explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

User:ConscriptGlossary

2024-10-28T09:51:26Z

172.68.186.114: Replaced content with "oh my god"

oh my god

User:Pego

2024-10-09T20:40:37Z

172.68.186.114:

This is the user page of the user Pego that was created by the user Pego so that users looking for the userpage of the user Pego would see a userpage for the user Pego when they looked at the userpage of the user Pego. By doing so the user Pego has ensured that the user page of the user Pego will not be quite so much of a dissapointment to those who wish to view the userpage of the user Pego.

==As you're still absent a User Talk: page...==
Hi there. I thought you'd appreciate a quick guide to (wiki)linking. Once you've read this, and picked up the details, feel free to clean it off this User: page (normally, I'd not edit here at all).

Note the edit I made {{diff|352494|here}}, regarding your link. In brief:
*Use <code>[<url> link text]</code> to link to a URL. There's a space between the URL and the text it will appear as. As there is never a space in a (properly formatted) URL, this is all that is required to delimit it. (Your use of the URL ending with the pipe/"|" probably made it error out, if followed, but I didn't check this.)
**Using just <code>[<url>]</code> is also possible, but leaves you with a link like [1], which is mostly just unfriendly to readers.
*Wikimedia links are within [[]]s, which ''can'' involve a link to "wikipedia:something", but see below.
**As the URL-equivalent, like [[Barrel Boy]] (<code><nowiki>[[Barrel Boy]]</nowiki></code>), can have spaces, if you want to give it different link text then you need a pipe-symbol. [[Barrel Boy|For example]] (<code><nowiki>[[Barrel Boy|For example]]</nowiki></code>).
*But we also have a handy template link for Wikipedia pages, using {{template|w}}. It shortcuts (and slightly reformats) a wikimedia link to wikipedia. Use it either as <code><nowiki>{{w|Page title}}</nowiki></code> or <code><nowiki>{{w|Page title|link text}}</nowiki></code>. Note the |s between the 'w' and the (hopefully valid) wikipedia page title. And also, if you wish to use it, the title and the linking text.
**It accepts a variety of versions of the page title, for example: to get to the URL https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quis_custodiet_ipsos_custodes%3F (here just given literally, no []s at all)...
**You could fall back on using [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quis_custodiet_ipsos_custodes%3F Who will guard the guards themselves?] (<code><nowiki>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quis_custodiet_ipsos_custodes%3F Who will guard the guards themselves?]</nowiki></code>). But note the padlock icon (looks ugly, IMO, and unnecessary).
**You can use just the post "/wiki/" bit of the text in a w-template, {{w|Quis_custodiet_ipsos_custodes%3F|Who will guard the guards themselves?}} (<code><nowiki>{{w|Quis_custodiet_ipsos_custodes%3F|Who will guard the guards themselves?}}</nowiki></code>). Note the encoded spaces (underlines) and question-mark (%3F), which make the source look a bit funny when editing.
**My preference is to take the actual page title text (copy/paste the title as it appears), {{w|Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?|Who will guard the guards themselves?}} (<code><nowiki>{{w|Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?|Who will guard the guards themselves?}}</nowiki></code>). Isn't that better looking as markup? (Though is the same link.)
**It ''definitely'' helps to do that if you aren't giving alternate link-text, though. Compare "{{w|Quis_custodiet_ipsos_custodes%3F}}" vs "{{w|Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?}}"...
**And you can link to sub-sections. {{w|Quis_custodiet_ipsos_custodes%3F#In_popular_culture|One link}} and {{w|Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?#In popular culture|another link}} that do the same thing (but compare <code><nowiki>{{w|Quis_custodiet_ipsos_custodes%3F#In_popular_culture|One link}}</nowiki></code> and <code><nowiki>{{w|Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?#In popular culture|another link}}</nowiki></code> for how I entered them into the editor.
At this point, we have reached the more advanced theory, and there are always other little hints and tips to be picked up. But, as a new editor, I thought you'd appreciate a quick(ish) crash course in wikilinking 101. Remember, also, the Preview button is your friend. Don't be afraid to look at your editing (and that of others) and try different things without ever having to save anything potentially 'wrong'. There's also the Sandbox pages, of course, but for this level of investigation you don't need to have the website remember all your trials and errors so publically! Anyway, welcome, and I trust that you will continue to edit responsibly. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.186.114|172.68.186.114]] 20:40, 9 October 2024 (UTC)

2995: University Commas

2024-10-08T11:13:39Z

172.68.186.114: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2995
| date = October 7, 2024
| title = University Commas
| image = university_commas_2x.png
| imagesize = 580x273px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = The distinctive 'UCLA comma' and 'Michigan comma' are a long string of commas at the start and end of the sentence respectively.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an OXFORD-TRAINED BOT COMMA - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

The use of commas in the English language is {{w|Comma#Uses in English|famously disputed}}, most relevantly among publishers and academics. This comic imagines that all possible (and impossible) comma positions in an example sentence are associated with different universities. This applies to commas which should ''always'' be present in a list, optional commas elsewhere in the sentence (which have nothing to do with a list, such as after the word "please") and blatantly erroneous commas (which should ''never'' be present in a sentence, e.g. immediately prior to the {{w|full stop}}/period).

The Oxford comma (a.k.a. {{w|Serial comma}} or, despite how this comic represents it, the ''actual'' Harvard comma) is a comma between the penultimate item in a list and its conjunction (typically ''and'' or ''or''), to echo all the commas (at least one) that act as {{w|Comma#List separator and the serial (Oxford) comma|placeholders for the conjunction}} in-between all prior members of the list. For instance, you might write "red, white, and blue" (with the Oxford comma) or "red, white and blue" (without it). Some style guides, such as ''{{w|The Oxford Style Manual}}'' published by {{w|Oxford University Press}}, (unsurprisingly) recommend using it, while other similarly authoritative guides recommend against it. Though even those with either recommendation may suggest its (non-)use in situations where this avoids an ambiguity arising from the normally recommended choice.

One {{w|Serial comma#Ambiguity|common example}} showing the need for an Oxford comma is "To my parents, Ayn Rand''',''' and God". Without the comma (as in: "To my parents, Ayn Rand and God"), it may read that the author's parents are Ayn Rand and God. If such confusion is to be avoided, reordering the list is a common way to avoid ambiguity, for example, "To Ayn Rand, God and my parents" is one such reordering. However, the use of an Oxford comma in this version might imply the deification of Ayn Rand.

Conversely, if the sentence was instead to be "To my mother, Ayn Rand, and God", with such a comma, there arises the possibility of an assertion that one's mother is Ayn Rand, whereas "To my mother, Ayn Rand and God" does not let one fall into that trap.

In the most common interpretation the example sentence reads (with proper punctuation and bracketed Oxford comma): "Please buy apples, mac and cheese, milk[,] and bread."

However, most of the commas are possible punctuation marks in a specific pragmatic reading of the sentence:

{| class="wikitable" style="margin:auto"
|-
! Comma name !! Notation !! Explanation
|-
| Harvard comma || Please''',''' buy apples, mac and cheese, milk[,] and bread. || emphatic plea, marked by a sub-clause separator
|-
| Yale comma || Please buy''',''' apples, mac and cheese, milk[,] and bread. || a merchant's plea to their customer, marked by a sub-clause separator
|-
| Stanford comma || Please buy apples, mac and cheese, milk[,] and bread. || mandatory separator in a list
|-
| Columbia comma || Please buy apples, mac''',''' and cheese, milk[,] and bread. || a plea to buy apples, cheese, milk and bread, directed at a person called Mac, whose name is stylized as "mac"
|-
| Cambridge comma || (Please buy apples, mac, and''',''' cheese '''being unavailable''', milk[,] and bread.) || valid with a qualifying sub-clause; invalid in the example sentence
|-
| Cornell comma || Please buy apples, mac and cheese''',''' milk[,] and bread. || mandatory separator in a list
|-
| Oxford comma || Please buy apples, mac and cheese, milk''',''' and bread. || {{w|Oxford comma}} :-)
|-
| Princeton comma || (Please buy apples, mac, and cheese, milk[,] and''',''' bread '''being out of stock, oats'''.) || valid with a qualifying sub-clause; invalid in the example sentence
|-
| MIT comma || (Please, buy, apples, mac, and, cheese, milk, and, bread''','''.) || possible reference to [https://stackoverflow.com/questions/11597901/why-are-trailing-commas-allowed-in-a-list trailing commas sometimes used in programming], which would be associated with a university highly specialized in technology
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:[A sentence is written in greyed-out text, with the commas in black and each labeled with an arrow]
:Please, buy, apples, mac, and, cheese, milk, and, bread,.

:[The labels are as follows, in order:]
:Harvard comma
:Yale comma
:Stanford comma
:Columbia comma
:Cambridge comma
:Cornell comma
:Oxford comma
:Princeton comma
:MIT comma

:[Caption:] The Oxford one is the most famous, but many major universities have their own comma.

{{comic discussion}}