time machine and all. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.58|108.162.219.58]] 20:31, 24 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Why do we take for granted alt text refers to the Cueball/Hairy and not the father? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.89.210|141.101.89.210]] 21:55, 29 March 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
What if the alt text refers to Marty McFly and not Cueball/Hairy? You don't have to think about the comic very hard to know C/H was an asshole, but I think the implication is that Marty could have taken the DeLorean and done less petty, personal things with it.<br />
--[[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.47|173.245.54.47]] 21:51, 12 May 2014 (UTC)</div>173.245.54.47https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1366:_Train&diff=671111366: Train2014-05-11T17:23:24Z<p>173.245.54.47: /* Explanation */</p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1366<br />
| date = May 9, 2014<br />
| title = Train<br />
| image = train.png<br />
| titletext = Trains rotate the Earth around various axes while elevators shift its position in space.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
This comic, which appeared the day before {{w|National Train Day}}, plays on the fact that a choice of a {{w|Inertial frame of reference|reference frame}} is arbitrary, a {{w|Principle of relativity|basic principle}} in {{w|Albert Einstein}}'s theories of {{w|special relativity}} and {{w|general relativity}}. But at speeds much lower than the speed of light it also applies to the {{w|Classical mechanics|newtonian mechanics}}.<br />
<br />
Rather than viewing this situation as a train causing itself to move relative to an immobile Earth, [[Randall]] provides the unconventional perspective of a train remaining fixed in space while causing the Earth itself and all the stars in the sky to rotate instead. In principle either perspective is equally valid (though in practice different trains often move in mutually-exclusive directions, thus each train would have to define its own frame of reference). There is a quotation, attributed to Einstein, that he once asked a ticket collector, "What time does Oxford stop at this train?"<br />
<br />
From the Newtonian perspective this choice of frame is valid, but results in unnecessarily complicated maths; the equation of motion would include terms for centrifugal, Coriolis and other so-called "fictional forces" see [[123: Centrifugal Force]]. Newton supposes the existence of "inertial frames", in which these forces are zero, and the surface of the Earth approximates an inertial frame well. In General Relativity, the presence of mass in a system curves the {{w|spacetime}} around of it. The train-earth system could be modeled in general relativity, taking the train as fixed. However the resulting equations would be complex, and not amenable to an exact solution<br />
<br />
The title text takes this further by saying that elevators do the same thing by pulling the Earth up and down, rather than moving up and down in a fixed space via cables and weights affixed to pulleys that are themselves moored to fixed points.<br />
<br />
These examples use the train and the elevator as fixed points to define relative travel. The more common method to define movement is to use the Earth's surface as fixed point, but other reference points could be the {{w|Earth's_rotation|Earth's center}}, the {{w|Earth's_orbit|Sun}}, predefined {{w|Fixed_star|"fixed" stars}} or the {{w|Galactic_year|center of our galaxy}}. Each of these would result in a completely different movement speed:<br />
* The speed of the train (stationary on the equator) relative to the earth's center: 465 m/s (1,674 km/h or 1,040 mph)<br />
* The speed of the train (on earth) relative to the sun: 30 km/s (108,000 km/h or 67,000 mph)<br />
* The speed of the train (on earth) relative the center of our galaxy: 220 km/s (828,000 km/h or 514,000 mph)<br />
<br />
The train, as seen from the earth's surface, doesn't seem to rotate the earth, but it does in fact have a minute, immeasurable effect on the Earth's rotation (see [http://what-if.xkcd.com/41/ what-if? 41: Go West] and [[162: Angular Momentum|comic 162: Angular Momentum]]).<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:'''TRAIN:'''<br />
:[On the upper edge of a circle representing the Earth in a wrong scale, Cueball is in a train car, looking to his left.]<br />
:Cueball:...almost...<br />
:[The train tracks run between another person standing at the 2:00 position, and Hairy standing at the 9:30 position. There's yet another person standing at the 6:00 position, between some snow-capped mountains and some low hills.]<br />
:[There's a counterclockwise arrow in the middle of the circle, and motion lines indicate that everyone and everything on the planet is moving counterclockwise, except for the train, which is motionless.]<br />
<br />
:A machine that grabs the Earth by metal rails and rotates it until the part you want is near you <br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Physics]]</div>173.245.54.47https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1305:_Undocumented_Feature&diff=554961305: Undocumented Feature2013-12-18T15:35:40Z<p>173.245.54.47: /* Explanation */ Minor grammar fix</p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1305<br />
| date = December 18, 2013<br />
| title = Undocumented Feature<br />
| image = undocumented_feature.png<br />
| titletext = And it doesn't pop up a box every time asking you to use your real name. In fact, there's no way to set your name at all. You just have to keep reminding people who you are.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|I don't think this is incomplete anymore, but I don't dare remove the box}}<br />
An {{w|Undocumented feature}} is a part of a software product<br />
that is not explained in the documentation for the product.<br />
There are many examples of undocumented features in programs<br />
written for old versions of windows, for example:<br />
* When playing {{w|Solitaire (Windows)|Windows Solitaire}} with the "draw three" option, one can draw single cards by holding Ctrl+Alt+Shift while clicking on the card to draw cards.<br />
* When playing {{w|Microsoft Minesweeper|Windows Minesweeper}} in pre-windows-95 versions, typing "xyzzy" followed by <Enter> and then <Right-shift>, will turn the top left pixel of the windows background black or white to indicate if the mouse is over a mine or not.<br />
* The fist releases of {{w|Windows 95}} allowed to see the "credits" for Win95 by creating a folder in the desktop and then renaming it several times.<br />
* {{w|Microsoft word|Word}} 97 has an embedded pinball game, accesible by a weird sequence of strange actions.<br />
* {{w|Microsoft Excel|Excel}} 97 has also an embedded game of a spaceship floating over a planet, accesible by another weird sequence of actions.<br />
<br />
Windows XP and later versions have no undocumented features (none that have got widely known afterwards anyway),<br />
allegedly because Microsoft wanted the U.S. government to use Windows XP and they don't use any software with any undocumented features.<br />
<br />
In this comic, Cueball has found a chat room, intended to ask for help, accesible through the help page of some unnamed old windows utility.<br />
The people who found the chat room starts using it for its intended purpose (helping users of the utility by contacting other users),<br />
however as time passes they just become friends and enter the chat only to talk to each other, with no relation with computer problems.<br />
After a while, the utility program gets old so that nobody uses it any more,<br />
however people in the chat still have it installed only to be able to chat to each other.<br />
<br />
A {{w|Virtual Machine}} (or VM) is a computer program designed to emulate the hardware of a full computer.<br />
With such a program, one configures parameters such as the amount of RAM memory the virtual machine will have,<br />
the hard disk size, etc.<br />
Then, the program creates an environment with those parameters so that one can start to install an {{w|Operating system}} as if it were a real machine.<br />
Some computer users keep different VMs in their computer with different operating systems, so they can run several operating systems at the same time.<br />
In the comic, users of the old chat room create VMs only to have an old operating system installed, with the old utility program<br />
(which can be assumed to go funny or not run at all in more recent versions of windows)<br />
just to be able to access the chat room.<br />
<br />
A chat room like this must be hosted in some outside server, so the narrator of the comic wonders who runs this server.<br />
An obvious thought about this is if and when the server will be shut down, effectively cutting all communication among chat users.<br />
Another obvious thought is why the utility author is still maintaining the chat server, since its original purpose<br />
(communicating users with problems with the utitity program) is no more an issue as everybody has migrated to more modern systems.<br />
The comic suggests that the reason for doing this can be a bored {{w|System administrator|sysadmin}},<br />
who is just reading the messages of the chat users and following their lives but never writing anything.<br />
This would turn the chat room as a soap opera for the sysadmin.<br />
<br />
The {{w|Deep Web}} is a term used to refer to any information which is available online, but is hard to find<br />
(usually because there are no links to that information in web pages).<br />
The chat room described would be an example of this.<br />
From this point on, the comic goes all existentialist (a frequent xkcd trait), talking about how life is short, everything has to end, etc.<br />
<br />
The last panel refers to the fact that<br />
[http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304403804579263371125671670 Facebook announced it was starting to use autoplaying video ads]<br />
just one day before the comic release, and the title text refers to<br />
[http://www.facebook.com/help/www/112146705538576 Facebook requiring its users to use their real-life identities]<br />
instead of just nicknames.<br />
These last parts of the comics somehow reveal that the point of the whole comic is just to complain about aggresive money-driven policies<br />
used by modern social networks in general and Facebook in particular.<br />
It is hinted that [[Randall]] would prefer older technologies,<br />
when limited resource would forbid autoplaying videos or huge databases with every detail of every user's life.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[A support window is shown.]<br />
:An old Windows utility has an undocumented feature. If you open "help" and click on the background, you get dropped into a "support" chat room.<br />
:Support Window: Launching support forum...<br />
<br />
:[An active conversation between two people is shown.]<br />
:Only a few of us ever found it. But we became friends.<br />
<br />
:[Cueball and Ponytail are at computers.]<br />
:We kept launching the program to check in. Eventually some of us were running VMs just to keep accessing it.<br />
<br />
:[Another conversation.]<br />
:As the Internet aged, so did we.<br />
<br />
:[Three question marks.]<br />
:We don't know who runs the server. We don't know why it's still working so many years later. Maybe we're some sysadmin's soap opera.<br />
<br />
:[A group of people are shown in a bubble.]<br />
:It will probably vanish someday, but for now it's our meeting place. Our hideaway.<br />
<br />
:[The bubble is now smaller, and some parts of a web are shown.]<br />
:A life's worth of chat,<br />
<br />
:[More of the web is shown.]<br />
:Buried in the deep web.<br />
<br />
:[A flat landscape is shown with the sun at the horizon.]<br />
:But even if it lasts forever, ''we'' won't. When we're gone, who will remember us?<br />
<br />
:[Cueball and Hairy are shown standing together in a bubble.]<br />
:Who will remember this strange little world and the friendships we built here?<br />
<br />
:Nobody.<br />
<br />
:[An empty bubble is shown.]<br />
:This place is irrelevant. Ephemeral. One day it will be forgotten.<br />
<br />
:[The bubble starts to fade away.]<br />
:And so will we<br />
<br />
:[The bubble has almost completely faded away.]<br />
<br />
:[The bubble is now completely gone.]<br />
<br />
:But at least it doesn't have fucking video ads.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]<br />
[[Category:Internet]]<br />
[[Category:Philosophy]]</div>173.245.54.47https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:239:_Blagofaire&diff=53553Talk:239: Blagofaire2013-11-24T13:35:42Z<p>173.245.54.47: comment</p>
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<div>Offline would mean dead.<br />
[[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.47|173.245.54.47]] 13:35, 24 November 2013 (UTC)</div>173.245.54.47