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We have an explanation for all 3129 xkcd comics, and only 57 (1.8%) are incomplete. Help us finish them!
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| Thread Meeting |
 Title text: Hey, so did you ever finish your video series about Cassie and the caterpillar morph? I loved the first three, but never ... no, sorry, I get it, this isn't the place. Sorry! Sorry. |
Explanation
Many people have different sets of acquaintances from different parts of their lives, and there's not much overlap. For instance, they have colleagues at work and friends from different hobbies. People encountered in online forums are often very separate, since they may be anywhere in the world and even have quite differently eclectic tastes that they never mention. People find it surprising when there are overlaps in unrelated spheres.
In this comic, NorthLakeKayak and AntaresMike are two participants in an online thread (presumably about boating, or maybe specifically kayaking). NorthLakeKayak recognizes the username AntaresMike as also used by someone he remembers from a different forum about Animorphs, and apparently not a likely username to have been independently claimed by someone else.
As children, the most striking example of this type of compartmentalization is that we think of teachers as only existing in school. They're actually people with real lives (as also referenced in 2808: Daytime Firefly), but we find it extremely weird when we encounter them in some mundane place outside school, like at a restaurant or store. The comic makes the point that encountering the same person in two unrelated online forums is analogous to this.
Very often, the culture/rules of a particular forum will encourage relevence to the forum's raison d'etre, at least in its main threads, and fellow users will get to know all about their on-topic obsessions but usually only see hints of other individuals' alternate pastimes and hobbies. In the title text, NorthLakeKayak starts to go drastically 'off topic', presumably within the same conversation supposed to be discussing kayaks, and starts to self-censor what he says, with apologies to the wider readership. And, perhaps, also to his fellow Animorph-appreciator, who may not appreciate being 'outed'/low-level-'doxed', even assuming they are indeed the same person; there's no indication that they have confirmed themselves as being the same AntaresMike, and not just another 'Mike' who opted to choose the exact same name from whatever independent association they choose to have with 'Antares'.
Transcript
- [A portion of a thread in an online forum is shown. It has one post and a reply to that post.]
- [First post:]
- [Stylized A avatar] AntaresMike
- [To the right of AntaresMike's username are a grayed-out star, plus sign in a circle, and illegible text in a box.]
- You could also check out this kayak model. I attached a motor to mine, and it's a little but of a kludge but it works great.
- [Below the first post are grayed-out icons of a word balloon, two links from a chain, an arrow, and illegible text.]
- [Reply (indented with a line connecting from AntaresMike's reply to NorthLakeKayak's):]
- [Cueball picture avatar] NorthLakeKayak
- [To the right of NorthLakeKayak's username are a grayed-out plus sign in a circle, and illegible text in a box.]
- Oh, hey, AntaresMike! I know you!
- Honestly I didn't realize you existed outside of the Animorphs fandom. I haven't seen you in forever!
- Uh. So. How are you doing?
- Kayaking, I guess.
- Anyway yeah that model is great.
- [Below the reply are grayed-out icons of a word balloon, two links from a chain, an arrow, and illegible text.]
- [Bottom caption:]
- Running into someone on a thread who you know from a totally different part of the Internet feels weirdly like running into your teacher in a store.
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