explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

User talk:FaviFake

2025-11-13T16:12:09Z

82.132.245.223: /* 2 */

[[#jumpb|''(jump to bottom)'']]
<big><big><big><big>Hey there, feel free to '''[https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=User_talk:FaviFake&action=edit&section=new send me a message]''' :)</big></big></big><div style="float:right;margin-left:10px;margin-bottom:10px;">__TOC__</div></big>

== Objects table ==
Thanks for replying. The current table in the main text looks good, but still it is a ''description'' or just ''enumeration'' of game objects, not an ''explanation'' (or in some cases: partly an explanation). Supposing we keep the current structure, it is possible to add explanations for the planet names in the '''Explanation''' column. For example, first sentence of the second paragraph is a good ''explanation'' for the Uzumaki planet's name. On the other hand, Andal has only a ''description'' (what it looks like and what features are present on the surface) and no ''explanation'' (that it refers to Animorphs series of books). There's also a question where one should put explanations of items and messages. Some do not need an explanation ('You found a stick'), but most do: what they mean and what they refer to, both in xkcd context (such as when there's a comic about the thing) and in general context. I hope you understand the difference between ''description'' and ''explanation''. Maybe there's also some misunderstanding resulting from a language barrier; English is not my native language.

What is also missing in the table are many structures or objects found on the planets and, most importantly, dialogues or monologous of the characters, which contain many puns and references, and also hints for the player. There's simply no place for them in the current structure. Making more columns may be messsy. That's why I proposed making several tables covering different aspects.

Please take my remarks as proposals to improve the structure and not as a criticism or request for you to make everything right and fill every cell of the table. I think we need to create a clear structure for everyone else to fill in with details; but also to provide good examples to follow.

Technical remarks:
* In my opinion, the filename column is not needed, it does not appear anywhere while playing, it's in source code only. Better remove it to have more horizontal space for the rest. The names given to the planets by the editors of the explanation page shown in the Description column are fine.
* Coordinates are also not useful for a regular player, who does not use some Javascript addition/cheats, maybe remove it as well; textual directions in '''Explanation''' column are sufficient.

-- [[User:Malgond|Malgond]] ([[User talk:Malgond|talk]]) 19:59, 2 May 2023 (UTC)
:> Thanks for replying. The current table in the main text looks good, but still it is a ''description'' or just ''enumeration'' of game objects, not an ''explanation'' (or in some cases: partly an explanation). Supposing we keep the current structure, it is possible to add explanations for the planet names in the '''Explanation''' column. For example, first sentence of the second paragraph is a good ''explanation'' for the Uzumaki planet's name. On the other hand, Andal has only a ''description'' (what it looks like and what features are present on the surface) and no ''explanation'' (that it refers to Animorphs series of books).
:Hey! Yeah, that's the state of the table ''right now'', and I 100% percent agree with everything you're saying here. All planets and items that need an explanation should be explained and not just described. I mostly just copied and pasted the "planet description/explanations" from the old list to the table: creating the table was way more painful than i thought. I was actually surprized to see that nobody explained what Andal referred to, but I don't know anything about it so more knowledgeable people will have to chip in on that

:>There's also a question where one should put explanations of items and messages. Some do not need an explanation ('You found a stick'), but most do: what they mean and what they refer to, both in xkcd context (such as when there's a comic about the thing) and in general context. I hope you understand the difference between ''description'' and ''explanation''.
:I do! And I wish other people could help here. I'm not sure if you've seen it, but this is the banner i put above the table:
----
'''ALL ITEM EXPLANATIONS NEED TO BE TRANSFERRED FROM THE OLD PLANET LIST TO THE NEW TABLE''' 
We are currently switching from a disorganized list (below, inside the green banner) to the new organized table, but the explanations for specific items are missing from the new table. Please help by copying the item explanations from the old list and adding them to the new table ''in this format:'' 
<code>The item message &ndash; <nowiki>''Where to find it &ndash; Explanation, such as references etc''</nowiki></code> 
Example: You found a cheese platter (Your tanks recharge faster) – ''Next to the cell tower – The cheese is a reference to [https://example.com 1234: Cheese]''
----
'''OTHER ISSUES:'''
* upgrades that end in "???" need to be replaced by the exact upgrade message shown to the user.
* the "Tiles (X, Y)" column for planet coordinates is empty

:As you can see, the explanations should be put right next to the items and messages. Unfortunately no one has started to add them to the table yet

:> Maybe there's also some misunderstanding resulting from a language barrier; English is not my native language.
:Your English is excellent :)

:> dialogues or monologous of the characters, which contain many puns and references, and also hints for the player. There's simply no place for them in the current structure. Making more columns may be messsy. That's why I proposed making several tables covering different aspects.
Almost all the dialogues are on the [[2765: Escape Speed/Transcript]] page, so I guess they should be added there. I don't know if they're already here, I haven't looked at it enough
:: The transcript is not the place for explanations. Puns and references shall be explained elsewhere. I continue working on the transcript but there's still quite a way to go. -- [[User:Malgond|Malgond]] ([[User talk:Malgond|talk]]) 5 May 2023

:> Please take my remarks as proposals to improve the structure and not as a criticism or request for you to make everything right and fill every cell of the table. I think we need to create a clear structure for everyone else to fill in with details; but also to provide good examples to follow.
:Yeah; i totally get everything you said. In my last reply I think I was a bit too rude for some reason, maybe it's because I just finished the table and was tired.

:>* In my opinion, the filename column is not needed, it does not appear anywhere while playing, it's in source code only. Better remove it to have more horizontal space for the rest. The names given to the planets by the editors of the explanation page shown in the Description column are fine.
:* Coordinates are also not useful for a regular player, who does not use some Javascript addition/cheats, maybe remove it as well; textual directions in '''Explanation''' column are sufficient.
I was heavily inspired by the table in the [[2712: Gravity]] explanation, which included these. I kind of agree that the filename could be removed, and the filenames could be added to the planet name or explanation, i didn't think about that. About the tiles, someone might use them someday, but if the column keeps remaining empty, i don't mind seeing it disappear

:I really liked your ideas, if you don't mind I'll copy and paste this discussion in the actual comic discussion page and see what others think --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 21:37, 2 May 2023 (UTC)

::Update: I found a way and added all the coordinates, and moved the planet filenames to the Planet Name column to make more space for the other columns :)

::: Hi, what about dividing planets and objects like in [[User:Malgond/Drafts/Escape_Speed|my experiment]]? There's plenty of horizontal space for explanations and the entries are quite compact vertically. I also think about color-coding the different Types of game objects. -- [[User:Malgond|Malgond]] ([[User talk:Malgond|talk]]) 5 May 2023

::::Hmm, I think it looks a little messy and maybe too complicated. Do any other comics have two different tables? Also, I'm personally not a fan of mixing items, landscapes, and people. I think most people reading the table are there to get an overview of the planets and what they contain. Do we really have to explain everything in such detail? [[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 14:09, 6 May 2023 (UTC)

:::::We do not have to follow other explanations too closely, we could use a new form if it seems clearer and better. The current form has no place neither for explaining items nor for dialogues/monologues. More columns could be problematic (specifically in today's world of high and narrow screens of smartphones). Should we explain everything? Well, it us up to collective "us". Personally, I would like someone explain a few puns/dialogues I do not understand.
:::::For now, there's only a handful of people still interested in somehow finishing the explanation for this huge comic. Maybe if we two can agree on some format we could put it in discussion page and ask for votes. (Discussion needs a cleanup, BTW). -- [[User:Malgond|Malgond]] ([[User talk:Malgond|talk]]) 22:00, 7 May 2023 (UTC)

:::::Hey, I'm back. I see you're enhancing your example table, and iI was wondering, do you plan to move your edits to the actual article after you're done and use the test to see how the formatting looks? Isn't it easier to just add them to the main page directly? Just wondering. If you want I can help you port them over :)
:::::Keeping the contents of the table on your talk page and then porting them over afterwards could lead to a loss of information added after you started editing your user page [[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 13:11, 13 May 2023 (UTC)

::::::I'm back too. Yes, I intend to put it in the main article, but I am a bit shy to replace a lot of your work; I've asked for opinions in the talk page. Let's see how it sorts out. Maybe someone has a still better idea. -- [[User:Malgond|Malgond]] ([[User talk:Malgond|talk]]) 21:50, 13 May 2023 (UTC)

::::::Oh. I think the structure of the current table in the article is better than the one you've been working on: for example, it's easier to sort for items, is more compact, and is just one. Why don't you just add a "transcript" column like the table on [[2712: Gravity]] to put what things and people say, and add the rest of the information on the respective columns? Personally, I think you're making it a little bit too complicated. [[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 15:26, 14 May 2023 (UTC)

== Haltones ==

"They're not **predominantly** gray, the two main colors are just white and black. Sometimes he uses the gray color just like when he uses any other color" ... It didn't say that they were predominantly grey(/'gray'), any more than it said that they'd be predominently black (as [[:Category:Comics with inverted brightness]], often, in preference to white). The point being that even the most "black and white" images aren't monochrome, but have degrees of grey at the boundaries, with smoothly antialiased boundaries between the full black of the line (or filled area) and the full white of the background (or inverted detail). You'll see this if you zoom in, with your favourite image editor. And very often in images with a default RGB colourspace, even if the effective pallette employed covers just greyscale values. But greys actually do feature a lot, too (often the first choice of non-black-and-white, for slight lessening of prominence, as opposed to 'red pen' ''increased'' visibility). So it's technically inaccurate to describe them as pretty much monochrome. But how to convey this in <...counts...> less than 157ish words? [[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.173|172.71.242.173]] 16:35, 17 May 2023 (UTC)
:The wiki page says
::::"xkcd comics are usually plain, predominantly black-and-white line drawings, but sometimes they make use of hues beyond the usual monochrome colors, even if it is just red-penned annotations.
:I think it's enough, since, even if grey is more used than other non-monochrome colors, I don't believe it's so important that it needs to be included as a "third" main color. If Randall uses many bright colors, that he will obviously also use simpler hues of grey when needed. What do you think? [[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 16:51, 17 May 2023 (UTC)
:Aside from the antialising edging gradient, I just used the Random Page link and landed on [[1301: File Extensions|something with functional greys]], [[734: Outbreak|an unusual use of 'Post-It' yellow]], an unremarkably "just black pen" comic and then [[1788: Barge|more functional grey]]. I'd argue against "monochrome" as a description, as clearly there is more than just #000000 and #FFFFFF, often enough, in an actual fill-colour/broad-brush context. Even if that's #808080 or another no-hue shade. (I was expecting to land on a "grey pen" comic to assess, after enough clicks but, having seen what I got in the random first handful, I saw no need to go on.)
:And "monochrome" can be/often is coloured. Sepia photographs or "night vision" green displays are perfect examples of monochrome (with or without halftones/dithering/whatever). As is [[267: Choices: Part 4]] (other Choices comics may be considered "duotone", in different ways).
:Maybe "...are often drawn as black shapes on white, or occasionally white shapes on a dark background, but may feature at least one additional highlighting shade or an even fuller colour pallette." Does that sufficiently cover that whole breadth of use? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.154|172.70.86.154]] 19:48, 17 May 2023 (UTC)

== Childish slang. ==

Agree with you on the recent change that you (generic 'you', not ''you'' 'you'!) sound infantile, any which way, upon use of the words mentioned. Which is how it was still said before the revert in that version of edit. But with <code>"pretty gay" and "retarded" are infantile and offensive slang for "foolish" or "contemptible"</code>, you miss the point. Foolishness is just one distant contender for what "pretty gay" is often intended to mean (even if not actually being used for someone/something 'effeminate'). And "retarded" is more in the whole "thick, stupid, dumb" line of insult than "contemptible" (which is more "horrible, dislikable, repulsive"..?).
 Personally, I also thought it better with not actually defining insults (correctly or otherwise), as it adds power to them. I can call someone a "numpty" in jest, for example, and colloquially that might be understood as the low-level insult (if that) which it is intended to be. But if I start to bandy around its {{wiktionary|numpty#Scots|dictionary definition}} then it becomes more of a seriously accusatory description.
 Just my opinion. Not really understanding the latest revert when it had seemed to be improved (if anything) in the version you reverted away. Just putting it there. I know you're doing a lot of editing (good stuff!) just wondering if you considered this one carefully enough in your obvious zeal. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.182.89|172.71.182.89]] 16:31, 28 May 2023 (UTC)
:Addendum. Meant to say, if you decide to undo/reform your own revert (I won't do it, but on the offchance you see my point), I'd have not said "''commonly'' used". They're used in slang, but I don't think we can say how frequently they pop up. They're "used in slang" (and also not in slang, or at least not insulting slang, where "gay" has a long history of just meaning "happy", whilst "retarded" is often to do with decceleration/minimised acceleration of physical systems) but I'm not sure they're no more than minority words in the whole world of such language. They depict a subset of insult-givers (like the character in the comic, for whom it adds a certain additional characterisation) amongst all the many and varied insult-givers, and Randall surely chose such semi-bowlderised terms to not have to write any of all the far worse words he might also have done. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.94.31|172.71.94.31]] 16:46, 28 May 2023 (UTC)

== IP page to delete ==

I didn't see your thinking about why the Deletion category was not needed there. And, believe me as an IP myself, I've never known anything useful being said on an IP's User or User Talk page. With that example not breaking the pattern any. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.131|172.70.85.131]] 00:41, 22 June 2023 (UTC)
:I just don't think there's a reason to delete it, it's useful to have a previous talk page if the IP continues to edit and people want to communicate with them [[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 10:51, 30 June 2023 (UTC)
::"The IP" is whichever one of 'us' happens to land on that particular Cloudflare route.
::I'm not going to go back and find out which IP it represents, to check if it's in their current stock of connected gateways, but it might not be. Or it was even (depending on date) a pre-Cloudflare 'straight' access unproxied and thus no longer seen, even if the exact same editor on the exact same IP lucked on ''their'' initial gateway.
::Certainly it won't map to a meaningful 'user', chances may even be that it doesn't map to ''any'' user. IP-version User/User Talk pages are anachronisms pretty much as soon as they're created. Or before, if based upon trying to contact an author of an older edit. I was on 172.70.85.131, above, but who knows (before I submit it) what this reply's sign-off will say.
::And a one-shot editor may never ever see the results of any conversation that was tried to be started. Whereas I ''might'' see any response, anywhere, that contextually makes it plain that they're talking about an edit I once made.
::Honestly, I think it'd be worthwhile checking ''every'' IP-focussed namespace page and archiving anything truly interesting that found itself in there in some other central location then condemning them all to deletion. Maybe, if possible, prevent their creation too. But I don't have the ability to do anything (except sift through them for any of the very rare gems of quality, but I wouldn't be able to do anything about it from there on in, so...
::...not gonna do anything more about it (I can't, other than reinstate the To Be Deleted membership, whch I won't bother with), but I hope you understand my perspective on this. I've seen you become a very useful member of the community, who I generally respect for your input and tweaks to the site, and don't expect you to take instruction from li'l ol' me (not even working with an established identity). Just consider this as food for thought, and leave it at that if you wish. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.34.19|162.158.34.19]] 20:12, 30 June 2023 (UTC)

== RTL/LTR: "...but I think it refers to me" ==

Yeah, it does. The point being that we might not do anything about the smartarses who vandalise knowingly (and I don't see a problem with what you otherwise did), but when someone thinks ''they'' have unique and funny joke (along the lines of putting "Citation needed"s ''everywhere'') they might spot the comment and then realise how we've seen it all done before so refrain from the prank. I can't even recall how many times we have had to revert things, but best to put off the casual comedian, and it won't change the outcome either way for the dedicated vandal with their blood up and looking to cause trouble. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.107|141.101.98.107]] 20:00, 29 June 2023 (UTC)
:I guess you're right, I just thought it was very clear for everyone that rendering an entire article unreadable was an act of pure vandalism, but I guess an editor comment doesn't hurt. [[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 10:53, 30 June 2023 (UTC)

== The reason "the image size wasn't there"? ==

...because it didn't need an image-size restriction, originally? Compare the [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/File:Miss_lenhart.png previous and current version sizes]. Nice to have a (''huge!'') high-res headshot, no doubt, but clearly that's why you found that it now needs artificially constraining... No actual mystery. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.63|172.70.85.63]] 17:16, 5 July 2023 (UTC)

:Yeah you're right, I just assumed every comic had the image size to be future-proof. The weird thing was that the "imagesize: " part was already there, but there was no value. Anyway, nothing important.

== I disagree with Oxford commas. ==

"For breakfast I had some bread, toast, and jam." - A legitimate(ish) case of ", and ". Or "I created the world, and saw that it was good." I otherwise prefer to suscribe to replacing all non-final conjunctions in sequence with commas but ''not'' adding one before the ultimate (remaining) conjunction. That's like having "Fish, and chips", where it isn't an actual afterthought. And best to rephrase or repunctuate (e.g. with super-listing semicolons to separate) if you have confusing comma-breakout clauses that ''so'' easily clash (or lead you down funny garden paths) with Oxford Commas. My opinion, but this is why syntax is clearer when leaving out OCs. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.93|172.70.85.93]] 13:59, 6 July 2023 (UTC)
:I just think it's better to use it everywhere to avoid any possible confusion. If we used it half the time, it would be inconsistent. But it's no big deal.
::Similarly, no big deal. Except that it ''looked'' like an error. You've done a lot of useful changes, recently... A ''lot''... Which is not a bad thing, I must add. Occasionally I've seen what (I thought!) you intended to say, and I've helped out with a misplaced word or two. And I honestly do not feel like OCs read correctly in many circumstances. How would you even OC something like "...you should paint it red, yellow or, maybe, orange"?
::The comma already does a lot of heavy lifting, four or five different uses can occur in the same sentence, with it commonly doing duty as a sub-clause parenthetical (except without the clear open/close distinction of an actual parenthetical) ''as well as'' conjunction-replacement within a list. You will find many instances of non-OCed lists on the site. In fact I find the "Please note that all contributions to explain xkcd..." bit, below this edit box, to be the exception and not the rule.
::Anyhoo... I 'corrected' an example, but did not re'correct' it once you made it obvious what rule you were working to. I think you're less right than me, naturally, even if I wouldn't say that you're more wrong. ;) But I thought I'd make you a brief note of my thoughts rather than edit-warring the issue. Less brief, now, but I hope you still take it in good humour. (Oh, yeah, I'm sort of Ok with Oxford Spelling, insofar as it's mostly what I use naturally. Except for the "-ize" bit. That and their Comma are totally against how I was taught at school, a number of decades ago. :P ) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.71|172.71.242.71]] 15:26, 6 July 2023 (UTC)
:::You really seem to care about this a lot more than I do, if you want feel free to revert my edit back. I'm not even sure why we're here talking about commas lol
:::I'm no expert and I just like commas. Thanks for checking my edits, I think I've seen a few of your corrections. I have a lot of free time at the moment and I seem to like fixing up unorganized things here --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 21:42, 6 July 2023 (UTC)

== Science Girl/Hairbun ==

You may have noted that several of the Talk pages attached to those you changed already had discussions about whether someone was Hairbun or (a possibly grown-up version of) Science Girl, and you had people like Kynde support the change ''to'' treating her as Science Girl. No skin off my nose, but I'm not sure your arguments are strong enough to support your broad sweep changes in that regard. I think I'd side with "bun with trailing hair" being SG (regardless of apparent age/maturity, as the description only really says ''usually'' a child, whether you take that as prescriptivist or descriptivist) but not enough that I'd reverse your considerable efforts in this matter. But on the off-chance that you hadn't noticed the prior discussions and conclusions, before making your own assessment. FYI, only. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.204|172.71.178.204]] 14:01, 7 July 2023 (UTC)

:I will properly reply to you tomorrow since it's midnight here. Btw thanks for letting me know these hyperlinks were rendered correctly, and for fixing my 1 typo <s>(after i corrected 100)</s>
::Guys, some things may be being taken too seriously. Assuming [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1608:_Hoverboard&diff=prev&oldid=317396 this was the 'one error'], yeah, the Pedant's Curse hits us all, that's the point. Easy to see how it was done (read as "a Category:Interactive..." rather than "an interactive", or whatever). Happens to the best of us, when concentrating on loads of other things. Not sure about the Jill thing, at all, myself, but that discussion is probably for soewhere else. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.158|172.69.79.158]] 22:22, 7 July 2023 (UTC)

:::Nonononono I wasn't serious when I thanked you about the typo, I was also just kidding. I was joking about how after I corrected a ton of typos I added one more.
:::On the main topic you brought up: I think Jill's main characteristics (I'll talk about why I renamed her) are that she is a child, she is usually interested in science, and has always one or two buns with trailing hair. [[Hairbun]] isn't as defined as Jill: she just has a bun. This is what the page [[Hairbun]] (written entirely by Kynde, I haven't reformatted to remove the bullet points yet), say about the bun:
----
:::*Her appearance, apart from her glasses, can also change.
:::**In 703: Honor Societies, 708: Sex Dice, 1511: Spice Girl, 1601: Isolation and in every instance in 1608: Hoverboard her hair looks somewhat different, curly and with some kind of ponytail, but since '''her main distinguishing characteristic is the hair bun''', these comics are included.
:::[...]
:::*There are some characters with hair buns that are not Hairbun:
:::**Since she is a grown woman, she should not be confused with Jill or any other small girls with hair bun like in 1584: Moments of Inspiration.
----
:::And on the Page for Jill, before I ever touched it, it said:
:::*As she is usually also clearly a child she usually cannot be confused with Hairbun
----
:::Kynde mentioned [[1511: Spice Girl]] and [[1601: Isolation]] as featuring Hairbun and not Jill, but they look exactly like a grown-up Jill. Plus, on the gallery section on [[Hairbun]] (I'm working on adding back a better one since the old one was kinda broken UPDATE 11:13, 8 July 2023 (UTC): Added the gallery back with vector images), this was the first picture of Hairbun:
:::[[File:Hair Bun Girl with curly hair and ponytail.png]]

:::So, to recap: Hairbun has always had a version with a bun with trailing hair, but it was inconsistent between comics, so I settled on Jill is a girl that always has trailing hair and Hairbun is an adult that sometimes has trailing hair.

:::On the topic of renaming Jill:
:::*I searched the wiki for Jill and found 3 discussions. One of them ended up "why world we even create a page for that girl, there aren't many comics featuring her.", but didn't criticize the name too much iirc
:::*We did the same thing for [[Danish]]. The only time she was given ''any'' name ("Danish in the sense of "darling" iirc), that was the name used.
:::*If we change our minds and Jill also becomes a woman, we don't have to remove the "girl" part.
:::*I'm not sure about this, but I think she's slowing being added more and more outside science comics.

:::Wow this was long --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 10:20, 8 July 2023 (UTC)

== In reply to [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2794:_Alphabet_Notes&curid=26437&diff=321127&oldid=320916 this query]... ==

There's {{w|Welsh orthography|the Welsh}}, at the very least! (Well, you did ask! Even if it's truly not so relevent. ;) ) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.159|172.70.86.159]] 11:29, 18 August 2023 (UTC)
:Lol. TIL! --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 20:13, 18 August 2023 (UTC)

== Plural animals ==

Following on from Ferret->Ferrets, what about the last remaining singular that is Category:Apatosaurus? (I must admit, all your edits/re-edits are making my head spin, as worthy as they often are, but this seems like the next logical step that I thought you might have done to finish that particular neatening job.) But I'll leave it up to you as to whether it's Apatosauruses, Apatosaurii or whatever else you might consider most appropriate... ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.98|172.70.85.98]] 10:15, 24 August 2023 (UTC)
:I actually thought about it, and I came to the conclusion that I don't know what the plural of that word is. Feel free to research if there's a "right" word and rename that category :)
:> (I must admit, all your edits/re-edits are making my head spin,
:Yeah I don't really organize everything I want to change beforehand, so whenever i notice a little thing is missing, I add it to every page that needs it. I guess it's easier to review my edits in bulk from a page's version history lol --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 10:53, 24 August 2023 (UTC)

== Community portal spam ==
The spammers seem to be deleting text from Community Portal. [[User:ConscriptGlossary|ConscriptGlossary]] ([[User talk:ConscriptGlossary|talk]]) 07:28, 3 November 2024 (UTC)
:Thanks, but I couldn't find any recent example concerning me. Do you mind giving an example? --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 07:49, 3 November 2024 (UTC)

== Possible Adminship? ==

Hi FaviFake, I’m Victoria. I’m planning on reaching out to Jeff via Twitter/X because there’s a long list of things that only he can do. You can see the list at my [[User:42.book.addict#To_Do_List_for_Jeff|user page]]. One of these tasks is promoting more admins. Seeing as you are quite active, and have done quite a lot of edits (top 10 in CS score-wow!), would you like to be mentioned in my message as a possible admin candidate? [[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]] ([[User talk:42.book.addict|talk]]) 17:21, 3 November 2024 (UTC)
: Oh hey, thanks for messaging me! I started caring a lot for this site about a year ago, went on a complete pause for a few months, and came back this week. You seem very active, love to see some new active users! I saw your message on the community portal saying you were trying to find a way to contact Jeff. That's actually something I've thought about doing for a long time but never actually tried since not even Davidy22 was able to contact him at one point iirc.
:Anyway, yes, I'd love to be an admin for this site since there are so many things I can't do as a user (i have my own to-do list, which includes 1) actually deleting pages in Pages to delete and 2) improving/fixing the comic templates and Main page).
: So yeah, I wish you good luck contacting him! My only advice is to use any possible way to (or to get someone else to) contact him without worrying too much about annoying him. His last contribution was more than a year ago, he can totally jump back in for a moment after being unreachable for so long. I really like your message, it's very well-written, now the hard part is getting it to him. Asking Davidy22 for his email address (or finding it online) sounds like a great idea to me. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 22:12, 3 November 2024 (UTC)

== Trivia below transcript ==
The FAQ page says that trivia is below transcript. I'm very sorry about this. [[User:ConscriptGlossary|ConscriptGlossary]] ([[User talk:ConscriptGlossary|talk]]) 00:41, 4 November 2024 (UTC)
:Nono don't be sorry, you're totally right! I came back here after months of being offline and forgot about the order! I realised my mistake yesterday but didn't have the time to go look for the article to revert my edit. Please revert it if you get the chance to do it before me. [[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 04:53, 4 November 2024 (UTC)
::There, I should've fixed it now. I see you also reverted my edit, thanks! [[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 04:59, 4 November 2024 (UTC)

== On the Ghosts in the NavPane ==

When I saw 42's inclusion of Ghosts in the Character NavPane, I was pondering asking for Demons and Aliens (the blob-monster types, or near variations, from both UFO-ish comics and far-future) to be added alongside.

But I agree with you that they're not ''really'' minor characters. Yet I think they (all of them) deserve a slot there, as they are as much a feature as the (Animals/)Squirrels section. Originally thought to suggest "Groups" (could include "Multiple Cueballs" and even "Children" for groups with otherwise un-IDed child characters), which you could still ''also'' add (but for human-character groups only), but now thinking "Other Beings" could hold Ghosts, Demons and Aliens (maybe "Future Beings" separate from the latter, or at least the differently-futuristic "Floating Orbs" as ''another'' other classification category in there). As a section between Real People and Animals, I thought, unless it's decided best to put them after Animals.

Food for thought, anyway. You (and 42, and maybe others) may have your own ideas on this, and I wouldn't (and can't) spring my own ideas upon you by suddenly just editing the appropriate source. It probably needs discussion. I nearly put my earlier thoughts in the Community Portal area, but as you're personally active on this at the moment I thought it might be easier for you to ponder if I finally commited it to writing just here. (Feel free to move this contrib/advertise it wider, if you see fit.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.62|172.70.91.62]] 14:19, 5 November 2024 (UTC)
:Just popping in to add my 2 cents-I wholeheartedly agree with the idea of having “other beings” in the navbox. '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 16:02, 5 November 2024 (UTC)
::Hey there, thanks a lot for messaging me about this. I disagree with you for one specific reason: the navbox was initially supposed to catalogue the recurring characters in the comics which displayed more or less the same behaviours across comics, such as [[Black Hat]] and [[Beret Guy]]. It then expanded to include real people, such as politicians, which still remained the same characters across different comics. The animal section is different in that some of them are the same animals across comics (such as bobcats and red spiders, for example), but since we had to include them, we included EVERY animal, even when they were completely different every time, because it'd look weird if the only animals there were the specific ones i mentioned.
::If we included a section such as Other beings that includes ghosts, I believe it would be filled with characters that are not the same in every comic they appear in and the navbox would completely lose its intended purpose. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 18:13, 7 November 2024 (UTC)

== (Whoops, forgot a header!) ...FYC ==

If you agree with {{diff|356369|these additions/changes}}, with or without other adjustments, I was wondering if you'd like to do the respective changes to the Incomplete Article category page, as I find it's semi-protected and I'm thus locked out from the edits that I thought I might duplicate there too (in my IP state – yes, I know I could change this, but I'm happier just to leave it up to you/whoever). Anyway, for your consideration. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.202.75|162.158.202.75]] 17:09, 10 November 2024 (UTC)
: Done! Thanks. I removed a few technical details. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 07:24, 16 November 2024 (UTC)

==The [[What If? chapters|''What If?'' article index]] project==
''The messages regarding the [[What If? chapters|''What If?'' article index]] project have been moved to '''[[Talk:What If? chapters]]'''. To add a new topic regarding the index, [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:What_If?_chapters&action=edit&section=new click here].'' --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 09:15, 2 February 2025 (UTC)

== Removed "Discussion" super-header. ==

I had wondered, as (at that time) you hadn't bothered to remove any of the ''other'' equivalent super-headers. It looked a bit like an accidental select-and-cut, like sometimes editors do, given your actual edit was waaay down the other end of the page. (It was a bit too neat, not like the usual case of somehow snipping off just one of the "="s, make a =="header"== into a ="header="=, effectively, but I've also seen similarly unmessy accidents happen, so your decent tightening up of the whitespace could have just as easily been a part of the same misclicking.)

I did check the companion pages, and they were all happyily as they (once) were. Note that the extra level of header ''does'' have use for (e.g.) putting a similar level of header at the bottom to give Archive, FAQ, etc, sections (not part of the now-top-levelisted points), or even such that we can have "for <foo>, see <otherPortal#section>" to gather things up with less repeats. Not to have their own subheaders (unless they, too, get so large that we have to further split them!), but to be seperate-but-appended like a Transcript (and maybe Trivia) section, regardless of how subheadered an in-depth Explanation gets. If we ever get that (and, really, we could do with a ''lot'' of archival for most of the Community Pages, and maybe some FAQing, for which I ''might'' suggest a subheadering to easily scan for... e.g. ... the situation with the MathML that seems to get revisited more often than not), then we probably need the superheaders back, unless we put messy indented-bullet-trees (at the top? with or without "expand"-hiding?) ''only'' for non-discussion items.

Not that I totally agree that "1.<many...>" (and the occasional "1.<something>.<subsubitem>" was unreadable, either, but ''so long'' as we don't have a further main(ish) header, of equal import, then ''maybe'' it's ok to do it your way. Just it seemed like a big decision to make, to cut out all the (admitedly untaken) options out of the equation. ...And that is a summary of the mental arithmatic whizzing through my head when I had decided (on balance) that you'd probably just made an unknowing misedit that needed bringing back in line with the others. Just to explain the snap decision to undo your 'accident'. Not sure whether you'd been purposefully thinking about it for far longer, of course. Maybe even a couple of minutes! ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.58|172.71.178.58]] 14:53, 8 February 2025 (UTC)

:I totally agree with everything you said! One day I noticed there was a useless superheader at the top which was making the TOC unnecessarily slightly harder to scan through. We should definitely bring it back if someone decides to organise the portals, but I figured since it was untouched for more than a decade, it's likely it won't happen in the near future. There was no need to explain the reasoning behind your revert, but I appreciate you reaching out! --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 16:06, 8 February 2025 (UTC)

==A simple Thank-you==
Thank you so much for expanding my knowledge of xkcd, the wiki, and wikis overall. That user page creation left a bit of a mark on me lol. I have found out that I have reached a high enough level to create user pages. I have created 2 user pages and 2 discussion pages for other worthy members of the community. Thank you for the very helpful advice, and thanks again for providing helpful information from the community. Sincerely, [[User:DollarStoreBa'al|DollarStoreBa'al]] ([[User talk:DollarStoreBa'al|talk]]) 05:14, 27 February 2025 (UTC)
:No worries! I'm glad we have another active contributor <3   --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 16:09, 27 February 2025 (UTC)
::It's relevant to note that we only create User pages when people explicitly ask for them. On the other hand, '''User talk''' pages are created if you want to talk to that specific member privately. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 16:14, 27 February 2025 (UTC)

== Removing references to order of LiveJournal comics ==

[https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1%3A_Barrel_-_Part_1&type=revision&diff=320394&oldid=320342 But WHY?] 
I'm very unhappy to realize you have deleted my hard work giving people a possibility to click through the first comics in the order they where released on livejournal. I have not checked them all, but I'm not happy that it has been deleted and would like to get it back. Pleas try to explain why you found it a good idea to remove this info from so many comics! I'm quite upset about it at the moment. And since you removed it would like you to restore it if you cannot make me see why! Seems there is also more info I put in that have been deleted? :-( --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 19:31, 10 March 2025 (UTC)

:You are mistaken! I actually liked the idea of browsing the first comics in the original order ''so much'' that I moved it above the explanation! This means it's now much easier to browse them in the correct order, because the user is no longer required to scroll to the bottom of the page: the links are right below the comic.

:I did this for all the 50ish comics. I think you might also have missed the "Original title" and "Original caption" parts of these first comics. In every one of these comics, right under the title (above the image) there's an "Original title". Likewise, below every Title text there's now an "Original caption" part, which contains the LiveJournal caption. See for example comics [[4: Landscape (sketch)]] or [[8: Red spiders]]. I also added a link to the specific LiveJournal post both on the title and caption parts, so users can see them for themselves. Your hard work no longer sits in the hidden Trivia section, but is actually above everything else and easier to read and use!

:I do think it's still not perfect, especially part to browse the comics. I'd like to create a custom template with real buttons (not just links) and an actual explanation of the situation, or maybe integrate it directly into the {{tl|comic}} template. But still, a much better solution than putting everything in the last section! --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 15:47, 11 March 2025 (UTC)

::I'm sorry for the harsh words. Late that night I realized all my trivia info was deleted (did see the original title text was added), but did not realize that the info was relegated to a more prominent place. So I take back my comment, and instead now thank you for improving my work. Hope you accept this apology from a message written at a bad time. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 12:58, 12 March 2025 (UTC)

:::Of course! You were very polite. I'm glad you're still active in this wiki :) --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 15:16, 12 March 2025 (UTC)
::::Me to, so there at least is one active admin. Sadly I'm not very good at the tech stuff a<nd also do not have time to look into all kinds of wiki policies... Glad there are others like you who lift the mantle on those parts. We really need a guy like Davidy... --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:12, 13 March 2025 (UTC)

:::::UPDATE: I moved the sentences above the ==Explanation==, so it should now be clearer. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 18:01, 1 April 2025 (UTC)

== Jill's renaming ==

Hi FaviFake 
Just came around to think about the renaming og Science Girl, that I created, to Jill. I really do not like it, and we do not generally give generic figures a name, Megan and Danish the exceptions. And because she is in a comic based on a children song, the name is clearly from the song not because the generic Science Girl is called Jill. Jill is not even used in the comic, only in the title text. You wrote there where no less than three discussions regarding this name change, agreeing with you. But they are not on the talk page of Science Girls page. I'm seriously considering changing it back, so let me know where these discussions are located. I also think it was a mistake to call Danish, Danish, but it beats calling her Black Hats girlfriend. It was just a nickname he used, and they killed the witness as no one must know... But that was done way before I began editing this page. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 16:21, 30 March 2025 (UTC)

:Hey, thanks for your message! I'll respond tomorrow because I don't have time, but for now I just wanted to note somewhere (before I forget) that I looked though all 41 appearances and counted the times where science is the main theme of the comic. The result was that the majority of Jill appearences are not related to science. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 20:07, 30 March 2025 (UTC)

::Well I will have to check that but the first instance was included because it was a girl who where interested in science even though she doesn't look like ScienceGirl. And an adult version of her was included because it was science again. The question is of course if there are now a different girl... But I do not like the naming of her. We did refrain from naming Cueball Rob, and there was also someone who did not like Megan. But that I like now. I prefer keeping Danish, but do not like the reason why she got than name. And other generic characters have been given a name in some comics without we used this. And really feel it is wrong to name her after a children song just because she was in a comic about that song! --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 09:26, 31 March 2025 (UTC)

{{Outdent|::}}
Hey.
And an adult version of her was included because it was science again.
I'm not entirely sure what you're referring to, but this would actually help my case! "Girl" implies she's either a teenager or a child. This means that, if you wanted to broaden her definition to also include "adult versions", you'd have to use another name. Science Woman? Science Female Charachter? I think Jill is better: it sounds like a name a child would have, but doesn't prevent us from giving the name Jill to adult versions. If we change our minds and Jill also becomes a woman, we don't have to remove the "girl" part.

We do not generally give '''generic figures''' a name
But I don't think she's a generic figure. In a bit more than a third of the comic appearences, she's specifically interested in science. This, to me, means she's likely the same person on most of the comics. SHe also has a similar behaviour.

Even if that weren't the case, we would still have to find a name for her that's generic enough, that represents her qualities, AND that's not a proper name. Or, we could just call her what Randall called her, "[[Jill]]". There is precendent on this wiki for giving a name to a character based solely on one instance, where the name wasn't even intended: that's [[Danish]]. Even more: Danish was used by Randall as an adjective, but here Randall gave us a proper name!

There where no less than three discussions regarding this name change, agreeing with you.
I didn't say they agreed with me. There was no consensus on all of them, iirc, mainly because few people partecipated. Yes, I remember they weren't on her talk page, which is weird, but they were somewhere else. I remember they were mostly even.

The first instance was included [...] even though she doesn't look like Science Girl
That specific comic is an exception, in all other comics she has a bun with trailing hair. Randall may have drawn a ponytail because of the limited space. Anyways, as I said, the majority of the comics featuring her aren't mainly about science. (Of course, almost all Randall comics relate to science, but I counted comics where it was intented.)

We did refrain from naming Cueball Rob
That's because there was consensus on the fact that Cueball is an everyman, while Rob is the same charachter.

And really feel it is wrong to name her after a children song just because she was in a comic about that song!
Well that's the only mention of her name we have, even if it's unrelated. I like that she was named after a nursery rhyme, it fits her character, since she's a child.

[...] I really do not like it, [...]

[...] I do not like the naming of her. [...]

[...] There was also someone who did not like Megan. But I like [Megan] now. [...]

[...] I really '''feel''' it is wrong to name her after a children song [...]
I'm starting to see a trend here. Do you think it could be possible you're against the name change because you simply... don’t like how it sounds? I didn't like how "Science Girl" sounded, but that's not why I changed her name...

--[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 15:34, 31 March 2025 (UTC)
:Thanks for the reply. Sadly you could not show me any discussion about the name change. Only that you said there where. So that did not help. Yes maybe I used the same wording many time. Also not native English speaker so may have less options to express my meaning... What I do not like about Jill and using that comic to name her, is that I do not think that comic at all is representative of the character I had identified and named Science Girl. But I do agree that if there are several instances where she is represented as an adult it could be a problem. I only new her as adult in [[1520: Degree-Off]] and I can see this has been changes, although I believe this should be reverted as this is not hairbun bu Science Girl. I did not know it had been removed. In this [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1520:_Degree-Off&oldid=123879 version] she was named Science Girl] but it was removed without my knowing. And that she was an adult version was in this [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Jill&oldid=123921 version]. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 16:35, 31 March 2025 (UTC)
::Looking at comics now, and just found this one, without looking for Jill and saw her here: [[2747: Presents for Biologists]]. To me the important thing is the interest in science and that the hairbun is not tight but with strings of hair hanging loose. So maybe the explanation to Jill should be changed to a young woman, often a child with a loose hairbun, not to be3 confused with the generic every woman Hairbun... Then Degree-Off is also clearly Jill. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 17:56, 31 March 2025 (UTC)
{{Outdent|::}}
Also not native English speaker so may have less options to express my meaning
I'm also not a native speaker, I'm Italian! :D I wasn't pointing out your choice of words but rather what you were trying to say, which is (I think?) that you don't like the name. Anyways:

To me the important thing is the interest in science [...] So maybe the explanation to Jill should be changed to a young woman [...]
It seems your opinion has changed completely then! This is what [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Jill&oldid=123921 you wrote] about [[Hairbun]] before I joined this wiki:
''Since she [Hairbun] is a '''grown woman''', she should not be confused with Science Girl or any other '''small girls''' with hair bun like in [[1584: Moments of Inspiration]].''
According to this logic in this comic:
* [[1520: Degree-Off]] - taller than other woman and man, so a woman → '''not Jill'''
* [[2747: Presents for Biologists]] - as tall as other woman and man, so a woman → '''not Jill'''

Also, this would mean we'd have to rename Jill to someone else in a third or a fourth of her appearences.

But I do agree that if there are several instances where she is represented as an adult it could be a problem
I agree! If there's one thing that I think everyone can agreen on is that we shoudn't call a grown woman a "girl". And "Science Woman" sounds like a superhero.

So, to avoid naming Hairbun '''based on how she looks''' and Jill '''based on her displayed interest''' (I'll remind you, you said in Hairbun's page that this is Hairbun:)
[[File:Hair Bun Girl with curly hair and ponytail.png]]

...all i did was standardise the matter:
*'''Jill is a child OR girl that always has trailing hair''' (except 1 comic), and
*'''Hairbun is an adult that sometimes has trailing hair.'''

I think any other definition would be incredibly confusing. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 16:03, 1 April 2025 (UTC)
:Well I originally put in degree off as Science Girl as she both looked and behaved like Science Girl. So I may have changed my mind. Cannot find the picture you said that I said was Hairbun? Maybe it was from before I introduced Science Girl. I have created both of these characters and then others have changed the explanation and the name. I also called her [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Hairbun&oldid=88388 Hair Bun Girl], which I can now see it wrong since she was a woman, but again, not native English. Here is my first creation of [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Jill&oldid=123862 Science Girl]. There where more than a year between, so maybe I changed my mind regarding which could be hairbun in between? I'm certainly more interested in having those characters with hairbun and dangling hair to be another than normal hairbun now. And would today have collected those that looks like that together. Also there are many instances of Jill where she do not have a speaking part, thus saying she is always interested in science doesn't fit with how she is listed now... It is difficult. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 12:57, 2 April 2025 (UTC)

::Oh yeah that makes sense, I didn't consider the fact that Science Jirl was created possibly years after Hairbun. I'm not sure I understood your last sentence, about Jill not speaking? --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 14:26, 2 April 2025 (UTC)
:::I think only a year after. But still. I meant that there are several instances with Jill where she do not have a speaking part in the comic, and thus cannot be said to have a special interest in science or her sharp wit. So if science should be her main indicator then she has to say something. But I do not really know how to make this as best as it could be. (Science Jirl, Jirl a combination of Jill and Girl ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 12:46, 4 April 2025 (UTC)

::::It'd be so funny if we settled on Science Jirl haha. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 15:10, 4 April 2025 (UTC)

== As I can't edit it... ==

Regarding the Editor FAQ:
For headlines, you have to use wiki-style code. The simplest way is a preceding semicolon at the beginning of the line which causes the entire line to be rendered in bold.
...I might be tempted to say something like "This makes use of {{w|Help:Wikitext#Description_lists|Description List}} markup", given how there are circumstances when a ";something:fuller description of something" is also actually useful. And then go on to say something about how this is functionally simpler than the actual (sub-)header use of =s, ==s, ===s, etc, (which you'd be advised to check what 'level' of (sub-)header you're already working in and go for the next level on from that) and would the usually be recorded in a Table Of Contents of either the page concerned or any page which it is transcluded within.

Except that we're going into really ''technical'' territory with the latter bit. Generally, ==s are for Explanation, Transcript, Trivia headers in comics, you could say. (The reason being is that the Main Page has a single-= header under which the Latest Comic is transcluded and so ==s are best to be inherited as transient sub-headers - but you don't need to say that... it's just an obvious reasong behind the stylistic decision.) Headering a section other than these, in a comic (such as a place for a Table Of Things, or similar) would generally be ===ed (or, rarely, ====ed, as a sub-sub-header of the Explanation/whatever). It is best to avoid any ===+ing at all in the Comic Talk page because, if the Comic page itself gets a TOC (some do, most don't, but all ''potentially'' could) then the transcluded Discussion gets (probably!) inadvertently and improperly added in. (You can force a NOTOC, and some other tricks, but I've never been able to find a NOTOCIFTRANSCLUDED-like thing, not without peppering noinclude sections around section headers, which is... getting ''far'' too complicated.) So, just saying "Don't use '==...'s in Talk Pages, stick to ';'s..." (even without the reasoning) might be an advisable statement.

Yeah, I'm giving you a lot of stuff here (I think you know all of it, actually), hopefully you can tease out some of the bits actually useful to suggest in the FAQ. :P [[Special:Contributions/172.68.205.164|172.68.205.164]] 21:52, 11 April 2025 (UTC)

Darnit, also meant to add that in the {{template|Citation needed}} explanation you wrote, could you change {{template|actual citation needed}} to {{template|Actual citation needed}}? The latter is the actual template, the former is just a redirect. No harm in ''using'' the redirect-needing ones (generally), but you might as well advertise the correct ones. Like you don't advertise {{template|cn}} or <nowiki>{{template|fact}}</nowiki> (both ->{{template|Citation needed}}, as are {{template|citation needed}}, {{template|Citation Needed}} and other case-accomadating variations), though people still are able to use them. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.205.164|172.68.205.164]] 21:58, 11 April 2025 (UTC)

:Sorry but you're gonna have to give me exactly what you want me to paste in the article, I haven't understood a word of what you said. I changed the actual cit needed thinghy--[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 09:45, 12 April 2025 (UTC)

==User page creation==
I just wanted to say thanks again for making my user page! --[[User:Xnerkcd|xnerkcd]] ([[User talk:Xnerkcd|talk]]) 17:38, 13 April 2025 (UTC)
:No worries! --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 18:22, 13 April 2025 (UTC)

==Admin==
What does an admin do? Are they just the people that can create pages?
:Not an admin, but they basically manage the wiki state-of-affairs and oversee day-to-day operation. Basically, a stepup from typical moderators. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.208.206|172.69.208.206]]
::I guess that's what they're ''supposed'' to do. Because of the status quo, they just sometimes pop back in and do stuff we can't. We can however create pages ourselves. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 15:46, 15 April 2025 (UTC)

== A Barnstar For You :3 ==

{| style="border: 1px solid {{{border|gray}}}; background-color: {{{color|#fdffe7}}};"
|rowspan="2" style="vertical-align:top;" | {{#ifeq:{{{2|}}}|alt|[[File:Blueprint Barnstar 3.PNG|100px|border]]|[[File:Blueprint Barnstar 2.PNG|100px|border]]}}
|rowspan="2" |
|style="font-size: x-large; padding: 0; vertical-align: bottom; height: 1.1em;" | '''The Template Barnstar'''
|-
|style="vertical-align: top; border-top: 1px solid gray;" | Thanks for all of your work on improving the templates on here! '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 20:01, 18 April 2025 (UTC)
|}
:Thanks so much! But [[User:Firestar233]] definitely deserves that award more than I do! He created the templates for the what if? index that are still incredibly useful! --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 20:31, 18 April 2025 (UTC)

==''Restructuring [[Header text]] as a table''==
''The messages regarding the [[Talk:Header text|''Header text'' reformatting]] project have been moved to '''[[Talk:Header text]]'''. To add a new topic regarding the projects, [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:Header_text&action=edit&section=new click here].'' --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 09:15, 2 February 2025 (UTC)

== So, the HiddenCat..? ==

You do seem pleased that it works, but I can't work out what you've done by it (presuming it has effects upon a different page). And slightly worried by the additional redlinked category that the page now has. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.229.161|172.68.229.161]] 19:31, 5 May 2025 (UTC)

:Sure. See {{mw|Help:Categories#Hidden_categories}}. I only applied it for the new All pages and the old All comics cats. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 15:13, 6 May 2025 (UTC)

:Solved the redlink (non-)issue by un-redlinking it (aka creating the cat). --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 15:55, 6 May 2025 (UTC)

::Still less than wise as to what ''problem'' it solves, but I'm just happy that you're happy. ;)
::Also "The categories that a page is in are normally listed at the bottom of the page." I'd have written as "The categories that a page are in are normally listed at the bottom of the page.", to match "categories=>are" ''or'' "Each category that a page is in is normally listed at the bottom of the page." to force "category=>is" agreement- but maybe that's a UK-English v.s. US-English thing. (Or just my particular regional sub-dialect of English (quite near me there's a place where "we was" and "I was" are considered 'correct' and another where "we were" and "I were" are, so there's easily room for such confusion, even though I'm a "we were" and "I was" person myself). Or just me be entirely mistaken about something!) [[Special:Contributions/172.68.205.187|172.68.205.187]] 20:52, 6 May 2025 (UTC)

:::> ''Still less than wise as to what ''problem'' it solves
:::Solves the problem of displaying a category that should not be seen by users.

:::Also, your suggestion seems grammatically incorrect. The "is" you'd like to change to an "are" is referring to "a page", not "categories". You may want to read the sentence again. afaik, "a page is here" is correct and "a page are here" is incorrect. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 14:18, 7 May 2025 (UTC)

== Exclusive xkcd textbook comics ==

Hey uhhh does anyone know about [https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/22/science/randall-munroe-xkcd-science-textbook.html this]? Should we make explanations for these?
--'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al |DollarStoreBa'al]][[User talk:DollarStoreBa'al |'''''Converse''''']][[DSBContribs |'''''My life choices''''']] 20:48, 8 May 2025 (UTC)

Google's Ai says there are multiple exclusive comics for the textbook, but I've only been able to find Inside Body, shown here:

[[File:Inside Body.jpg|300px]]

 {{unsigned|DollarStoreBa'al|23:07, 8 May 2025‎}}
:Hey, I'm afraid you'll have to be more specific about what "this" and "these" are. You might be looking for this page: [[New York Times: Good Question]]. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 15:06, 9 May 2025 (UTC)
::'This' links to a NYT article about randall munroe doing illustrations for a science textbook. Google's AI overview says there are three exclusive comic for this. I've only been able to find one. I'm asking if we should add explanations for these new comics. I have given it the temporary name 'Inside Body', since when I saved the image from the NYT article, the name 'Inside Body comic' was used.--'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al |DollarStoreBa'al]][[User talk:DollarStoreBa'al |'''''Converse''''']][[DSBContribs |'''''My life choices''''']] 16:59, 9 May 2025 (UTC)
:::upon further investigation, the article is on the page you linked to. My question is still whether we add an explanation for Inside Body. Also, do we add explanations for the other comics shown in the science textbook pages? --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al |DollarStoreBa'al]][[User talk:DollarStoreBa'al |'''''Converse''''']][[DSBContribs |'''''My life choices''''']] 17:02, 9 May 2025 (UTC)

::::A large language model is one of the most unreliable sources of information. Unless you find any other site or person mentioning that there are exclusive xkcd comics on some textbooks, I don't think we should in any way create pages based on what a large language model generated. Can you find any actual sources?

::::We might still explain that one specific comic, but this is not the right place to discuss this, we should use the community portals. Besides, there are many other comics in [[New York Times: Good Question]] that aren't explained. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 17:06, 9 May 2025 (UTC)

== It's a date. ==

I'm confused by {{diff|377635|the ISO Dates edit}}. First of all, as explained in my full revert's summary, lowercase are (mostly) reserved for time-placeholders and uppercase used for date-placeholder. And I checked a number of separate documentations and implementations where datetime format variations are described/configured, without finding even one that consistently reserved only "MM", etc, for month, for disambiguation with time's equivalent "mm"-for-minutes, but lowercased everything else.

Secondly, the apparent reason for this edit did not mention this. (Perhaps an overzealous editor auto-correct? Except it/you 'missed a few' and came back to 'fix' them.) The reason actually suggests a sentence's meaning was previously reversed when it clearly was not.

I reverted to before both your edits and those which had prompted your mass-'correction'. Technically, this leaves the "US format in binary" incorrect, which was the only case-change that the prior editor had actually rationalised before you. An argument ''could'' be made that "mm/dd/yyyy" could be parsable as being "MM/DD/YYYY, but in binary", like kb/kilobits is to kB/kilobytes... though that's not even how it's phrased and I'm sure that this should indeed be uppercased like it had been. I also think the other change, to the sentence, is more elegant (for the exact same meaning), but am allowing for a slight possibility that I'm wrong about that. As such, I'm letting you consider where we go from here. Revert my change (the latest, as I type) to re-'fix' things back into lowercase, if you have enough reason to, or reassess the things you blitzed and restore the "binary date" and/or rephrased "drop leading zeros" edits.

Any further discussion, on either original issue, I will leave between you and the other editor, though I thought I'd give you a direct nod about my full reasons why I nuked ''both'' changes, as you had apparently put far more effort into your contributions (for right or wrong). And I'm not currently unconvinced by ''their'' edits, but maybe you can take the opportunity to explain things better and switch my opinions over to your POV. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.229.44|172.68.229.44]] 04:05, 13 May 2025 (UTC)

:Sure! I just made the table on that page sortable again. Microsoft has always used yyyy, dd, and MM in their settings, so I assumed that was the standard. Thanks!--[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 14:55, 13 May 2025 (UTC)

== From Kynde's page ==

::::: And finally: the typos in the message you replied to were caused by my keyboard autocorrecting my words (my pc is broken). When you reply, do it on my talk page so we don't spam Kynde's. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 12:44, 29 June 2025 (UTC)
{{outdent|:::::}}
:Hello, I think you mistook another IP's recent comment as being from me-IP, from things said prior to the above. There are a few of us around, and I don't mind being mixed up with some of them (or vice-versa) that are similarly longterm maintainers of seemingly good intentions. Though I think that IP also used "propogate" instead of "propagate" (like I know I've got my own blindspots in spelling/grammar, and occasional tendency to lapse into dialect), which also amused me.
:As to your autocorrection-errors, it surprised me... In my experience, non-native but fluent of English don't let mistakes like that happen, and you're certainly up there with native speakers (il mio italiano è per lo più limitato a ciò che può fare un traduttore online... così!). I think it just looked... careless. Also, strangely induced errors.
:Don't let me discourage you, you've gone to a lot of trouble. Some things maybe necessary, some things maybe more just 'your own vision' that I could take or leave. Just that the "diff" page doesn't always align things to make it easy to compare old vs. new versions for anything more complicated than paragraphs/bullets/tabling to bullets/tabling/paragraphs or tabling/paragraphs/tables (as required). Complete rewrites don't help, even assuming that they accurate rewrites.
:...so, this is my response. From your invitation. Of course I can't speak for anyone else involved. [[Special:Contributions/92.23.2.228|92.23.2.228]] 18:17, 29 June 2025 (UTC)

::Oh well, until you decide to create a proper account I will blindly assume every IP that uses parentheses and subclauses is the same exact person! You are everyone.

:: Grazie per il complimento; il mio inglese would be better if I cared about looking over every message I post. I usually only extensively proofread article changes. You're right, that specific mistake wasn't an auto correction, I just didn't want to explain everything, but I have time to kill so I guess I'll just do it. On mobile, i prefer using Gboard's glide typing feature, which can sometimes mistake two words even if their letters are almost completely different. You can look it up, it looks cool, though I doubt it'd be ergonomic to use on your tablet. That's why help became hello.

:: Amusingly, there's a grammar error in your reply that I'll let you find! --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 22:17, 30 June 2025 (UTC)

== Rather than re-de-revert. ==

{{quote|The text "Don't remove this notice too soon" is there when there isn't a specific reason the page is incomplete. Now there is a clear moment when the page can be marked as complete. Not sure why you put back the PAGE CREATED BY thingy|{{diff|381894|Your re-revert}}}}

It's not just "Don't remove the 'Don't remove this text too soon' text too soon"... It's contectually applying to the ''whole'' incompleteness tag. Now, I'm not saying that, without it, people will think it ok to remove the whole thing, but there's no reason to remove it until you're removing the whole thing as solved. What even is the benefit of doing so?

But, honestly, I restored it not for meta-ontological purposes, but because I was actually trying to counter the strange removal of the PAGE CREATED BY bit. I appreciate that you may think that it confuses new readers, and I daresay that it does (a little bit), but it probably confuses them more when some new comics have this time-honoured bit of site culture and some do not. Whereas they shouldn't really take too long to realise that:
* "CREATED BY A BOT" is basically what it says on the tin, before any human has had a chance to ponder the newly added page,
* "CREATED BY <A JOKE>" is a new article once the rabble have gotten to it,
** ...though, IMO, you should only normally change it as "first editor" (or "first editor with a good idea ror a joke to put there") with something to contribute into the Explanation and/or Transcript (or will do momentarily), not ''just as a "FIRST!"-type thing then leave it...
** ...and you should think twice before changing someone else's joke to your own; perhaps refine it (oapply mild corrections to grammar/spelling/whatever it's trying to reference), but if you just totally "no, MY IDEA!" it, what's to stop the next person going "no, no, ''MY'' IDEA!!"? Just accept what's there (or tweak it, honourably), you'll perhaps be able to get (and keep for a reasonable time) the subtle 'bragging rights' to a future comic, if everyone plays nice and doesn't just entirely change it on a whim. Or remove it for no good reason, before the whole tag is considered superfluous anyway...
* If someone (like yourself) adds in an incomplete tag ''back'' into a previously 'presumed complete' page, that can happily stay without the BOT-inspired humour. Unless one feels like it, but actually adding the tag back in to pages, which (by wiki convention) are always open to being re-edited if you so wish,
** ...if I may say, adding an "incomplete|X and Y need doing to this page", instead of just doing X and Y to the page, is a waste of edits. I appreciate there are some things you might not be able to actually do (explain something that currently confuses you, for example), but occasionally it's a request to trivially reformat something, and no obvious reason why you haven't just done the reformatting in this edit. If you haven't time to do it all now, it doesn't need a placeholder to make a note to yourself to come back and do it when you can..
** ...and, unless you've changed it since I last looked, there's at least one "X needs doing" that seems to have been done but the "X needs doing" tag is still there. Haven't been able to work out if ''not all'' X has been done (for some reason), or whoever did complete it left this tag (whether or not they've deleted othersz along the way). When I have time to to through it line-by-line (more work than to quickly write something like this, which is to explain things that are clearly not as self-evident as I had thought), maybe I'll be the one to remove the notice to that effect..

I have no doubt that some of my thinkings around these matters (and various site traditions/conventions, which may predate me and do definitely prefate you) are perhaps a little strange. Similarly, I find some of your thinking strange. Or at least what I imagine is your thinkings, based upon your occasional doings. As it is practically impossible to cover all the various aspects of thought (or ideas about your aspects of thought) in an Edit Summary, especially one with "Reverting edit by..." filler already in it, this is to make up for the rather limited and compressed 'explanation' you perhaps had to make do with previously.

And it's only my opinion, albeit based upon site consensus (messy and ever-changing as that is) that I've absorbed from my time here. Perhaps you wish to shift consensus, but I'd of course like you to at least know that ''this is what you're doing''. If you don't know this, your well-meaning attempts to restandardise the groupçsnhive mind may just be more confusing than productive. Perhaps you may want to say "I don't think we should <foo> any more", rather than just de-<foo> everything without warning people that you might be treading on their metaphorical toes. Not that I can stop you, but every now and then I might be seeming to tread on your own toes (with no malicious intent), just because we're dancing to completely different beats. [[Special:Contributions/82.132.246.216|82.132.246.216]] 17:10, 25 July 2025 (UTC)

:Hi!

There's no reason to remove it until you're removing the whole thing as solved. What even is the benefit of doing so?

:That message is part of the default text for new comics. If someone has changed the incomplete tag, it's harder to notice that a specific reason has been created if the old text is still there. For these reasons, I believe editors are more likely to overlook what's written in the notice, thinking it only contains the default text.

[H]onestly, I restored it not for meta-ontological purposes

:What's a meta-ontological purpose?

the strange removal of the PAGE CREATED BY bit. I appreciate that you may think that it confuses new readers, and I daresay that it does (a little bit), but it probably confuses them more when some new comics have this time-honoured bit of site culture and some do not.

:Two things:
:1. The main reason I remove it is to avoid the above: editors thinking nobody pointed out specific page issues. And not just newer editors, even I sometimes miss an incomplete reason because I SEE THE ALL CAPS TEXT AND THINK NOBODY CHANGED IT. (im not screaming)

:2. Recently, I don't remove the joke from the LATESTCOMIC, unless it's really hard to see the actual incomplete reason.

"CREATED BY A BOT" is basically what it says on the tin, before any human has had a chance to ponder the newly added page,

:That hasn't been the case for months now. Look at the OG versions of the pages. Editors are adding it wholesale.

...though, IMO, you should only normally change it as "first editor" (or "first editor with a good idea ror a joke to put there") with something to contribute into the Explanation and/or Transcript (or will do momentarily), not just as a "FIRST!"-type thing then leave it...
...and you should think twice before changing someone else's joke to your own; perhaps refine it (oapply mild corrections to grammar/spelling/whatever it's trying to reference), but if you just totally "no, MY IDEA!" it, what's to stop the next person going "no, no, MY IDEA!!"? Just accept what's there (or tweak it, honourably), you'll perhaps be able to get (and keep for a reasonable time) the subtle 'bragging rights' to a future comic, if everyone plays nice and doesn't just entirely change it on a whim. Or remove it for no good reason, before the whole tag is considered superfluous anyway...

:I haven't considered this type of edit warring before, and I'm happy to stay away from it. I'm not sure whether the "you" was referring to me specifically, because I only edited the CREATED BY once or twice (i mostly remove it when it's old or hides the real reason a page is incomplete).

adding an "incomplete|X and Y need doing to this page", instead of just doing X and Y to the page, is a waste of edits

:I've been trying to do that less recently

If you haven't time to do it all now, it doesn't need a placeholder to make a note to yourself to come back and do it when you can..

:I thought this use was accepted. I do it because if someone else gets there before me, they can do it themselves. Could you suggest other ways for saving these small-but-needed edits?

unless you've changed it since I last looked, there's at least one "X needs doing" that seems to have been done but the "X needs doing" tag is still there.

:I think I've always removed an incomplete tag I created myself for all comics that aren't the ~20 most recent if, after chacking the page, I notice the editor has forgotten (and I always check the edits within a few days unless im on vacation). Please feel free to remove all my or others' incomplete tags if you notice it's complete. I don't understand why you're saying you noticed one and seemingly didn't remove it? If the editor that fixes the page forgets, it's up to whoever notices first to remove it.

Similarly, I find some of your thinking strange. Or at least what I imagine is your thinkings, based upon your occasional doings.

:Yeah I don't think I've ever explained my removals of the CREATED BY things. To summarise:
:Reason number 1) editors thinking nobody pointed out specific page issues because they think it's still the default notice.
:Reason number 2) the comic is old
:Reason number 3) confuses new users, but in the last year or so I haven't worried about this because I removed the incomplete notices from the [[Main Page]]. Hopefully the newbies will look at the mainpage first.

Perhaps you may want to say "I don't think we should <foo> any more", rather than just de-<foo> everything without warning people that you might be treading on their metaphorical toes.

:It's not that I want the tradition to stop, it's just that it gets in the way of productiveness. A notice is the most powerful thing we have to spread a message, and yet we use it as a joke which sometimes hides what's actually wrong with the page. I wish there were a way to keep the CREATED BY's and still allow for important notices to be highly visible. Currently, if I have to choose one, I choose the latter. Do you have any ideas about this? New templates, edits to the bot script, new fields for the existing template, a different notice type, etc?

:Also, any thoughts on the topic above. Your suggestions are often a good start but then you stop replying :( ㅤ [[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 13:21, 26 July 2025 (UTC)

::Ok, my prior reply seems to have been not posted, for reasons I can only guess (dodgy connection, looked like it happened but I moved on too quick, or didn't notice I'd landed on Edit Conflict, something like that?). But I've also been way too busy to actively ponder if you've not bothered to respond to me, in turn.
::Not going to recompose everything, at length, but Incomplete templates ''easily'' contain the original BOT text/user-version, as long as users don't go over-creative over it. Genuine reasons added to this are still visible. The BOT-original "don't delete this too soon" doesn't become any more superfluous than the now ubiquitous "editing it" link. For as long as the notice is 'new' on a new article, there's no reason at all to squeeze anything out in most circumstances. Don't underestimate the readership.
::If you're adding a box back in for an old article that has passed such 'newness' (or where there never was one), keep it as businesslike as you wish, of course.
::If you have a long, complicated list of things, it's probably a long, complicated article where you can site an Incomplete notice by the side of each troublesome item (as you have done).
::Not going any further, like pointing you back at innumerable 'classic' examples of it all just working (whether new users or old users took the necessary hints), as that was a lot of wasted work from last time I 'replied'. But it's all there in the back-pagesz if you care to look. [[Special:Contributions/82.132.245.128|82.132.245.128]] 16:45, 5 August 2025 (UTC)

:::Short and sweet reply, I like it! You should have a dodgy connection more often :D I seem to care about the notice much less than you do, so, sure; I'll keep it on relatively new articles and do whatever if it's older and doesn't still have the original. I still wish there were an easier solution, but it's just a notice. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 10:53, 6 August 2025 (UTC)

== Questions ==

Dear FaviFake

I posted a new question on the Randall question thing. I have no clue how to use the Wiki, but I still did my best to post a question. If I did it wrong please forgive me and I'll do my best next time.

PS. The question I posted is all the way down, at least as I am writing now.

[[User:Little Timmy|Little Timmy]] ([[User talk:Little Timmy|talk]]) 01:30, 29 July 2025 (UTC)Little Timmy[[User:Little Timmy|Little Timmy]] ([[User talk:Little Timmy|talk]]) 01:30, 29 July 2025 (UTC)

:No worries, that was good. You can learn more about editing this wiki on [[explain xkcd:Editor FAQ]]. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 08:50, 29 July 2025 (UTC)

==''Restoring the mini [[Comic series]]''==
''The messages regarding the [[Talk:Comic series|definition of a proper "comic series"]] have been moved to '''[[Talk:Comic series]]'''. To add a new topic regarding the comic series, [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:Comic_series&action=edit&section=new click here].'' --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 14:46, 31 July 2025 (UTC)
== Leaderboard ==

Wow, you probably know already but I’m just re-reminding you that you fell out of 1st place. Keep up the good contributions! {{Special:ContributionScores/10/7/nosort,notools}} [[User:Aprilfoolsupdate!| Aprilfoolsupdate!]]([[User talk:Aprilfoolsupdate!|talk]]) 09:57, 7 August 2025 (UTC)

:Oh well, I surely care more about [[Special:ContributionScores#All time (Top 50)|this other list]]. Thanks! --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 13:09, 7 August 2025 (UTC)

::I never knew this list existed! I wonder what’s behind it? The “well known” one is <nowiki> {{Special:ContributionScores/50/7/nosort,notools}} </nowiki> I guess, but what’s the one for this list?[[User:Aprilfoolsupdate!| Aprilfoolsupdate!]]([[User talk:Aprilfoolsupdate!|talk]]) 13:11, 7 August 2025 (UTC)

:::Who knows! Maybe Mediawiki has the answer. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 13:20, 7 August 2025 (UTC)

== Small Talk (Or Something Like That) ==

Hey, how's things going? Everything alright? Any wiki-wide events I missed? Really miss how things were before. -Tori '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 15:51, 9 August 2025 (UTC)

:Hi welcome back!!! The only interesting thing imo opinion is that Randall replied to me again, I'm not sure if you saw that, see my userpage. :) --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 16:39, 11 August 2025 (UTC)

::Oh and the [[Comic series]] page was divided into main series and miniseries and is now just a list of transclusions so we don't have to keep 2 pages up to date. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 16:41, 11 August 2025 (UTC)

== "I'll omit this part because I'm not sure it should be published." ==
why? [[user:lett‪herebedarklight|raeb]] 09:28, 18 August 2025 (UTC)
:What? could you elaborate? --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 10:37, 19 August 2025 (UTC)
::randall's reply. the answer that starts "Most of those were inside jokes sent to friends [...]" [[user:lett‪herebedarklight|raeb]] 11:44, 19 August 2025 (UTC)
:::Oh right. Some have said it's a bit personal. Now that the sitewide banner's off I'll reinstate it. Thx. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 10:40, 20 August 2025 (UTC)
:::{{Done}} --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 10:42, 20 August 2025 (UTC)

== A rational rationale? ==

You know, some people complain about explanations being too long. Copying {{diff|384566|a swathe of wikipedia}} about twice as large as the original explanation text seems about as odd as initially deciding to removing that text (which linked to the page in question, for the curious) ''possibly'' because you personally didn't know about it. It's ok, not everyone does know, even native speakers, but also maybe the treatment originally given to that part could be reworded to slightly more compact. (I liked the flippant bit. But I wouldn't have said it quite like that, myself.) Yet there's some confusion over your underkill-then-overkill approach. And if I was going to rewrite it, it'd be more considered than either excising or copypasting. Could have just been left alone, though. [[Special:Contributions/82.132.237.85|82.132.237.85]] 17:27, 20 August 2025 (UTC)
:It said singular they was considered incorrect, iirc, which is not really the case nowadays. I did a bit of ce before pasting it; my logic was: either add it back correctly, or remove the wrong part. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 15:28, 31 August 2025 (UTC)

==Tori and I have an idea==
Please check the proposals board for an idea to subvert the 255 character signature limit. --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al|DollarStoreBa'al]][[User_talk:DollarStoreBa'al|'''''converse''''']] 17:40, 29 August 2025 (UTC)

==[[:Template:comic discussion 1167]]==
Hi FaviFake. I was looking through the unused templates page to try to do some cleanup on here when I noticed a [[:Template:comic discussion 1167|template]] from back in 2013. You had originally tagged it as a page to delete, but then added a lot more to the template. Since it is still unused and I cannot surmise any purpose for it, I have re-tagged it. Would you mind explaining your thought process? Thanks, '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 16:36, 10 September 2025 (UTC)
:I don't remember why I used it, probably as a sandbox. It's unnecessary, thanks for flagging it.--[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 10:58, 13 September 2025 (UTC)

==Contact Info Google Site==
Hi FaviFake, what is the URL for your Google Site of contact info? I remember that you had posted it on here, but I cannot find it. I was experiencing Cloudflare errors in the past 24 hours and was unable to contact anyone on Explain XKCD. I would greatly enjoy it if we had some other form of communication outside of here. Thanks. '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 20:17, 12 September 2025 (UTC)
:Oh, thank god it's back. I noticed the outage and it seems someone had posted about it on reddit.
:The website is https://sites.google.com/view/FaviFake, you can bookmark it if you want. I noticed you're also on Reddit (and Wikipedia iirc), so I might contact you there if there's a more serious outage. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 10:58, 13 September 2025 (UTC)

{{Links}}

== [[Hoverboard]] ==

I glad that someone has looked at my changes to this game description.

I am sorry, however, that you disagree with my two main points.

Can we discuss?

I see no point in getting into a "reversion war" over comments to a comic.

[[User:Sprucegrouse|Sprucegrouse]] ([[User talk:Sprucegrouse|talk]]) 13:52, 4 October 2025 (UTC)
:Of course. I simply think your version is too odd:
The best way to enjoy this comic is just to play the game! (Just be sure that you play using a web browser other than Safari.) If you have not yet tried (hard) to play it "cold" already, do so now. Reading beyond this Alert first will deprive you of the best this game has to offer.
Mine:
The best way to enjoy this comic is just to play the game! If you didn't do that already, reading anything below will spoil you from truly enjoying the comic.

I don’t see the need of specifying browsers, and the complex language you used, in a ''spoiler alert''. [[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 16:11, 4 October 2025 (UTC)

== Comic list numbers. ==

Had a look at all today's edits to the Comics-bar template, carefully, after making it fully correct. Though the other person apparently didn't spot it, and I didn't have enough space in the Explanation to say it in longhand, I think I need to appeal to you directly. Not ''entirely'' sure you realised what you were dealing with. Or you just have a weird idea of what's acceptibly correct.

If I'm actually wanting to look at the list that contains (say) comic 1500, I wouldn't find it by following the text "1500-<whatever>" that links to a 1501-2000 page. I would if I was followed the "<whatever>-1500" one, before that, that links to the explicitly 1001-1500 page. But quick scanning of the text might miss the obvious overlap and initially get you to explore only the latter. When you do, you get to the page that starts "2000, 1999, 1998, ...", then you scroll down to the bottom to find that it ''doesn't'' have the desired 1500 after all. (Before you ask, there are possible reasons that you might want to view the ''list'' item, and deliberately didn't go to the [[1500]] explanation page itself.) The explanation "unnecessary specificity" is at least misleading, and that edit made the whole top-bar misleading.

(Personally, I'd have gone with 1-499, 500-999, etc, even though the lack of a '0' makes the first one shorter. Each of them being (500n)+1 to 500(n+1), as it is, is also ok. But neither method is (500n) to 500(n+1), however you look at them.) [[Special:Contributions/81.179.195.93|81.179.195.93]] 18:44, 4 October 2025 (UTC)
:Fine, sure. If someone is looking for exactly 1500, rounding it will be annoying for them, but I thought the nicer round numbers were more important than full correctness. But I don't mind, you can change it back. There are bigger fishes to fry. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 21:26, 4 October 2025 (UTC)
::That's a very strange thought to have had, here in the home of mathematical nitpicking, nerd sniping, over-anaylsing and all-round adherence to the ideals of accuracy and/or precision. I'm just surprised that it spent so much time with a partial off-by-one error.
::Although I didn't actually personally notice it until one or more other people did and at least partially tried to fix it. I suppose we all have our blind spots! Though maybe this is one of those cases where some people, once they see the issue, [[2598: Graphic Designers|couldn't unsee it]]. [[Special:Contributions/81.179.195.93|81.179.195.93]] 22:28, 4 October 2025 (UTC)

==2==
`^ -_ /| /\ -\ /_ /` -\ -\ /` -` /\ %20 `^ ‘_ -`%20 -`|_ %20 |_ -` `’ -_ %20 ‘_ -’ /_ ‘_

^UP|DOWN -LEFT_RIGHT %20SPACE /DIAGDOWNLEFT \DIAGDOWNRIGHT `DIAGUPLEFT ‘DIAGUPRIGHT {{unsigned ip|204.137.100.1|21:45, 12 November 2025 (UTC)}}

:Ok, I've not worked out the exact symbolic logic, in use, but the plaintext is obvious. Then the significance of the tetragrams may be the final puzzle. (Sorry, Favi, they put this here. For whatever purpose.) [[Special:Contributions/82.132.245.223|82.132.245.223]] 22:30, 12 November 2025 (UTC)
:DOYOUNEEDHELP {{unsigned ip|204.137.100.1|22:48, 12 November 2025 (UTC)}}
::Personally, no. Not sure about you, though. ;) [[Special:Contributions/82.132.245.223|82.132.245.223]] 00:21, 13 November 2025 (UTC)
:::{{w|Beetle|HELP}}
::::Beetle? --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al|DollarStoreBa'al]][[User Talk:DollarStoreBa'al|Converse]] 14:30, 13 November 2025 (UTC)
wut [[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 14:36, 13 November 2025 (UTC)
:IAMNOTJUSTANYBODY [[Special:Contributions/204.137.100.1|204.137.100.1]] 14:43, 13 November 2025 (UTC)
::WAIT A SECOND I GET IT!!!! --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al|DollarStoreBa'al]][[User Talk:DollarStoreBa'al|Converse]] 14:56, 13 November 2025 (UTC)
::Their hint wasn't about beetles, it was about the BEATles! 'I am not just anybody' is very deliberate wording. That wording happens to be used in the Beatles' Help! Look at the album cover for Help. It's quite memorable. Why? Because it uses FLAG SEMAPHORE. WHICH USES DIFFERENT ARM POSITIONS TO COMMUNICATE LETTERS. SPECIFICALLY, THERE ARE EIGHT DIFFERENT ARM POSITIONS. AND THERE ARE EIGHT SYMBOLS USED IN THAT CODE. AND, WHEN YOU LOOK AT THE {{w|Flag semaphore|FLAG SEMAPHORE WIKIPEDIA PAGE}}, IT HAS AN ALPHABET. AND WHEN YOU TRANSLATE IT, YOU GET:

::T R A N S M I S S I O N T W O O F F O U R W Q M W.

::Wow that's intricate. Okay, we have two now. That took a while. --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al|DollarStoreBa'al]][[User Talk:DollarStoreBa'al|Converse]] 15:13, 13 November 2025 (UTC)
::::Ah, right. I was still dealing with the backformation and plotting out the digrams on graph paper as two-element vectors (and misread the 'Q' as another 'O'). But of course everybody knows that ''HELP!'' {{w|Help!#Album cover|doesn't actually depict "HELP"}} [[Special:Contributions/82.132.245.223|82.132.245.223]] 16:12, 13 November 2025 (UTC)
:::Now we have XVERWQMW in total --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al|DollarStoreBa'al]][[User Talk:DollarStoreBa'al|Converse]] 15:25, 13 November 2025 (UTC)

3167: Car Size

2025-11-13T15:40:11Z

82.132.245.223: /* Explanation */ It does not generally cost less to install additional off-road facility for bikes, compared to continuing to let them use the existing road-space along with all other vehicles. Exceptions, aside, 'practical' is often a subjective view.

{{comic
| number = 3167
| date = November 12, 2025
| title = Car Size
| image = car_size_2x.png
| imagesize = 348x754px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = 'They really shouldn't let those small cars drive in traffic. I worry I'm going to kill someone if I hit one! They should have to drive on the sidewalk, safely out of the way.'
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created BY A CAR WITH AN ICBM. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
This comic demonstrates one reason why vehicles have gotten progressively larger and more powerful, due to a type of {{w|arms race}} between drivers. When vehicles of different sizes share the road, passengers in the smaller ones will usually be more at risk in collisions, since the body construction and lower inertia generally provide less protection. So, for safety reasons, people have an incentive to buy larger cars. According to the comic, this causes a cycle of increasingly larger cars, which reaches a point of absurdity due to the cost and speed of giant cars.

In the "Soon" panel, Randall has extrapolated this to adding spiked armor and weaponry to large cars, and other drivers will need to outdo this to compete on the road. This scenario is reminiscent of the vehicles from the {{w|Mad Max}} franchise, and of the [https://wackyraces.fandom.com/wiki/The_Slag_Brothers Slag Brothers] from Wacky Races. This would almost certainly never happen in real life,{{cn}} as there would be no reason at all to introduce weaponry to cars in the first place ([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nJtXiK7bPk/ unless you're driving a Renault Twingo]). Rather, it is meant to make the reader realize that buying larger vehicles purely for the perceived safety is a never-ending vicious cycle.

The title text views this from the opposite perspective. The owner of a large car is worried that they'll kill people in small cars, so believes that small car drivers shouldn't drive on the road at all and should be restricted to the sidewalk for their own safety. Driving the smallest cars in pedestrian spaces is obviously absurd, but follows the prior trend of separating bikes from car traffic 'for cyclists' safety' and often having them share pedestrian spaces due to 'practical' constraints. While this reduces conflicts between cyclists and drivers of motor vehicles, it results in cyclists and pedestrians becoming an inconvenience and danger to each other instead. In the car-centric view, it is not worth creating separate infrastructure for bicycles and similar small vehicles, so the title text's extension of the trend is to classify small cars as bike-like vehicles, even though this endangers both smaller vehicles and pedestrians.

Biking on sidewalks is illegal in some jurisdictions, with a greater number banning small powered vehicles like e-bikes. Where either kind of bike is allowed, laws generally require that the rider take precautions like riding at reasonable speeds when near pedestrians, alerting pedestrians when passing, and yielding to pedestrians when needed. Small, low-speed carts do routinely share some larger pedestrian spaces, such as golf courses and large airports, but even these would have trouble safely passing on regular sidewalks. Smaller single-occupant electric vehicles (mobility scooters) frequently share pedestrian spaces, but their limited speeds reduce the frequency and potential severity of impacts.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

:[The comic is made up of four panels, each featuring Cueball talking to Megan or vice versa, both of them surrounded by progressively larger vehicles.]
:[Panel one is labeled "100 years ago." Cueball and Megan are standing with a bicycle to the left of them and an old-fashioned car to their right.]
:Cueball: It's too dangerous riding a bike with these cars around. I should get a car, too.

:[Panel two is labeled "50 years ago." Cueball and Megan are standing between a small hatchback (right) and a slightly larger sedan (left).]
:Megan: Small cars are less safe in collisions with larger vehicles, so I should get a bigger one.

:[Panel three is labeled "Today." Cueball and Megan are standing between a large SUV (left) and an even larger SUV (right).]
:Cueball: Everyone has huge SUVs now. If I don't get the biggest one, I'm putting my family at risk.

:[Panel four is labeled "Soon." Cueball and Megan are standing to the left of a massive SUV with metal plates bolted to its side, spiked panels attached to the front and back, and two giant spiked clubs hanging from a rotor on top of the car. Another massive spiked club is visible coming from the left of the panel, presumably attached to a similar car. Megan has both arms on her side.]
:Megan: If I don't install more whirling spike clubs, I'll be destroyed by all the other drivers who...

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]

3161: Airspeed

2025-11-13T15:33:20Z

82.132.245.223: /* Explanation */ Inserted various cases of "the" and "a"/"an", for grammar. And some other minor changes.

{{comic
| number = 3161
| date = October 29, 2025
| title = Airspeed
| image = airspeed_2x.png
| imagesize = 293x338px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Carefully maneuvering the balloon down a mineshaft in an effort to break the OTHER altitude record
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|What would be the challenges for Hot Air descent? This page was created by a HOT AIR ROBOT. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

In the comic, [[Megan]] and [[Cueball]] are trying to break the record for {{w|airspeed}} in a {{w|hot air balloon}}. Cueball's exclamation "yessss!" suggests that they achieved it when there was a slight variation in conditions that allowed them to briefly reach 2 miles per hour (roughly 3.2 km/h, or 0.9 m/s), which would not seem particularly impressive to most people as it is even slower than typical human {{w|Preferred walking speed|walking speed}}.

Airspeed is the velocity of an aircraft relative to the air it's flying through. This differs from {{w|ground speed}}, which is the velocity relative to the ground below, because it is adjusted for the speed of wind around the aircraft. Most powered-flight airspeed records (from human-powered aircraft to rocket-planes) are made with reference to the attained passage through the air, both because it is traditionally easier to establish from within the craft itself, and in order to disregard either assisting or opposing winds at the flying altitude. Ground speed is usually what passengers care about, since it relates to how soon you'll reach your destination.

Unlike airplanes, helicopters, [[1972: Autogyros|autogyros]] and [[495: Secretary: Part 2|dirigibles]], though, untethered {{w|hot air balloons}} are pushed by the wind itself[[[285: Wikipedian Protester#top|''circulation needed'']]] and don't have any other form of horizontal propulsion (changes in the heated air in the balloon allows vertical propulsion due to positive or negative {{w|buoyancy}}, but this is specifically disregarded by the wording used in the comic). This means that their airspeed is normally very close to zero. It may differ occasionally if the wind changes suddenly, in velocity or direction, as it will take a few seconds for the balloon to overcome its inertia. If the wind drops the balloon may coast a bit at the higher speed, but a large balloon will have plenty of drag, so it will not take long to match the new wind speed.

An additional possibility is that it is straddling a significant wind-shear layer that affects the upper parts of the balloon differently from the lower parts, but this does not appear to be the case here, especially as the "level flight" stipulation would seem to disqualify the particularly vertically-turbulent conditions (updrafts and downdrafts) that would accompany this. Away from ground level and the effects of undulating terrain or ground-based structures (and assuming no large powered aircraft have themselves passed nearby, locally disturbing the air), the laminar nature of the air means the airflow tends to more gently transition at the height of a balloon.

Airspeed is useful to aircraft designers and pilots, since it reflects how much power is needed, and the aerodynamic behaviour of the lift and control-surfaces. When you're flying in the same direction as air movement (a "tailwind"), you get more ground speed from the same airspeed, because the wind is boosting your speed; conversely, when you have a headwind, you'll either have lower ground speed with the same engine power, or you'll need more power to get the same ground speed. Prevailing winds in the {{w|middle latitudes}} tend to flow eastwards, which explains why west-to-east flights are often quicker than the corresponding east-to-west flights for such air-commerce as the trans-Atlantic routes between the US and Europe.

A more common record that people try to achieve with balloons is altitude; at this time the current record is 69,850 feet (21,290 m), set in 2005. The title text suggests achieving a ''negative'' altitude record by allowing the balloon to descend down a mineshaft. This could just be in relation to the height of the land in the immediate vicinity of the mineshaft, but could also be with respect to {{w|mean sea level}}, similarly avoiding direct comparison against the ground. With the typical width of a properly inflated balloon being greater than a typical mineshaft, it could be a logistical challenge to make a controlled descent (unless an open pit mine were to be considered a mineshaft — the {{w|Bingham Canyon Mine}} reaches a depth of 1210 m).

It could be possible to increase a hot air balloon's airspeed by installing a propeller on it (powered by motor or the crew's muscle power), attached to the balloon's basket, capable of switching direction by rotating or repositioning the propeller-mount. This would essentially turn it into early form of dirigible, although that may then result in the modified hot air balloon being counted as a dirigible, placing it in another record category where it would have hard time competing with prior claims (due to proper dirigibles having better aerodynamics, and therefore a better airspeed than a converted hot air balloon).

Hot air balloons have been referenced previously in the comics [[427: Bad Timing]], [[2940: Modes of Transportation]], and [[3153: Hot Water Balloon]].

==Transcript==
:[A hot air balloon is shown with its six vertical panels alternating in black and white. Megan and Cueball are riding in the basket, with Cueball looking over the side and down while Megan looks at something inside the basket, also looking down.]
:Megan: 0 MPH... 0 MPH... Ooh, 1 MPH with that last gust... 0 MPH... 1 MPH... 1 MPH... '''''2 MPH!!!'''''
:Cueball: ''YESSSS!''
:[Caption below the panel:]
:Breaking the hot air balloon level-flight airspeed record
{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

Talk:1079: United Shapes

2025-11-13T15:19:08Z

82.132.245.223: Sorry, didn't realise it was a Talk page commenf I was editing, until I had started. But fixing it as I think you would appreciate. (I would have said "EYE-ya...", etc, but could be "AYE-ya...", or others, depending on dialect.)

Hooray, another comic that only Americans will get. Randall, some of us live in *other* parts of the world. '''[[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 13:47, 8 January 2013 (UTC)

Wait, so an American addict with a mostly-American audience is supposed to limit himself to cartoons that everyone can understand? And people say AMERICANS are the arrogant ones. [[Special:Contributions/71.229.88.206|71.229.88.206]] 07:59, 24 March 2013 (UTC)

Could someone please explain the stereotypes? I'm American and I don't really see any jokes. As far as I can tell, he just picked images that fit in each state. {{unsigned|71.229.88.206|07:59, 24 March 2013 (UTC)}}

We still have to fix this thumbnail issue. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 16:47, 6 June 2013 (UTC)

For the most part I don't think the shapes have anything to do with the states other than what happens to fit. The Louisiana "boot" and Michigan "glove" are commonly used to describe those states shapes. {{unsigned ip|65.117.250.78|22:49, 20 August 2013 (UTC)}}

People in Michigan actually say things like "I live in the thumb"
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.199|108.162.219.199]] 05:18, 12 December 2013 (UTC)

I'm not sure how this really constitutes an explanation. The current text seems to amount to "Yeah this comic is all perfectly clear and logical everyone gets all the references alright I gotta go have fun now!" I think this needs an incomplete flag, but I don't know if someone who isn't a moderator can do that? --[[User:Mynotoar|Mynotoar]] ([[User talk:Mynotoar|talk]]) 22:32, 26 December 2013 (UTC)

Could the signature in Wyoming be Randalls own one? Compare it to [[1005: SOPA]]. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.254.160|108.162.254.160]] 09:06, 5 March 2014 (UTC)

He does lotsa comics the rest of us can undrestand, too. After all, though, he IS American. Texas: that's a cat? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.225.160|108.162.225.160]] 16:26, 9 March 2014 (UTC)

<rant> The bear in the state of Alaska is NOT Winnie the Pooh. The most recognizable version is yellow with a red shirt. The original illustrations didn't have a shirt, but were still yellow. Further more, there ARE other cartoon bears to choose from, or it could just be a non-affiliated one that Randall created for the sake of fitting in the state of Alaska. Add to that the fact that Winnie the Pooh never had a jetpack OR a raygun and there is a pretty solid case for that bear NOT being Winnie the Pooh. </rant> {{unsigned ip|173.245.54.91}} Anonymous 04:51, 18 March 2014 (UTC)
:I did correct a former typo done by [[Randall]] himself, but Winnie the Pooh is just what he was thinking about. Please start a discussion on such an edit first, maybe we can say Randall's painting is bad, but that's what is on his official transcript. And SO this does only belong to the explain, the transcript is just only a transcript of the ORIGINAL comic. I'm sorry, but please don't change this until you know what you are doing, please ask for help first. You will get kind answers by many people here. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 22:29, 18 March 2014 (UTC)4

In regards to New Mexico, the hazardous waste container could easily be a reference to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad. I think it's also worth noting that, despite the transcript, the entire container appears to be upside-down, rather than just the label. This could be an allusion to concerns about radiation leaks in that facility. [[User:MurphysLife|MurphysLife]] ([[User talk:MurphysLife|talk]]) 23:28, 17 July 2018 (UTC)

WRT Massachusetts, yes, the Boston Tea Party occurred there. However, the tea on the elephant implies the tea came from India, when it came from China. Tea was not commercially cultivated in India until the 1820s, well after the American Revolution. I see no relation with the elephant depicted to the Republican Party symbol. Massachusetts politics do not lean towards Republican political party ideals. The conservative Tea Party, aligns with the Republican Party, but their followers do not hold much sway in Massachusetts.[[User:TCMits|TCMits]] ([[User talk:TCMits|talk]]) 20:26, 28 March 2023 (UTC)

;Undoing edits

I expanded a bunch of descriptions, especially with an eye for people who may not be able to see the comic. This was the "incomplete explanation of the day" comic the day I started adding to the wiki. For example, Utah was described as "An oven." I changed this to "A white stove" because the entire appliance is called a stove (an oven plus drawer below, cooktop above, and upright piece with controls at the back of the cooktop).

Dgbrt undid all my changes without explanation. Would someone please explain what, if anything, I did wrong? I know I'm new here, but I did look around before making any changes. Is there an "o

Corollary question: Someone also removed the actual text that appears in the various images.

Is there an official-from-Randall transcript somewhere?

Thanks. [[User:Karenb|Karenb]] ([[User talk:Karenb|talk]]) 21:48, 20 March 2014 (UTC)
:Dgbrt replaced the transcript that was present with the transcript that can be found [http://xkcd.com/1079/info.0.json here], or in the page source of the original comic. It's not always perfectly accurate, but I usually just trust in it since Randall probably knows what he drew. If you feel that there's a typo/stuff-up somewhere, feel free to change it. Accuracy trumps the original transcript. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 00:48, 21 March 2014 (UTC)
::Thanks, David! That makes a lot of sense. [[User:Karenb|Karenb]] ([[User talk:Karenb|talk]]) 01:37, 21 March 2014 (UTC)
::I disagree. The transcript here should explain what is in the comic. Randall's transcript (if there even is one) is often not very complete, and he doesn't use the names we have here. If he has drawn something that is clearly not what he writes it is, then it should be corrected in this transcript. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:14, 11 February 2016 (UTC)

Is this ready for the incomplete flag to be removed? Explain section has been updated to explain the shapes that can be explained.[[User:Tornadowrangler|Tornadowrangler]] ([[User talk:Tornadowrangler|talk]]) 03:35, 3 April 2014 (UTC)Tornadowrangler

A note about Maryland -- the transcript description is incomplete, because the wolf (main part of the state) appears to be howling at a full moon (across the Chesapeake Bay). That bit of land is referred to as the Delmarva peninsula, because it includes nearly all of Delaware, the eastern part of Maryland and (not indicated on this map) the southern tip belongs to Virginia. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.13|108.162.219.13]] 04:13, 13 May 2014 (UTC)

I always thought NC & SC look like a bird beak & VA looked like a bird in flight [[User:Beastachu|Beastachu]] ([[User talk:Beastachu|talk]]) 19:35, 8 November 2015 (UTC)

I halfway fixed the issue addressed by the incomplete box. I have nothing to contribute to the current spotlighted explanation, so I am working here. I will finish the job later if I have time. I also added some more possible explanations to the chart, such as Washington D.C. being a star because that's how capitals are shown and the somewhat weak explanation of Maine's camp sunshine holding an event to appear in a Star Trek film.
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.140|108.162.237.140]] 16:04, 20 April 2016 (UTC)

I believe the transcript is now complete.
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.140|108.162.237.140]] 15:08, 22 April 2016 (UTC)

After some more additions to the transcript I removed the incomplete box. The only thing left is the comic explanation, and finding possible explanations for all of the shapes. Despite what the current description says, Randall just picking shapes based on shape is very unlike him.
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.188|108.162.237.188]] 22:19, 25 April 2016 (UTC)
: So what you're saying is it should no longer be flagged as incomplete because only the explanation is incomplete? What an interesting conclusion [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.239|141.101.99.239]]

Holy crap what's with the transcript? Should we collapse the table? Because it makes the page zoom way out, to the point where it becomes too small to see the words. [[User:Herobrine|Herobrine]] ([[User talk:Herobrine|talk]]) 06:08, 6 April 2018 (UTC)
: I have fixed the table. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.143.24|172.68.143.24]] 06:38, 4 October 2018 (UTC)
::I've marked it as incomplete: A table should not be used in general. Check this [[explain_xkcd:Editor_FAQ#What_is_the_format_of_the_transcript_section.3F|What is the format of the transcript section ?]]. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 18:45, 5 October 2018 (UTC)

;eːijaˌfjatlaˌjœːkʏtl̥

What is eːijaˌfjatlaˌjœːkʏtl̥ actually pronounced as? Why does that show as the pronunciation of Colorado? It's clearly not colorado.
:That's the phonetic writing of {{w|Eyjafjallajökull}}, and icelandic volcano that {{w|Air travel disruption after the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption|caused disruptions}} to air travel in Western Europe between March and June of 2010. If you want an analogy pronunciation guide, it would be something as "a [as in the letter]-ya-fiat-la-YOE-cutl [do not mistake with 'cult']". --[[Special:Contributions/188.114.111.225|188.114.111.225]]

Joe Biden

2025-11-13T15:06:14Z

82.132.245.223: Fixing some technical inaccuracy, with as neutral a tone as possible ('cos I can see it going either way, depending upon who else arrives here and decides to write it according...)

{{Infobox character
| image = Joe Biden.jpeg
| imagesize = 200px
| caption = '
| first_appearance = [[915: Connoisseur]]
}}

<noinclude>:''For a list of comics, see [[:Category:Comics featuring Joe Biden|Comics featuring Joe Biden]].''</noinclude>

'''{{w}}''' is an American politician who became the 46th {{w|president of the United States}} and initially intended to run (as incumbent) in the {{w|2024 United States presidential election}}, before stepping aside to leave [[Kamala Harris]] as his party's candidate. A member of the {{w|Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party}}, he previously served as the 47th {{w|Vice President of the United States|vice president}} from 2009 to 2017 under President {{w|Barack Obama}} and represented {{w|Delaware}} in the {{w|United States Senate}} from 1973 to 2009. He is married to {{w|Jill Biden}}.

{{navbox-characters}}
[[Category:Characters]]
[[Category:Real people]]
[[Category:Politicians]]

User talk:FaviFake

2025-11-13T00:21:39Z

82.132.245.223: /* 2 */

User talk:Danish

2025-11-13T00:05:43Z

82.132.245.223: That 'empty pipe' was intended, but let's try it this way instead.

{{kick}} [[User:BlackHat|Guess who]] ([[User talk:BlackHat|you know who]] 17:38 11 March 2021 (UTC

:Aww, thanks!) [[User:Danish|Danish]] ([[User talk:Danish|talk]]) 18:14, 11 March 2021 (UTC))

Oh? You don't like keming? https://type.method.ac/ ought to be interesting, then. And make sure to check out Hellvetica! [[User:BlackHat]] ([[User talk:BlackHat|talk]] 17:26, 13 March 2021 (UTC
:Oh I've seen Hellvetica, it definitely lives up to its name. That link is quite fun, I get to ''fix'' the kerning!)) [[User:Danish|Danish]] ([[User talk:Danish|talk]]) 17:36, 13 March 2021 (UTC)

== Nerd Sniping ==

Why. Why did I fall for that. I did see your little comment at the end tho. it hurts me on a personal level - [[User:Donthaveusername|Donthaveusername]]

:You fell for it because you had to. Look out for that truck! [[User:Danish|Danish]] ([[User talk:Danish|talk]]) 16:16, 24 December 2020 (UTC)
:Don't worry, I'll save you! Wait, that was five years ago... {{unsigned|DollarStoreBa'al|18:30, 12 November 2025|UTC}}

What was it? I can't for the life of me figure it out. --[[User:Char Latte49|Char Latte49]] ([[User talk:Char Latte49|talk]]) 18:53, 11 March 2021 (UTC)
:, hehe [[User:Danish|Danish]] ([[User talk:Danish|talk]]) 19:30, 11 March 2021 (UTC)
:
::I FOUND IT! --[[User:Char Latte49|Char Latte49]] ([[User talk:Char Latte49|talk]]) 22:31, 11 March 2021 (UTC)
:::Really? What is it then? I haven't the faintest idea. [[User:Danish|Danish]] ([[User talk:Danish|talk]]) 22:35, 11 March 2021 (UTC)

Oh, that's ''good''. [[User:Psychoticpotato|P?sych??otic?pot??at???o ]] ([[User talk:Psychoticpotato|talk]]) 13:38, 14 June 2024 (UTC)

== Are you Black Hat's alt account? ==

 — [[User:Sqrt-1|The 𝗦𝗾𝗿𝘁-𝟭]] [[User talk:Sqrt-1|talk]] [[Special:Contributions/Sqrt-1|stalk]] 05:00, 31 December 2020 (UTC)

Alt? No, I am not. [[User:Danish|Danish]] ([[User talk:Danish|talk]]) 14:03, 31 December 2020 (UTC)
:So... you tried to match his [[user:BlackHat|user page]]? — [[User:Sqrt-1|The 𝗦𝗾𝗿𝘁-𝟭]] [[User talk:Sqrt-1|talk]] [[Special:Contributions/Sqrt-1|stalk]] 12:44, 17 January 2021 (UTC)
::Kinda, yes. I liked its layout. Is this not allowed? [[User:Danish|Danish]] ([[User talk:Danish|talk]]) 15:27, 17 January 2021 (UTC)
:::Yes, obviously it is allowed (Hell, my Wikipedia user page consists of so much stolen wikitext...). I just had my suspicion of you being BlackHat. — [[User:Sqrt-1|The 𝗦𝗾𝗿𝘁-𝟭]] [[User talk:Sqrt-1|talk]] [[Special:Contributions/Sqrt-1|stalk]] 06:47, 18 January 2021 (UTC)

== Of course not ==

Why would you think that? [[User:BlackHat]] ([[User talk:BlackHat|talk]] 17:43, 11 March 2021 (UTC
:)) [[User:Danish|Danish]] ([[User talk:Danish|talk]]) 18:27, 11 March 2021 (UTC)

== Found You! ==

ka-'''CHUNK'''! --[[User:Char Latte49|Char Latte49]] ([[User talk:Char Latte49|talk]]) 18:15, 11 March 2021 (UTC)
:''steals your scones'' [[User:Danish|Danish]] ([[User talk:Danish|talk]]) 18:20, 11 March 2021 (UTC)
::I thought those were lug nuts. --[[User:Char Latte49|Char Latte49]] ([[User talk:Char Latte49|talk]]) 18:22, 11 March 2021 (UTC)
:::Ah well, just to be sure. ''steals your lug nuts'' [[User:Danish|Danish]] ([[User talk:Danish|talk]]) 18:27, 11 March 2021 (UTC)
::Also, I think you might want to know; your boyfriend's on the ceiling. --[[User:Char Latte49|Char Latte49]] ([[User talk:Char Latte49|talk]]) 18:22, 11 March 2021 (UTC)
:::''sigh'' Of course he is. (I don't think I'll get him down just yet.) [[User:Danish|Danish]] ([[User talk:Danish|talk]]) 18:27, 11 March 2021 (UTC)
To be fair, you ''did'' avoid being stapled by Beret. He said he's found Mr. Lin-Manuel Miranda, but has yet to bring him back to our offices due to the Great Attractor. --[[User:Char Latte49|Char Latte49]] ([[User talk:Char Latte49|talk]]) 21:30, 11 March 2021 (UTC)
:I never specified Beret Guy, just a weirdo with a beret. You definitely fit that [[User:Danish|Danish]] ([[User talk:Danish|talk]]) 21:34, 11 March 2021 (UTC)
::hmph. ka-'''CHUNK''' Here's some lug nuts, and a soup cable. Although; thanks for the compliment (:--[[User:Char Latte49|Char Latte49]] ([[User talk:Char Latte49|talk]]) 21:52, 11 March 2021 (UTC)
:::You're welcome! [[User:Danish|Danish]] ([[User talk:Danish|talk]]) 22:00, 11 March 2021 (UTC)
On another note, I wonder when he'll realize he's on the ceiling... --[[User:Char Latte49|Char Latte49]] ([[User talk:Char Latte49|talk]]) 22:05, 11 March 2021 (UTC)
:Oh, he doesn't have his phone up there. No way for him to reply here [[User:Danish|Danish]] ([[User talk:Danish|talk]]) 22:08, 11 March 2021 (UTC)
::I suppose he could borrow mine, but it's almost dead and prone to explosions. --[[User:Char Latte49|Char Latte49]] ([[User talk:Char Latte49|talk]]) 22:10, 11 March 2021 (UTC)
:::Or mine, but it's just an old xkcd-2000. [[User:Danish|Danish]] ([[User talk:Danish|talk]]) 22:21, 11 March 2021 (UTC)
::::I'd like to keep talking, but the server room is full of bismuth again. And that cursed chair-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA --[[User:Char Latte49|Char Latte49]] ([[User talk:Char Latte49|talk]]) 22:27, 11 March 2021 (UTC)
:::::''Again?'' You really must bring it up at the next meeting. [[User:Danish|Danish]] ([[User talk:Danish|talk]]) 22:29, 11 March 2021 (UTC)

== Welcome Template, because I don't want it at the top ==

{{Welcome}}

Why is this here D: [[User:Beanie|Beanie]] [[User talk:Beanie|talk]] 11:06, 21 June 2021 (UTC)
:Why is what here? The welcome template? [[User:Danish|Danish]] ([[User talk:Danish|talk]]) 18:52, 21 June 2021 (UTC)

Talk:3167: Car Size

2025-11-12T23:56:31Z

82.132.245.223:

It is I, broseph. [[User:Broseph|Broseph]] ([[User talk:Broseph|talk]]) 19:45, 12 November 2025 (UTC)
:MY LETTERS ARE BIGGER THAN YOURS!!! --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al|DollarStoreBa'al]][[User Talk:DollarStoreBa'al|Converse]] 20:15, 12 November 2025 (UTC)
tears of the kingdom be like [[Special:Contributions/128.135.204.243|128.135.204.243]] 20:49, 12 November 2025 (UTC)

Did someone say {{w|Not Just Bikes}}? https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0intLFzLaudFG-xAvUEO-A --[[Special:Contributions/62.0.12.1|62.0.12.1]] 20:50, 12 November 2025 (UTC)

On the (current) closing paragraph of the Explanation, note that (at least where I am) it is illegal to ride a bike on the footway, unless specifically signed and permitted as a shared/split pavement area. As a cyclist, I really wouldn't even want to (or to increase fellow motorists' misconceptions that they exclusively own the road) when it's a perfectly good highway, but 'people on bikes' seem to do what they like and perpetuate such misunderstandings. [[Special:Contributions/82.132.244.30|82.132.244.30]] 21:41, 12 November 2025 (UTC)
:It's illegal here too, and I've added a note to that effect. As a cyclist, I do sometimes ride on sidewalks where sharing a road with cars is just too dangerous, but I try to be extremely cautious in my interactions with pedestrians. They've got the right of way; I don't. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 23:06, 12 November 2025 (UTC)
::On top of often ill-conceived official cycle/pedestrian paths, I have a mild dislike for "cycle lanes", personally, as a sort of official "we really would prefer you to not be on the road, but we don't know what else to do with you, and it looks good when we add up the amount of 'cycle friendly' routes we have" kind of thing. With awareness (so no plugging your ears with headphones playing your 'tunez') most roads that I might use ''ought'' to be safe to cycle without badly implemented off-road/side-of-road segregation, and an overwhelming amount don't have such provision (riding to a cafe forty-plus miles away and circling round a different way back home, there's surprisingly few no-motor-vehicles opportunities to take).
::Even worse, though, is walking by a road with a 'perfectly good' clearly marked cycle lane (not particularly bad, compared to some instances, clean gutter and no bad grates) and some idiot on a bike rushes past me on the ''pavement'' (i.e. sidewalk), these days it often being an electrically-assisted, near silent bike (courtesy of Deliveroo/whoever), except that he's (assuming 'he', but it's a good chance) zooming past me, slightly ''uphill'', without pedalling at all... Technically, he's riding an electric motorcycle, and going at normal traffic speeds (and wearing a motorcycle-style helmet, so probably no point shouting at him as his ears are covered, if he hasn't also got earbuds in!) and ''definitely'' shouldn't be sharing the pavement with me (on the verge of needing a registration plate and paying insurance/tax for his e-moped).
::Of course, he'll act just as badly when he transitions back on the road, ignoring other traffic rules and barely avoiding become the jam on an asphalt smogasbord, various drivers cursing him and wishing ''all cyclists'' were off the streets. (The same drivers might well sneak through lights themselves, though "if it's quiet and nobody else is there", plus happily exceed the 20/30/40/50/60/70 mph limits on roads whenever they can, and don't have me driving ''at the limit'' in front of them when it's awkward for them to pass...)
::Not saying I'm perfect, but there are idiots out there with everything from no wheels (just two legs) up to perhaps 18-ish or whatever their juggernaut has, engines of whatever type or none, but I hope that I do my bit by being more considerate than most (except when it comes to dealing with inconsideration itself, when I internalise any joy I get about stopping others breaking the law for a few short moments) whether I'm walking, riding or driving. Though always trying to be aware of what the inevitably ever-present idiots out there will be doing. (Well, I couldn't do a thing about the time that a car pulled out in front of the bus I was a passenger in. But neither could the bus-driver, really, from what I could work out. Bus. Small car. Not a battle that I'd want to fight, on inertia alone.)
::Darn... this was not intended to be a holier-than-though rant, when I started, but I still don't regret it starting to go that way one bit... [[Special:Contributions/82.132.245.223|82.132.245.223]] 23:56, 12 November 2025 (UTC)

Pretty good comic [[User:Mathmaster|Mathmaster]] ([[User talk:Mathmaster|talk]])

3167: Car Size

2025-11-12T23:09:32Z

82.132.245.223: /* Explanation */ Redone, better flow.

{{comic
| number = 3167
| date = November 12, 2025
| title = Car Size
| image = car_size_2x.png
| imagesize = 348x754px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = 'They really shouldn't let those small cars drive in traffic. I worry I'm going to kill someone if I hit one! They should have to drive on the sidewalk, safely out of the way.'
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created BY A CAR WITH AN ICBM. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
This comic demonstrates one reason why vehicles have gotten progressively larger and more powerful, due to a type of {{w|arms race}}. When vehicles of different sizes share the road, passengers in the smaller ones will usually be more at risk in collisions due to the larger amount of force exerted. They have less momentum, and the body construction material generally provides less protection. So, for safety reasons, people have incentive to buy larger cars.

In the "Soon" panel, Randall has extrapolated this to adding spiked armor and weaponry to large cars, and other drivers will need to do the same to compete on the road. This scenario is reminiscent of the vehicles from the {{w|Mad Max}} franchise. This would almost certainly never happen in real life,{{cn}} as there would be no reason at all to introduce weaponry to cars in the first place. ([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nJtXiK7bPk/ unless you're driving a Renault Twingo])

The title text views this from the opposite perspective. The owner of a large car is worried that they'll kill people in small cars, so they shouldn't drive on the road at all. This may result in the opposite process in the comic, where small cars become forced to be smaller and more specialized to drive on sidewalks...until they just become bicycles again. Of course, the suggestion that small cars should drive on sidewalks is even worse than being on the road, as it would put many pedestrians in danger; this is already a legitimate complaint regarding the riding of cycles on footways, where this is not supposed to be done (and even where it is), due to thoughtless behaviour of some bike riders.

Driving the smallest cars in pedestrian spaces is obviously absurd, but people suggest that bikes should do the same for their own safety (more often motorists might suggest this, pedestrians significantly less so). Forcing bicycles to be ridden on the sidewalk is the cheapest way to keep cyclists safe if we are not allowed to inconvenience drivers, but is a car-centric view that (like the comic shows) abandons common sense and consideration for others and replaces it with a "might makes right" attitude and making it "somebody else's problem", at a cost of increased risk of collisions with pedestrians, putting both in danger. Biking on sidewalks is currently illegal in many jurisdictions because of these risks.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

[The comic is made up of four panels, each featuring Cueball talking to Megan or vice versa, both of them surrounded by progressively larger vehicles.]
[Panel one is labeled "100 years ago." Cueball and Megan are standing with a bicycle to the left of them and an old-fashioned car to their right.]
Cueball: It's too dangerous riding a bike with these cars around. I should get a car, too.

[Panel two is labeled "50 years ago." Cueball and Megan are standing between a small hatchback (right) and a slightly larger sedan (left).]
Megan: Small cars are less safe in collisions with larger vehicles, so I should get a bigger one.

[Panel three is labeled "Today." Cueball and Megan are standing between a large SUV (left) and an even larger SUV (right).]
Cueball: Everyone has huge SUVs now. If I don't get the biggest one, I'm putting my family at risk.

[Panel four is labeled "Soon." Cueball and Megan are standing to the left of a massive SUV with metal plates bolted to its side, spiked panels attached to the front and back, and two giant spiked clubs hanging from a rotor on top of the car. Another massive spiked club is visible coming from the left of the panel, presumably attached to a similar car.]
Megan: If I don't install more whirling spike clubs, I'll be destroyed by all the other drivers who...

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

3167: Car Size

2025-11-12T23:06:29Z

82.132.245.223: /* Explanation */ merge changes

{{comic
| number = 3167
| date = November 12, 2025
| title = Car Size
| image = car_size_2x.png
| imagesize = 348x754px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = 'They really shouldn't let those small cars drive in traffic. I worry I'm going to kill someone if I hit one! They should have to drive on the sidewalk, safely out of the way.'
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created BY A CAR WITH AN ICBM. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
This comic demonstrates one reason why vehicles have gotten progressively larger and more powerful, due to a type of {{w|arms race}}. When vehicles of different sizes share the road, passengers in the smaller ones will usually be more at risk in collisions due to the larger amount of force exerted. They have less momentum, and the body construction material generally provides less protection. So, for safety reasons, people have incentive to buy larger cars.

In the "Soon" panel, Randall has extrapolated this to adding spiked armor and weaponry to large cars, and other drivers will need to do the same to compete on the road. This scenario is reminiscent of the vehicles from the {{w|Mad Max}} franchise. This would almost certainly never happen in real life,{{cn}} as there would be no reason at all to introduce weaponry to cars in the first place. ([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nJtXiK7bPk/ unless you're driving a Renault Twingo])

The title text views this from the opposite perspective. The owner of a large car is worried that they'll kill people in small cars, so they shouldn't drive on the road at all. This may result in the opposite process in the comic, where small cars become forced to be smaller and more specialized to drive on sidewalks...until they just become bicycles again. Of course, the suggestion that small cars should drive on sidewalks is even worse than being on the road, as it would put many pedestrians in danger; this is already a legitimate complaint regarding the riding of cycles on footways, where this is not supposed to be done (and even where it is), due to thoughtless behaviour of some bike riders at a cost of increased risk of collisions with pedestrians, putting both in danger. Biking on sidewalks is currently illegal in many jurisdictions because of these risks.

Driving the smallest cars in pedestrian spaces is obviously absurd, but people suggest that bikes should do the same for their own safety (more often motorists might suggest this, pedestrians significantly less so). Forcing bicycles to be ridden on the sidewalk is the cheapest way to keep cyclists safe if we are not allowed to inconvenience drivers, but is a car-centric view that (like the comic shows) ahandons common sense and consideration for others and replaces it with a "might makes right" attitude and making it "somebody else's problem".

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

[The comic is made up of four panels, each featuring Cueball talking to Megan or vice versa, both of them surrounded by progressively larger vehicles.]

[Panel one is labeled "100 years ago." Cueball and Megan are standing with a bicycle to the left of them and an old-fashioned car to their right.]

Cueball: It's too dangerous riding a bike with these cars around. I should get a car, too.

[Panel two is labeled "50 years ago." Cueball and Megan are standing between a small hatchback (right) and a slightly larger sedan (left).]

Megan: Small cars are less safe in collisions with larger vehicles, so I should get a bigger one.

[Panel three is labeled "Today." Cueball and Megan are standing between a large SUV (left) and an even larger SUV (right).]

Cueball: Everyone has huge SUVs now. If I don't get the biggest one, I'm putting my family at risk.

[Panel four is labeled "Soon." Cueball and Megan are standing to the left of a massive SUV with metal plates bolted to its side, spiked panels attached to the front and back, and two giant spiked clubs hanging from a rotor on top of the car. Another massive spiked club is visible coming from the left of the panel, presumably attached to a similar car.]

Megan: If I don't install more whirling spike clubs, I'll be destroyed by all the other drivers who...

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

User talk:42.book.addict

2025-11-12T22:47:33Z

82.132.245.223: /* 1 */

<center>'''Archive 1'''</center>
<center>[[File:archive.png]]</center>
<center>For old and irrelevant messages, see my [[User talk:42.book.addict/archive|archive!]]</center>

== introductions ==
Just replying to your message (also dw no big deal for bothering me)
You click on your username and there should be an edit box. --[[User:1234231587678|1234231587678]] ([[User talk:1234231587678|talk]]) 04:58, 7 February 2024 (UTC)
:it says that i dont have permission to create the page…
:There is currently no text in this page. You can search for this page title in other pages, or search the related logs, but you do not have permission to create this page. it says [[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]] ([[User talk:42.book.addict|talk]]) 19:33, 7 February 2024 (UTC)

I think you might have to wait some time (like a timer) until you can edit your own page... I think I only got to edit my page after 1 month of creating my account.--[[User:1234231587678|1234231587678]] ([[User talk:1234231587678|talk]]) 21:31, 7 February 2024 (UTC)
:ok, thx [[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]] ([[User talk:42.book.addict|talk]]) 21:52, 7 February 2024 (UTC)

My guess on where you live is somewhere in the GMT zone, so United Kingdom.--[[User:1234231587678|1234231587678]] ([[User talk:1234231587678|talk]]) 03:43, 8 February 2024 (UTC)
:nope, im a california girl :) ([[User talk:42.book.addict|talk]]) 05:04, 8 February 2024 (UTC)

lol you never know with utc times --[[User:1234231587678|1234231587678]] ([[User talk:1234231587678|talk]]) 16:52, 8 February 2024 (UTC)

== Depends what you wanted to do... ==

Is the following what you intended? 
{{Userbox | border-c = #255 | border-s = 1 | info-s = 9 | id = [[File:trans_flag.png|45px]] | info = [[{{w|Transgender|This user is trans.}}]] | float = left }} 
{{clear}}...or is even the [[]] part not what you want?{{clear}}
{{Userbox | border-c = #255 | border-s = 1 | info-s = 9 | id = [[File:trans_flag.png|45px]] | info = {{w|Transgender|This user is trans.}} | float = left }} 
{{clear}}As brief a guide as I can manage:
*URL links use []. Although literal https://www.google.com will self-link without ''any'' wikimarkup, you probably don't want it to look like that most of the time.
** Just give the URL, as in <code><nowiki>[https://www.google.com]</nowiki></code>, to get a [https://www.google.com] (i.e. a reference number), not the best way to do it. It can be organised better with a 'References' section, but we don't do that here (they do on wikipedia, but usually with other bits to it.
** Better to give the URL and the text to use (after a space, a character that never appears raw in any proper URL). This can be <code><nowiki>[https://www.google.com Check It Out On Google!]</nowiki></code> or even <code><nowiki>[https://www.google.com https://www.microsoft.com (only kidding!)]</nowiki></code>, to give [https://www.google.com Check It Out On Google!] or [https://www.google.com https://www.microsoft.com (only kidding!)]... But perhaps best not to do the latter too much (I really didn't want to post that without the "(only kidding!)" part, in fact.)
*Internalised wikilinks use the [[]]s.
**Anything that can be found under the title, e.g. "2: Petit Trees (sketch)" (or, because of redirections, "2" and "Petit Trees (sketch)" go to the same spot, so <code><nowiki>[[2]], [[Petit Trees (sketch)]] and [[2: Petit Trees (sketch)]]</nowiki></code> gives you the literal links [[2]], [[Petit Trees (sketch)]] and [[2: Petit Trees (sketch)]]
**Or use <code><nowiki>[[2: Petit Trees (sketch)|that comic with the little trees]]</nowiki></code>, additional text separated by the 'pipe' symbol (i.e. "|"), to link to [[2: Petit Trees (sketch)|that comic with the little trees]]
**You can also link across to articles on other 'wikimedia family' sites, but I'm not going to try to summarise that, as the primary reason to do that is to go to an actual Wikipedia article, and there's a template set up to do that ''very'' nicely, already (and also a few other places, like Wiktionary, and some not-really-wikis with a similar philosphy like TVTropes). If in doubt, do it as a URL link ''or'' find a place where someone else has clearly markuped a link to the same site as you want to link to.
*So, anyway, Wikilink templates use the {{template|w}}-template, with one or two paramaters (pipe-separated). (It shortcuts the thing you'd maybe use [[]]s for
**Using <code><nowiki>{{w|article}}</nowiki></code> gives you a link to "{{w|Article}}" (it capitalises the first character, even if you don't)
**Using <code><nowiki>{{w|article|with alternate text}}</nowiki></code> gives you a link there but "{{w|article|with alternate text}}"
**If the article name has whitespace (or other 'URL-unfriendly' characters) in it, those characters in the URL (which you wouldn't want to use) will be rendered as something URL-friendly. The URL for "Whitespace (programming language)", for example, is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitespace_(programming_language) but you wouldn't normally use that so literally in any case, and definitely not when you can significanty shorten it with the {{template|w}} notation.
***What you can do is (without 'alternate link text') render it as <code><nowiki>{{w|Whitespace_(programming_language)}}</nowiki></code> - i.e. {{w|Whitespace_(programming_language)}} - but that's not nice to see 'rendered raw' when you ''want'' the spaces. You could give it alternate text via <code><nowiki>{{w|Whitespace_(programming_language)|Whitespace (programming language)}}</nowiki></code> to give {{w|Whitespace_(programming_language)|Whitespace (programming language)}} ...but that's wasteful and unnecessary.
***Instead, just do <code><nowiki>{{w|Whitespace (programming language)}}</nowiki></code> (that's the literal copy of the article's own page title, from the rendered page) - and shows as {{w|Whitespace (programming language)}} - which is good. Although <code><nowiki>{{w|Whitespace (programming language)|the programming language called Whitespace}}</nowiki></code> might be the best way to seemlessly link to {{w|Whitespace (programming language)|the programming language called Whitespace}} ...depends what you want to appear there.
***And you can link to header anchors pretty much ''like'' the URL of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitespace_(programming_language)#History by using <code><nowiki>{{w|Whitespace (programming language)#History|the history of Whitespace}}</nowiki></code> to have you show {{w|Whitespace (programming language)#History|the history of Whitespace}} or whatever else you might want to use.
**Also, for the use of a link which is singular but which you would like to include as the plural (usually the "...s" or "...es" version), you could use article-name first parameter and ''pluralised'' article name as second, but instead of <code><nowiki>{{w|Plural|Plurals}}</nowiki></code>, for a link to the {{w|Plural|Plurals}}, you can save yourself a lot of effort by doing <code><nowiki>{{w|Plural}}s</nowiki></code> to also give you a linke to {{w|Plural}}s. Magic, eh? And it also works with <code><nowiki>{{w|Ox}}en</nowiki></code> to link the different standard plural of {{w|Ox}}en to the article for "Ox" (better than linking to the word for {{w|Oxen}}, which ends up redirecting to {{w|Ox}} anyway).
...so, anyway, that's the basics. And a few not-so-basics. So if the solutions to your tagging issue aren't already solved (or even if they are!), you might have enough info here to kludge it into whatever form of infobox info text you ''really'' wanted to use. Ok? Probably far too much info for you to absorb in one go, but covers loads of interesting possibilities. About the only thing you don't want to do is wikilink straight to the word "trans", at that'll be a disambiguation page. And there's also no way (or reason?) to use the terms "trans man"/"trans woman" as the pluralised "trans men"/"trans women" versions via the "directly add the plural suffix" thing, of course. :P Anyway, FYI. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.38.217|162.158.38.217]] 20:40, 25 May 2024 (UTC)
::oh my god thank you so much [[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]] ([[User talk:42.book.addict|talk]]) 19:38, 27 May 2024 (UTC)

== Welcome back, Tori! ==

How's life? [[User:CalibansCreations|'''Caliban''']] ([[User talk:CalibansCreations|talk]]) 18:47, 1 December 2024 (UTC)
:Eh, it’s fine. I just came back from New York on a ''very'' stressful flight-missed the original one, did my Language Arts homework on the flight, and came back to California at 2 am. '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 16:26, 2 December 2024 (UTC)

== Comics with inverted brightness. ==

At the most arbitrary, I'd suggest that, just maybe, ''panes'' with inverted brightness fulfil the category requirements, or perhaps a bit of white text because it happens to be written on a more shaded bit of background, but I'm unsure that the {{diff|358698|lavatory signs}} strictly invoke inverted brightness (if real signs exist that are light-on-dark, which at least some of them are, this makes it an ''un''inverted depiction of one of them), and I'm unhappy with your (presumed) linking of this category for a {{diff|358691|tree silhouette}} (it shows the perfectly cromulant situation of bright sky behind a relatively dark tree, again not inverted, merely drawn for contrast).

An interesting example is something like [[811: Starlight]]. The stars (white spots on floodfilled black background) really shouldn't be considered inverted (black stars on white sky would be inverted; it's only that the category specifically mentions night ''and'' space scenes makes it valid from that perspective), but the text and stickfigures/etc ''are'' definitely inverted (all due to the background they're on).

It's just my opinion, but I don't think that any patch of black-floodfill (especially in just a fraction of a pane or two, within an otherwise normal multi-pane comic) around a white detail is automatically ripe for marking as inverted. I'll reluctantly accept "night sky" or "space" (but only with stars... no "entirely featureless black, through a window/porthole") as cause for being classed as Inverted, due to the category explanation. But feel that the true "inversion" is where there is [[566: Matrix Revisited|pane inversion]] which results in white text and/or (character) stickfigures upon black background as a definite contrast to 'normality'. Before you go too far with HotCatting some things that I'd feel compelled to revert (as I'm very tempted with the tree silhouette, and almost certain I should with the Gents-signs, for example...). [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.119|141.101.98.119]] 19:12, 5 December 2024 (UTC)

==Hey again, I know we have some bad blood but...==
Hey 42, it's Z1m. I know we haven't seen each other in a while (who am I kidding, it's a wiki; I meant talked) Can you do the little welcome thing so I can edit my talk page? Thanks! [[User:Maybe Bill Cipher|An anonymous Gravity Falls expert]] ([[User talk:Maybe Bill Cipher|talk]]) 19:26, 10 December 2024 (UTC)
:Why can’t you use your old account? '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 21:38, 10 December 2024 (UTC)
::I forgot my pass :skull: [[User:Maybe Bill Cipher|An anonymous Gravity Falls expert]] ([[User talk:Maybe Bill Cipher|talk]]) 22:33, 10 December 2024 (UTC)
:::SMH. Done. '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 22:37, 10 December 2024 (UTC)
::::Thanks! [[User:Maybe Bill Cipher|An anonymous Gravity Falls expert]] ([[User talk:Maybe Bill Cipher|talk]]) 22:42, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

==I FORGOT MY PASS AGAIN ASDFGHJK<SAHFJEWIUBEIUWDBHIVHJ==
Help :( [[User:Definitely Bill Cipher|Help I'm not OK]] ([[User talk:Definitely Bill Cipher|talk]]) 18:49, 13 December 2024 (UTC)
:''sigh'' '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 19:41, 13 December 2024 (UTC)
:I KNOW I'M A DINGUS DON'T LOOK AT ME LEAV EME TO MY BASIC YELLOW DORITO SHAME [[User:Definitely Bill Cipher|Do not click on this link if you wish to keep your soul]] ([[User talk:Definitely Bill Cipher|talk]])

==Hi (3==
Sorry if I'm bothering you too much, just wanted to say hi. {{unsigned|Definitely Bill Cipher|15:19, 17 December 2024 (UTC)}}
:Please sign your comments with <nowiki>~~~~</nowiki> '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 16:05, 17 December 2024 (UTC)
::Sorry [[User:Definitely Bill Cipher|A dream demon]] ([[User talk:Definitely Bill Cipher|talk]]) 19:10, 17 December 2024 (UTC)
:::It’s fine, as long as you remember. '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 20:51, 17 December 2024 (UTC)
::::So, uh... do you wanna take this to my talk page and we can talk or... [[User:Definitely Bill Cipher|A dream demon]] ([[User talk:Definitely Bill Cipher|talk]]) 21:18, 17 December 2024 (UTC)

==Congrats==
:I checked and you're the contributor today that has made the most edits. I'm on the leaderboard too, but not in the top three *0(*. Anyway, I just wanted to congratulate you. Talk to me anytime! [[User:Definitely Bill Cipher|⯅A dream demon⯅]] ([[User talk:Definitely Bill Cipher|talk]]) 15:52, 19 December 2024 (UTC)
::Ok, that’s nice. I’ve stopped viewing Contribution Scores as a measurement of my editing ability-it only measures how many points and how many pages I have edited, not the quality of my edits or how much of an impact they have on the wiki. A bot can spam and get onto the All-Time Top 50 Leaderboard, but that's not reflective of its helpfulness (none). '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 16:49, 19 December 2024 (UTC)
:::I remain free from all such objectivity by staying firmly off the list. I ''could'' flatter myself that I deserve a place, for all my (useful?) work over the last 10+ years, but... no definitive tallying and I don't even fool myself that this statement can be believed. Which is liberating. No temptation to "edit for editing's sake", and remaining blissfully unaware how much time I must have spent not doing ''other'' important things. But that's just me (assuming you accept my account), and please don't consider this as downplaying the known-and-named contributors (current and past) who have made a more attributable contribution. Horses for courses. You (both) be you, and who knows where any of us might be in another ten years; hopefully managing to create a net positive outcome for the world, as the only thing that ''anybody'' should aspire to.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.43.182|172.69.43.182]] 17:18, 19 December 2024 (UTC)

== Bluey news just dropped. ==

https://youtu.be/ititZcuih8E?si=_9ceRfwc52qfa5Tu [[User:CalibansCreations|'''Caliban''']] ([[User talk:CalibansCreations|talk]]) 20:23, 19 December 2024 (UTC)
:NOOOO '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 21:25, 19 December 2024 (UTC)
::wait, what?--[[User:Bb777|me, hi]] ([[User talk:Bb777|talk]]) 16:53, 3 April 2025 (UTC)

== Deleting User Talk Pages ==
I noticed that you added some user talk pages into the pages to be deleted category. Even if they are an IP address and only have one comment, they still probably shouldn't be deleted. I only noticed because you had marked my talk page. [[User:Firestar233|guess who]] ([[User talk:Firestar233|if you want to]] | [[Special:Contributions/Firestar233|what i have done]]) 09:19, 1 January 2025 (UTC)
:As I commented over on your page (sorry, didn't spot this, yet), I think that it's perfectly legitimate to correct (by ''requesting'' deletion) the creation of IP-based User and User Talk namespace pages. The intended source/target can never make any proper use of them, and they are instead left open to disproportionately high chance of ''improper'' use.
:IPs ''may'' have been more reliably associated with particular login-less users (such as myself) in the earliest days of the site, but it's not just the current proxy-provider that makes it likely that anyone coming here is effectively randomised. A 2015-era commentator almost certainly doesn't have the exact same IP ''from their ISP'' (which is Cloudflared away, anyway), unless they've taken great trouble to maintain statically upon it, and that's presuming that they haven't switched providers and/or routing hardware in the last decade, to further muddle it up.
:So far, I haven't seen any communications to a User Talk:<IP> page that deserves preserving (and User:<IP> stuff tends to be worse, thankfully rarer), but if a named user (who may or may not be currently active, or have had their own Talk page) contributes anything 'untrivial' then you could perhaps copy it to their own (newly created, if necessary?) user-page, or to whatever article Talk page it's identifiably about. Admonations not to delete Incomplete-templates and nice messages of agreement about some Conan-related link-finding are not al all that level of preservable conversation (well, not even a dialogue, as they weren't even acknowledged!), as 'recent' examples.
:Anyway, marking for deletion still requires that someone ''actually'' deletes them. Currently, '42' can't do that. (They're clearly eager to be helpful, but not yet admin-material.) Realistically, it will need someone else to actually do that bit. And I think the current 'someone else' concerned isn't overly eager to delete things not related to more current unwanted contributions. I'd have done a bit more cleaning up, myself, but by deliberately having kept out of consideration for such responsibiity, it's not something I should actively complain about. ;) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.186|141.101.98.186]] 13:00, 1 January 2025 (UTC)

==Hiiiii==
:Heya, 42! Just wanted to check in because I left for winter break and I thought 'I wonder how she's doing?'
:If I'm being annoying, you can just say so and I'll leave you alone.
:Anyway, I'm gonna go comic hop. Talk to me anytime! [[User:Definitely Bill Cipher|⯅A dream demon⯅]] ([[User talk:Definitely Bill Cipher|Come and talk!]]) 15:15, 7 January 2025 (UTC)
::I’m fine. I went skiing in {{w|Heavenly Mountain Resort|Tahoe}} 5 days during winter break and also went to {{w|Point Reyes Station}}. '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 22:50, 7 January 2025 (UTC)
:::Cool, if you wanna talk I'm here (3 [[User:Definitely Bill Cipher|⯅A dream demon⯅]] ([[User talk:Definitely Bill Cipher|talk]]) 15:35, 9 January 2025 (UTC)

== I heard about the wildfires. ==

Are you safe? Are you alright? [[User:CalibansCreations|'''Caliban''']] ([[User talk:CalibansCreations|talk]]) 08:43, 8 January 2025 (UTC)
:That’s SoCal, not the Bay Area, so I’m all good. '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 10:10, 8 January 2025 (UTC)

== Any luck with Jeff? ==

It’s been a while since you’ve put up the “banner” on your page. Has he responded yet? [[User:Apollo11|Apollo11]] ([[User talk:Apollo11|talk]]) 22:23, 8 January 2025 (UTC)
:Nope. I’ve emailed Davidy22 and he responded, but he doesn’t have server access. I tried on Gmail, Reddit, X, asked @ActuallyBerg from [[explain xkcd#History|the old forum]] who’s apparently a friend with Jeff on both X and Bluesky. '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 22:25, 8 January 2025 (UTC)
::Damn… that’s slightly (very) worrying. Good job for trying tho [[User:Apollo11|Apollo11]] ([[User talk:Apollo11|talk]]) 22:57, 8 January 2025 (UTC)
:::Yeah…I’m just going to keep on trying, seeing if I can solve some of the problems remotely. Not too sure what much I can do about the ‘crat situation though. '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 22:59, 8 January 2025 (UTC)
::::Well good luck [[User:Apollo11|Apollo11]] ([[User talk:Apollo11|talk]]) 23:07, 8 January 2025 (UTC)

== {{w|WP:REMOVED}} ==
kindly stop adding it back. thank you. [[user talk:lett‪herebedarklight|youtu.be/miLcaqq2Zpk]] 15:53, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
:very well. '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 16:05, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
::ok, that's the limit. {{w|WP:NOBAN|don't post on my talk page again.}} if you wish to fiddle with minutae, go to wikipedia, where that sort of thing is appreciated. i'll also note that no one else has complained about my signature, only you. [[user talk:lett‪herebedarklight|youtu.be/miLcaqq2Zpk]] 10:13, 11 January 2025 (UTC)
:::touche. to be honest, grabbing at your throat for a simple signature issue got a bit boring after a couple days. have a nice day! '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 11:28, 11 January 2025 (UTC)

== Talk Page added to "pages to delete ==
Hey, I noticed you added my talk page to the "pages to delete" category. Why? I don't really want my talk page deleted. Qoiuoiuoiu (talk) 16:29, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
:Sorry, changed it. '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 17:58, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
::If you want my advice (no reason you do...), do a little more checking of the page history. ''And'' that of the partner page (compare User: <-> User Talk), where it exists. You might find a few of the ones that you marked for deleting weren't created, unused and abandoned, but actually 'in use' (even if not directly).
::You're eager, and I still completely support IP-related pages being marked for deletion (remembering that you don't have the power to ''actually'' delete them... which is probably a relief to a small handful of actal users, like the above), but maybe dial it back a bit so that you don't make a few more taggings that need to be reverted... Build up a personal 'hitlist', maybe, but do more poking around and keep it down to a handful of the 'best' candidaates that you find, not a couple of a dozen in quick order, which I think you did yesterday.... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.25|162.158.74.25]]
:::I did check the Page history of [[User talk:Qoiuoiuoiu]] though, and saw that it was created by [[User:While False]]. I also checked the User Page, and saw that it was edited slightly to change While False’s announcement. Because the entire purpose of [[User talk:Qoiuoiuoiu]] was to presumably reduce red links, I tagged [[:Category:Pages to delete]]. Checking page history and user pages honestly doesn’t take that much time, and I checked them for every single page (I think). Upon [[User:Qoiuoiuoiu|Qoiuoiuoiu’s]] complaint, I removed the Category and added a comment so that the talk page has a purpose. I believe that I was in the right to tag them in this case, and that is my decision. Although I do like the idea of the “hitlist”, and will create one. '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 19:46, 10 January 2025 (UTC)

== Bluey ==

I can't believe you watch a ''children's'' show like Bluey. You should watch an ''adult'' show, like my personal favourite, {{w|My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic}} ;). [[User:Beanie|Beanie]] [[User talk:Beanie|talk]] 19:38, 11 January 2025 (UTC)
:[https://gamejolt.com/games/sonic/783884 nah I'm sending you to the green hills for that one buddy] /j [[User:CalibansCreations|'''Caliban''']] ([[User talk:CalibansCreations|talk]]) 20:39, 11 January 2025 (UTC)
:LMFAOOO '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 22:38, 11 January 2025 (UTC)

== "Shared named" comics... ==

Not too sure about the shared-name status for "Advent Calendar", "Advent Calendar Advent Calendar" and "Advent" (more clear if there was "Advent Calendars", the AVAV ''might'' be deemed a copy (literally!) of AV, but it'd be a stretch to link the A to the AV and thus also the AVAV), but you can't really put just one comic in the Shared Name category, can you? If you're happy for it, then do it for all of them. And, when you do, might be a good idea to put the markup comment after the category membership tag with an explanation of which one(s) you're linking it with, to avoid random editors getting the wrong idea (or ''no'' idea) on spotting it... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.33.252|162.158.33.252]] 00:26, 12 January 2025 (UTC)

== Why do you have a hitlist? ==

Please don't put me on there 😭😭😭 [[User:CalibansCreations|'''Caliban''']] ([[User talk:CalibansCreations|talk]]) 13:53, 17 January 2025 (UTC)
:It’s for user pages/talk pages to delete. It’s fine, you’re fine, everybody’s fine (except for me i have a flu) '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 23:59, 17 January 2025 (UTC)
::Ykkkkkk, I bet Jeff’s heir would be easier to contact… Just saying…… [[User:Apollo11|Apollo11]] ([[User talk:Apollo11|talk]]) 17:01, 18 January 2025 (UTC)
:::which would be the next ‘crat with server control, someone who doesn’t exist yet since Jeff still needs to promote them. '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 23:17, 18 January 2025 (UTC)
:::: dammit [[User:Apollo11|Apollo11]] ([[User talk:Apollo11|talk]]) 15:53, 20 January 2025 (UTC)

==We're cooked==
You-know-who became president on MLK Day. We're so cooked, 42. [[User:Definitely Bill Cipher|⯅A dream demon⯅]] ([[User talk:Definitely Bill Cipher|talk]]) 19:23, 22 January 2025 (UTC)
:as a Brit I too am concerned [[User:CalibansCreations|'''Caliban''']] ([[User talk:CalibansCreations|talk]]) 14:36, 30 January 2025 (UTC)
::Yeh i'm scared [[User:Definitely Bill Cipher|⯅A dream demon⯅]] ([[User talk:Definitely Bill Cipher|talk]]) 15:21, 31 January 2025 (UTC)
:::yayyyyy politics [[User:Apollo11|Apollo11]] ([[User talk:Apollo11|talk]]) 16:38, 31 January 2025 (UTC)

== Different name in ContributionScores? ==

Hi 42

I just realized that in the [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Special:ContributionScores ContributionScores] you are listed as Victoria. How come you manage to have two different names on this wiki? Is that some error? It is confusing at least.

Keep up the good work --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:20, 4 February 2025 (UTC)
:I noticed that too! What's your secret?--[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 15:06, 4 February 2025 (UTC)
::haha, there’s no secret. my name’s victoria, but i also go by tori. that’s why if you look up at old messages, some people refer to me as victoria or tori. if you want to keep on calling me 42, or 42.book.addict, that’s completely fine! '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 16:05, 4 February 2025 (UTC)
:::Yeah I guess what i was asking is how you managed to change your name on the leaderboard! I can't figure it out haha. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 17:11, 4 February 2025 (UTC)
::::oh, that’s easy-you just change it in your preferences. find the real name box, and input whatever you want. some people might find it confusing, and you might need to explain to people the difference, like this converstaion right now. '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 17:18, 4 February 2025 (UTC)
:::::Oh, cool! Thanks. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 17:53, 4 February 2025 (UTC)

:Well if it is a part of the wiki I guess it is fine. But I think it is a bit confusing that we cannot see the user name of the person on the leaderboard. So it would be great if the name in the leader-board could also change to 42. But I guess that is not possible? As you know I'm made an admin, but also I have way to little knowledge of programming and wiki etc. And full time job, other hobbies and two kids, one of which seems to be older than 42. So it is not your age, but 42 comes from your love of Hitchhikers Guide to the galaxy? (Big fan me-self). Impressive the amount of work you have put into the wiki in such a short time. I have been a member since October 2013. I still remember [[Talk:30: Donner|my first comment]] on explain, actually made it before I signed up and then added my signature after signing up a few days later ;-) Back then I used much more time on explain. Had actually not intended to become admin. But second time I was asked, and with no active admins I accepted. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:39, 5 February 2025 (UTC)
::Oh, nice! Never knew that you were a parent. i ''could'' remove the Victoria from the leaderboard by blanking my real name in preferences, but honestly, I’d rather not. There are tons of other people with a situation like this, and I don’t think that it’ll cause much confusion. I’m always happy to explain why it’s listed as Victoria or not! (BTW, Victoria is literally on my User Page) '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 16:20, 5 February 2025 (UTC)
:::Well we usually do not now much about each other and I had not read your user page before I found out you where also Victoria. Not sure what you mean by Victoria being on you user page. I searched on it and found no hit for Victoria... But no big problem. Just a bit confusing. Just stay on the leaderboard. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:26, 9 February 2025 (UTC)
::::weird...i could've sworn that i added it to my user page. i'll add it now to try to reduce confusion in the future. '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 17:09, 9 February 2025 (UTC)

== You into Friday Night Funkin? ==

tldr it's a silly Newgrounds-inspired rhythm game with literally hundreds if not thousands of mods. you should get into it if you're not already

[[User:CalibansCreations|'''Caliban''']] ([[User talk:CalibansCreations|talk]]) 11:19, 18 February 2025 (UTC)
:moved this to the bottom so you'd be more likely to see this haha [[User:CalibansCreations|'''Caliban''']] ([[User talk:CalibansCreations|talk]]) 11:03, 17 April 2025 (UTC)
::no-i don’t play rhythm games. moved it back up for chronological order. '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 16:34, 18 April 2025 (UTC)

== Contacting Randall ==

Hey Victoria! Sorry to hear about your mental health issues, I hope you're getting better.

Here's some good news: I tried contacting Randall to ask him when he replaced comic [[36: Scientists]], and he replied! It's weird that Randall is easier to reach than the owner of this wiki... You can read the conversation and a summary of what happened [[User:FaviFake|on my user page]]. Among other things, he gave me the official release date, April 28th, and, after I asked, he told me he might reply to more simple questions! If you have some technical or administrative questions, I could ask them directly to him. If you're curious, there are more details about this [[User:FaviFake|here]]. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 18:32, 21 February 2025 (UTC)

==oof==
:I'm so sorry, 42. I go to therapy and picked up a couple things, so if you need me, I'm here. You can leave a message on my talk page anytime and we can yap about whatever. Hang in there 0) [[User:Definitely Bill Cipher|⯅A dream demon⯅]] ([[User talk:Definitely Bill Cipher|talk]]) 15:35, 27 February 2025 (UTC)

== Uncooperating User ==

Hi 42 
You originally wrote regarding [[User talk:Lettherebedarklight]] here: [[explain_xkcd:Community_portal/Admin_requests#Uncooperating_User|Uncooperating User]] 
I warned him not to change his signature to a link and also not deleting his talk page. But he has not complied. But now I saw your comment on his user page, after I rolled back his latest deletion... Regarding wiki policy. And since I do not go much into this I need some help here. I do not have time to read up on this. I'm just so unlucky as to be the only admin still active here... Not by my own wish. Maybe FaviFake should also say something here? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 06:39, 5 March 2025 (UTC)
:I believe this is what's happening: 42 originally noticed the user's signature, which is clearly a violation of the Wikipedia policy, and you warned them. They didn't cooperate, and then you warned them again, but this time you also told them to not blank their talk page (and to not redirect it), which wasn't among the things 42 pointed out. Because of this, she mentioned they're allowed to blank their talk page and redirect it to their user page, but not to have a signature that looks like an external link. And now, as you can see in [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=User:FaviFake&diff=367780&oldid=367750 this edit of theirs], they have done both things. The signature is not allowed, but blanking their page is. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 16:56, 5 March 2025 (UTC)
::But if they blanck their talk page, then I cannot discuss the issues that are in violation of with their signature. So how can this be an acceptable conduct. Maybe blanking their user page but not the talk page...? As far as I can see his signature link still go to his user talk page, and not to the rickroll link, you have to copy paste that to get rolled... But if it is a problem, should I then block him for being uncooperative? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 11:52, 7 March 2025 (UTC)
:::I don't know, 42 pointed it out because she was confused by the link. i'm not really an expert in Wikipedia policy either. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 18:22, 7 March 2025 (UTC)

== Formatting ==

Just wondering why you're using awkward formatting on your user page when you could easier use:
*Foo
*Bar
**Baz subthing
**Bat subthing
*Flibble
...etc? No need for BRs and NBSPs. Can be combined with colon-leveling (though can also replace it). Swap *s for #s to get (nested) numbered lists, or *# for indented numbers with #* continuing the numbers around sub-bullets (starts to get complicated, but it's an option) if you decided you need to. Maybe it's a choice you're making, but FYI if you haven't already picked up the bullet-point syntax in all your time here. 
Anyway, just perhaps whilst you're active again. No problem if you don't make use of this information now/ever. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.133|172.71.178.133]] 07:56, 9 April 2025 (UTC)
:I never knew that-thank you! '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 15:55, 9 April 2025 (UTC)

== so why do you wanna to delete [[user talk:物灵]]? ==

he and i were both from another website. i chose to chat with him here because i don't want Zhou Chenxiao to revert my edit. why you want to delete? [[User:Translated ORK|Translated ORK]] ([[User talk:Translated ORK|talk]]) 09:56, 21 April 2025 (UTC)
:I will say this, here, in case you don't get to read my other note. This is not a refugee camp for conversations displaced from elsewhere. There's not even any chat goin on because it's all just you. (If there's another site where ''he'' is one-sidedly 'replying' to ''you'' , then I bet that place is equally bemused and unamused.)
:I can't speak for 42, but I'm not surprised someone else here wants to do that.
:Elsewhere you talk of Free Speech, but I think you might be confused. As well as the ''{{w|Gratis versus libre}}'' issue, this extends to what is written below any submission you are making: "Please note that all contributions to explain xkcd may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors." Consensus may decide that the point you make is not worth the having been made. (Later, consensus may also decide that a removal/re-edit is bad and ''restore'' it, but that is a community issue to resolve.)
:This is as close to democracy as we can get (but, unlike the ''original'' democracy, we also let women and all kinds of other people 'vote'! ;) ), with shades of anarchy and the only totalitarian elements being when certain pages are locked-down/deleted by a designated admin who is probably acting upon community feeling (or on behalf of it, seeing where it is heading). It's a system that works (mostly hands-off). And you still can't falsely shout "Fire!" in a crowded theater without push-back. Does that make sense? (@UT, also @42...) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.26.36|172.71.26.36]] 10:50, 21 April 2025 (UTC)
::Seconded. I explicitly said in my edit summary that I deleted the content for being off-topic. Thanks to the IP for responding for me! '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 15:20, 21 April 2025 (UTC)
:::Thirded. (Is that a word?) --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 06:26, 22 April 2025 (UTC)

==Welcome Back!==
I'm unsure as to whether we've met. I think we were editing at the same time for a period. Anyways, hello Tori (if I may call you that). Welcome back to the wiki! :) --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al |DollarStoreBa'al]][[User talk:DollarStoreBa'al |'''''Converse''''']][[Special:Contributions/DollarStoreBa'al|'''''My life choices''''']] 14:14, 26 August 2025 (UTC)
:hi, thanks so much for the welcome! '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 03:59, 27 August 2025 (UTC)
::Please see my user page.--'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al |DollarStoreBa'al]][[User talk:DollarStoreBa'al |'''''Converse''''']][[Special:Contributions/DollarStoreBa'al|'''''My life choices''''']] 16:42, 27 August 2025 (UTC)
:::Thank you for your apology. And it's no big deal with my time-bio's boring anyways lol '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 16:43, 27 August 2025 (UTC)

==Mark April Fool's Sandbox for deletion?==
[[User:Aprilfoolsupdate!/Sandbox]] should be marked for deletion, I feel. It has been removed from his watchlist and provides nothing useful to the wiki. [[Special:Contributions/204.137.100.1|204.137.100.1]] 15:04, 28 August 2025 (UTC)
:Deleted by --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 19:20, 29 August 2025 (UTC)

== From /sig Talk Page (adminship) ==

Just so you know, 42, you'd make a great admin. --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al|DollarStoreBa'al]][[User_talk:DollarStoreBa'al|'''''converse''''']] 18:18, 28 August 2025 (UTC)

==An odd question for someone who would know the answer==

Would it be allowed if you created a template for your sig (e.g. 42sig/DSBSig?) Could be useful for those with long usernames. --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al|DollarStoreBa'al]][[User_talk:DollarStoreBa'al|'''''converse''''']] 15:59, 29 August 2025 (UTC)
:why would you need a template? <nowiki>~~~~</nowiki> works just fine... '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 16:17, 29 August 2025 (UTC)
::Well, it would allow for more characters. This is why I ask, as both you and I have had issues setting up signatures due to long usernames. Setting your signature up as <nowiki>{{SigTemplateName}}</nowiki> in preferences would have it automatically display your signature when typing <nowiki>~~~~</nowiki>. --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al|DollarStoreBa'al]][[User_talk:DollarStoreBa'al|'''''converse''''']] 16:20, 29 August 2025 (UTC)
:::More characters ''would'' be nice, but creating a bunch of templates only available for use for a single person would be less than ideal. What if we had a template called "sig", and inside was wikitext encoded so that when we called <nowiki>{{sig|User:XYZ}}</nowiki>; it could paste in the custom signature for XYZ? This is a pretty interesting idea-I'll reach out on the proposals portal and ask FaviFake to see if there's support for this. '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 16:32, 29 August 2025 (UTC)
::::That.... That could work! Great idea! --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al|DollarStoreBa'al]][[User_talk:DollarStoreBa'al|'''''converse''''']] 16:34, 29 August 2025 (UTC)
:::::A bonus of that is that it's basically a sig museum, where you can browse other people's sigs and get inspired by them. There is the downside of people being able to edit other's sigs tho. --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al|DollarStoreBa'al]][[User_talk:DollarStoreBa'al|'''''converse''''']] 16:37, 29 August 2025 (UTC)
::::::The idea of a sig museum is actually super cool-we could also add interesting signatures that were used by other users before to put on showcase. We could also make it so that only autoconfirmed users can edit it (and there's enough active users that any vandalism would probably be reverted quickly enough). '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 16:43, 29 August 2025 (UTC)
:::::::Honestly, forgot about that. I wonder what they say. FaviFake hasn't been active in a bit, so maybe we could reach out to kynde? --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al|DollarStoreBa'al]][[User_talk:DollarStoreBa'al|'''''converse''''']] 17:17, 29 August 2025 (UTC)
::::::::It's probably fine. Contribution history says that it's only been a week-he very well may be on vacation or too busy to work. Give it some time. '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 18:16, 29 August 2025 (UTC)
:::::::::I know, it's just weird. I've almost never seen FaviFake not edit for more than a day. {{unsigned|DollarStoreBa'al|19:14, 29 August 2025 (UTC)}}
::::::::::hi im back. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 14:26, 31 August 2025 (UTC)
::::::::::Go check the proposals board! '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 19:16, 29 August 2025 (UTC)
:I have seen you proposal and I must say I really hope you are not planning on making this your signature fro now on 42!
:<nowiki>42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]</nowiki>
:It is very confusing for the next editor, and I just tried to comment on your proposal when you posted it and could not understand what I was seeing in the editor (as I got there first because of edit conflict). Please stop using this as your signature! --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 19:22, 29 August 2025 (UTC)
::Got it. I'll change it and see if I can find another solution. '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 19:33, 29 August 2025 (UTC)
:::I personally think we should move forward with the template idea. That way, the wikitext would show <nowiki>{{sig|UserXYZ}}</nowiki> instead of the full wikitext. --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al|DollarStoreBa'al]][[User_talk:DollarStoreBa'al|'''''converse''''']] 19:42, 29 August 2025 (UTC)
::::Also, I created a pride sig that is almost 1400 characters long.... yeah we need a way to not show the full wikitext. --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al|DollarStoreBa'al]][[User_talk:DollarStoreBa'al|'''''converse''''']] 19:44, 29 August 2025 (UTC)
::::Sorry for the late reply. I think that we should '''''not''''' go ahead with the template idea. It's unnecessary and will clog up the server, both in readability and server load. Please look at my response in the proposals board. Thanks! '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 19:06, 3 September 2025 (UTC)

== "fact" template (un)tagging. ==

The <nowiki>{{fact}}</nowiki> template was (it was deleted? I missed that!) redirected to the <nowiki>{{Citation needed}}</nowiki> template. I think maybe replacing the "fact" with "Citation needed" might have been a better change than nowiki-ing the now-broken tags, in the cases you did that.

And then there were all the demonstrative examples (two or three in things I historically wrote, I notice, in various Talk: pages... under a historical range of IPs). Assuming you really want to edit other people's signed Talk contributions at all (not generally done, though I'm ambivalent about you 'tidying up' things where I only included "fact" as then-current, alongside the other examples), it would seem to be no more work to just refactor the phrasings to no longer have that in the list of (say) {{template|citation needed}}, {{template|Citation Needed}}, {{template|cn}}, etc, to no great loss of meaning.

But I appreciate you probably took some time to hunt down all <nowiki>{{fact}}</nowiki> examples (and at least one <nowiki>{{template|fact}}</nowiki>, I think). Plus the Fact/CN set of tags ''are'' sometimes overused, IMO, so a few less versions (put almost everywhere that anyone vaguely thought amusing) is certainly gratifying from ''that'' perspective. ;) [[Special:Contributions/82.132.245.43|82.132.245.43]] 22:55, 10 September 2025 (UTC)

==It's alright :)==
None taken :) I myself know I am prone to that sort of thing. --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al|DollarStoreBa'al]][[User_talk:DollarStoreBa'al|converse]] 19:18, 16 September 2025 (UTC)
:sorry, what? '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 19:57, 16 September 2025 (UTC)
::Second item on the hitlist. Sorry about the confusion. --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al|DollarStoreBa'al]][[User_talk:DollarStoreBa'al|converse]] 19:59, 16 September 2025 (UTC)
:::Ah, I see. It's no problem! '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 20:02, 16 September 2025 (UTC)

==So, about that wikitext signature...==
Yeah... I wanna make it red and yellow with (talk) replaced by (yap here) and it's in Comic Sans... if you could help me out please. [[User:Definitely Bill Cipher|⯅A dream demon⯅]] ([[User talk:Definitely Bill Cipher|talk]]) 20:24, 19 September 2025 (UTC)
:Ok, I'll work on it if I find the time! Shouldn't take me more than 5-10 minutes though '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 04:34, 22 September 2025 (UTC)
:It really depends on the shades of red and yellow you want. Use <nowiki>yap here</nowiki> for each of the colors you want. Search 'google color picker' on Google and it gives you a hex code finder. I do not know how those fonts work though...--'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al|DollarStoreBa'al]][[User_talk:DollarStoreBa'al|converse]] 17:22, 26 September 2025 (UTC)
:Fonts... well, if you put in a style to with with "Comic Sans", then you probably want to try a style element like <code>font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', 'Chalkboard SE', 'Comic Neue', sans-serif;</code>, because not everywhere will have (perhaps not want!) MS Comic Sans and you would have to fail-back to various alternatives and (if all else fails) whatever generic SS font there is.
:Personally, though I'd not bother. Comic Sans is pretty much a Marmite font, and trying hard to make ''everyone'' experience something like the marmite taste (even those who normally do not) could annoy people.
:It'd also take up a lot of your allowable 'signature length quota' to add these (and more?) fail-throughs to the appropriate list. Though you could just give the single correct font ''for you'', and accept that it just won't do anything out of the ordinary for other people, too (which probably suits them down to the ground).
:Oh, and I'd also ''never'' recommend that you upload anything that you want in a personally-chosen font as an image, and embed that image as a pixel-perfect (but accessibility-deficient and text-scale-non-respecting!) alternative. [[Special:Contributions/92.17.62.87|92.17.62.87]] 00:10, 27 September 2025 (UTC)
I'd also never recommend that you upload anything that you want in a personally-chosen font as an image
::100% (it also breaks enwiki's signature policies) --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 12:57, 29 September 2025 (UTC)

==Is this wiki dying?==
Lately, I've noticed a gradual decrease in the amount of daily contributions. Have you been noticing this too, or is that just me? --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al|DollarStoreBa'al]][[User_talk:DollarStoreBa'al|converse]] 14:32, 3 November 2025 (UTC)
:If I may contribute, ahead of 42... It's been busier and it's been quieter, even just within both of your own usernames' 'lifetimes'. Perhaps more (fellow, but clearly not as long-term) IPs, but hard to tell since whatever happened to not squash us down into the Cloudfare gateway IP ranges, etc.
:New comics still don't stay unExplained for long. And there's not so much traffic, or indeed vanalism in the worst cases, that it's hard to keep on top of anything that arises. I'd say there's still a community, albeit loose and ad hoc (in different ways to other online communities I'm party to, or have been).
:But I've not emperically compared 'now' with any given historical snapshots. This is just my impression. Please do this, if you feel like it. The number of edits done on yesterday's date, in prior years, perhaps. Or the dates of the past week, to even out the spikes on 'comic days' vs non-comic days. ''Might'' show year-on-year fluctuations, together with background noise.
:...sorry, meant to say less, not to totally pre-empt Victoria. But maybe she still has things to say, perhaps even in total disagreement with my above thoughts! [[Special:Contributions/82.132.239.95|82.132.239.95]] 15:48, 3 November 2025 (UTC)
::I mostly agree with these sentiments. I do feel like we used to have a more active past and would work fervently on documenting large projects such as April Fool's comics, Hoverboard, Time, etc. We do have a bit of backlog on Collector's Edition, but we put in a LOT of work into the What If? project. Places that we should tackle are probably the less known xkcd pages, secret comics, and of course Collector's Edition.
::Personally, I've had a lot less time to dedicate towards working on this project just because of how busy I am. I've had midterms, projects, and sports to juggle, resulting in almost no free time that I can spend. Circumstances change. Maybe other editors are also getting more busy. Who knows? Anyways, this isn't a race. We don't have any deadlines to reach, so any progress we make, regardless of pace, is good. '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 19:58, 3 November 2025 (UTC)

==1==
54 52 41 4f 53 4e 49 53 53 49 4g 4f 20 4g 4f 45 20 4g 46 20 46 4g 55 52 3b 20 58 56 45 52

XIP EPFTO'U MPWF B GFX NPSF OVNCFST
:What? --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al|DollarStoreBa'al]][[User Talk:DollarStoreBa'al|Converse]] 21:08, 12 November 2025 (UTC)
::There may be (intentional?) coding errors in that top one. Or it was double-encoded, thanks to the lower one. So my advice is to crack the second one first.
::But fairly trivial, both of them.
::You can probably do the second in your head, by a single easy step, once you work out what does and doesn't matter.
::The first is a bit more technical, it helps if you're used to low-level data storage (ok, probably not actually in your wheelhouse, but not too hard to discover) ''and'' initially needs to be have the second code's thing unapplied to it to make logical sense.
::My advice is to have fun working it out. And expect three more (or two... but I don't think the second is "the second") to look at, if the author is true to their word. [[Special:Contributions/82.132.244.30|82.132.244.30]] 21:25, 12 November 2025 (UTC)
:::Huh. The first bit almost reminds me of a hexadecimal, but that doesn't have 'g'
:::Second part is shifted ROT1 in a Caesar Cipher (used a decoder). Translates to 'WHO DOESN'T LOVE A FEW MORE NUMBERS'. --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al|DollarStoreBa'al]][[User Talk:DollarStoreBa'al|Converse]] 21:39, 12 November 2025 (UTC)
::::Update: CacheSleuth's multi decoder thinks top line is a bacon cipher. No clue. --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al|DollarStoreBa'al]][[User Talk:DollarStoreBa'al|Converse]] 21:43, 12 November 2025 (UTC)
:::::Remember, I said that the second cipher had probably been applied also to the first. You're closer to the solution than you think. ;) [[Special:Contributions/82.132.244.30|82.132.244.30]] 21:48, 12 November 2025 (UTC)
{{outdent|:::::}}
Are you behind this? Anyway, I'll try to apply a ROT-1, then see if it decides from hex. --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al|DollarStoreBa'al]][[User Talk:DollarStoreBa'al|Converse]] 22:21, 12 November 2025 (UTC)
:Results! TRANSMISSION ONE OF FOUR: XVER.
:I wonder what XVER means... --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al|DollarStoreBa'al]][[User Talk:DollarStoreBa'al|Converse]] 22:24, 12 November 2025 (UTC)
::Not me, I was just nerdsniped. Note that the next one popped up on Favi's pages. It also has a nonsense final 'word', meaning yet to be resolved.
::If you prefer to keep talking about it, here, I'll pop back later and see if you've figured it out (I know what it is, but not why it is!), without necessarily spoiling it right now.
::(PS, sorry, 42, I know you're probably not involved in this, maybe not interested even. Ba'al: Unless we hear from 42, if you're wanting to keep looking at this, maybe transfer the conversation/copy the original items over to your space? Obviously I've got nowhere better for it, but its up to you and you're interested in this now.) [[Special:Contributions/82.132.245.223|82.132.245.223]] 22:47, 12 November 2025 (UTC)

User talk:FaviFake

2025-11-12T22:30:11Z

82.132.245.223: /* 2 */

[[#jumpb|''(jump to bottom)'']]
<big><big><big><big>Hey there, feel free to '''[https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=User_talk:FaviFake&action=edit&section=new send me a message]''' :)</big></big></big><div style="float:right;margin-left:10px;margin-bottom:10px;">__TOC__</div></big>

== Objects table ==
Thanks for replying. The current table in the main text looks good, but still it is a ''description'' or just ''enumeration'' of game objects, not an ''explanation'' (or in some cases: partly an explanation). Supposing we keep the current structure, it is possible to add explanations for the planet names in the '''Explanation''' column. For example, first sentence of the second paragraph is a good ''explanation'' for the Uzumaki planet's name. On the other hand, Andal has only a ''description'' (what it looks like and what features are present on the surface) and no ''explanation'' (that it refers to Animorphs series of books). There's also a question where one should put explanations of items and messages. Some do not need an explanation ('You found a stick'), but most do: what they mean and what they refer to, both in xkcd context (such as when there's a comic about the thing) and in general context. I hope you understand the difference between ''description'' and ''explanation''. Maybe there's also some misunderstanding resulting from a language barrier; English is not my native language.

What is also missing in the table are many structures or objects found on the planets and, most importantly, dialogues or monologous of the characters, which contain many puns and references, and also hints for the player. There's simply no place for them in the current structure. Making more columns may be messsy. That's why I proposed making several tables covering different aspects.

Please take my remarks as proposals to improve the structure and not as a criticism or request for you to make everything right and fill every cell of the table. I think we need to create a clear structure for everyone else to fill in with details; but also to provide good examples to follow.

Technical remarks:
* In my opinion, the filename column is not needed, it does not appear anywhere while playing, it's in source code only. Better remove it to have more horizontal space for the rest. The names given to the planets by the editors of the explanation page shown in the Description column are fine.
* Coordinates are also not useful for a regular player, who does not use some Javascript addition/cheats, maybe remove it as well; textual directions in '''Explanation''' column are sufficient.

-- [[User:Malgond|Malgond]] ([[User talk:Malgond|talk]]) 19:59, 2 May 2023 (UTC)
:> Thanks for replying. The current table in the main text looks good, but still it is a ''description'' or just ''enumeration'' of game objects, not an ''explanation'' (or in some cases: partly an explanation). Supposing we keep the current structure, it is possible to add explanations for the planet names in the '''Explanation''' column. For example, first sentence of the second paragraph is a good ''explanation'' for the Uzumaki planet's name. On the other hand, Andal has only a ''description'' (what it looks like and what features are present on the surface) and no ''explanation'' (that it refers to Animorphs series of books).
:Hey! Yeah, that's the state of the table ''right now'', and I 100% percent agree with everything you're saying here. All planets and items that need an explanation should be explained and not just described. I mostly just copied and pasted the "planet description/explanations" from the old list to the table: creating the table was way more painful than i thought. I was actually surprized to see that nobody explained what Andal referred to, but I don't know anything about it so more knowledgeable people will have to chip in on that

:>There's also a question where one should put explanations of items and messages. Some do not need an explanation ('You found a stick'), but most do: what they mean and what they refer to, both in xkcd context (such as when there's a comic about the thing) and in general context. I hope you understand the difference between ''description'' and ''explanation''.
:I do! And I wish other people could help here. I'm not sure if you've seen it, but this is the banner i put above the table:
----
'''ALL ITEM EXPLANATIONS NEED TO BE TRANSFERRED FROM THE OLD PLANET LIST TO THE NEW TABLE''' 
We are currently switching from a disorganized list (below, inside the green banner) to the new organized table, but the explanations for specific items are missing from the new table. Please help by copying the item explanations from the old list and adding them to the new table ''in this format:'' 
<code>The item message &ndash; <nowiki>''Where to find it &ndash; Explanation, such as references etc''</nowiki></code> 
Example: You found a cheese platter (Your tanks recharge faster) – ''Next to the cell tower – The cheese is a reference to [https://example.com 1234: Cheese]''
----
'''OTHER ISSUES:'''
* upgrades that end in "???" need to be replaced by the exact upgrade message shown to the user.
* the "Tiles (X, Y)" column for planet coordinates is empty

:As you can see, the explanations should be put right next to the items and messages. Unfortunately no one has started to add them to the table yet

:> Maybe there's also some misunderstanding resulting from a language barrier; English is not my native language.
:Your English is excellent :)

:> dialogues or monologous of the characters, which contain many puns and references, and also hints for the player. There's simply no place for them in the current structure. Making more columns may be messsy. That's why I proposed making several tables covering different aspects.
Almost all the dialogues are on the [[2765: Escape Speed/Transcript]] page, so I guess they should be added there. I don't know if they're already here, I haven't looked at it enough
:: The transcript is not the place for explanations. Puns and references shall be explained elsewhere. I continue working on the transcript but there's still quite a way to go. -- [[User:Malgond|Malgond]] ([[User talk:Malgond|talk]]) 5 May 2023

:> Please take my remarks as proposals to improve the structure and not as a criticism or request for you to make everything right and fill every cell of the table. I think we need to create a clear structure for everyone else to fill in with details; but also to provide good examples to follow.
:Yeah; i totally get everything you said. In my last reply I think I was a bit too rude for some reason, maybe it's because I just finished the table and was tired.

:>* In my opinion, the filename column is not needed, it does not appear anywhere while playing, it's in source code only. Better remove it to have more horizontal space for the rest. The names given to the planets by the editors of the explanation page shown in the Description column are fine.
:* Coordinates are also not useful for a regular player, who does not use some Javascript addition/cheats, maybe remove it as well; textual directions in '''Explanation''' column are sufficient.
I was heavily inspired by the table in the [[2712: Gravity]] explanation, which included these. I kind of agree that the filename could be removed, and the filenames could be added to the planet name or explanation, i didn't think about that. About the tiles, someone might use them someday, but if the column keeps remaining empty, i don't mind seeing it disappear

:I really liked your ideas, if you don't mind I'll copy and paste this discussion in the actual comic discussion page and see what others think --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 21:37, 2 May 2023 (UTC)

::Update: I found a way and added all the coordinates, and moved the planet filenames to the Planet Name column to make more space for the other columns :)

::: Hi, what about dividing planets and objects like in [[User:Malgond/Drafts/Escape_Speed|my experiment]]? There's plenty of horizontal space for explanations and the entries are quite compact vertically. I also think about color-coding the different Types of game objects. -- [[User:Malgond|Malgond]] ([[User talk:Malgond|talk]]) 5 May 2023

::::Hmm, I think it looks a little messy and maybe too complicated. Do any other comics have two different tables? Also, I'm personally not a fan of mixing items, landscapes, and people. I think most people reading the table are there to get an overview of the planets and what they contain. Do we really have to explain everything in such detail? [[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 14:09, 6 May 2023 (UTC)

:::::We do not have to follow other explanations too closely, we could use a new form if it seems clearer and better. The current form has no place neither for explaining items nor for dialogues/monologues. More columns could be problematic (specifically in today's world of high and narrow screens of smartphones). Should we explain everything? Well, it us up to collective "us". Personally, I would like someone explain a few puns/dialogues I do not understand.
:::::For now, there's only a handful of people still interested in somehow finishing the explanation for this huge comic. Maybe if we two can agree on some format we could put it in discussion page and ask for votes. (Discussion needs a cleanup, BTW). -- [[User:Malgond|Malgond]] ([[User talk:Malgond|talk]]) 22:00, 7 May 2023 (UTC)

:::::Hey, I'm back. I see you're enhancing your example table, and iI was wondering, do you plan to move your edits to the actual article after you're done and use the test to see how the formatting looks? Isn't it easier to just add them to the main page directly? Just wondering. If you want I can help you port them over :)
:::::Keeping the contents of the table on your talk page and then porting them over afterwards could lead to a loss of information added after you started editing your user page [[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 13:11, 13 May 2023 (UTC)

::::::I'm back too. Yes, I intend to put it in the main article, but I am a bit shy to replace a lot of your work; I've asked for opinions in the talk page. Let's see how it sorts out. Maybe someone has a still better idea. -- [[User:Malgond|Malgond]] ([[User talk:Malgond|talk]]) 21:50, 13 May 2023 (UTC)

::::::Oh. I think the structure of the current table in the article is better than the one you've been working on: for example, it's easier to sort for items, is more compact, and is just one. Why don't you just add a "transcript" column like the table on [[2712: Gravity]] to put what things and people say, and add the rest of the information on the respective columns? Personally, I think you're making it a little bit too complicated. [[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 15:26, 14 May 2023 (UTC)

== Haltones ==

"They're not **predominantly** gray, the two main colors are just white and black. Sometimes he uses the gray color just like when he uses any other color" ... It didn't say that they were predominantly grey(/'gray'), any more than it said that they'd be predominently black (as [[:Category:Comics with inverted brightness]], often, in preference to white). The point being that even the most "black and white" images aren't monochrome, but have degrees of grey at the boundaries, with smoothly antialiased boundaries between the full black of the line (or filled area) and the full white of the background (or inverted detail). You'll see this if you zoom in, with your favourite image editor. And very often in images with a default RGB colourspace, even if the effective pallette employed covers just greyscale values. But greys actually do feature a lot, too (often the first choice of non-black-and-white, for slight lessening of prominence, as opposed to 'red pen' ''increased'' visibility). So it's technically inaccurate to describe them as pretty much monochrome. But how to convey this in <...counts...> less than 157ish words? [[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.173|172.71.242.173]] 16:35, 17 May 2023 (UTC)
:The wiki page says
::::"xkcd comics are usually plain, predominantly black-and-white line drawings, but sometimes they make use of hues beyond the usual monochrome colors, even if it is just red-penned annotations.
:I think it's enough, since, even if grey is more used than other non-monochrome colors, I don't believe it's so important that it needs to be included as a "third" main color. If Randall uses many bright colors, that he will obviously also use simpler hues of grey when needed. What do you think? [[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 16:51, 17 May 2023 (UTC)
:Aside from the antialising edging gradient, I just used the Random Page link and landed on [[1301: File Extensions|something with functional greys]], [[734: Outbreak|an unusual use of 'Post-It' yellow]], an unremarkably "just black pen" comic and then [[1788: Barge|more functional grey]]. I'd argue against "monochrome" as a description, as clearly there is more than just #000000 and #FFFFFF, often enough, in an actual fill-colour/broad-brush context. Even if that's #808080 or another no-hue shade. (I was expecting to land on a "grey pen" comic to assess, after enough clicks but, having seen what I got in the random first handful, I saw no need to go on.)
:And "monochrome" can be/often is coloured. Sepia photographs or "night vision" green displays are perfect examples of monochrome (with or without halftones/dithering/whatever). As is [[267: Choices: Part 4]] (other Choices comics may be considered "duotone", in different ways).
:Maybe "...are often drawn as black shapes on white, or occasionally white shapes on a dark background, but may feature at least one additional highlighting shade or an even fuller colour pallette." Does that sufficiently cover that whole breadth of use? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.154|172.70.86.154]] 19:48, 17 May 2023 (UTC)

== Childish slang. ==

Agree with you on the recent change that you (generic 'you', not ''you'' 'you'!) sound infantile, any which way, upon use of the words mentioned. Which is how it was still said before the revert in that version of edit. But with <code>"pretty gay" and "retarded" are infantile and offensive slang for "foolish" or "contemptible"</code>, you miss the point. Foolishness is just one distant contender for what "pretty gay" is often intended to mean (even if not actually being used for someone/something 'effeminate'). And "retarded" is more in the whole "thick, stupid, dumb" line of insult than "contemptible" (which is more "horrible, dislikable, repulsive"..?).
 Personally, I also thought it better with not actually defining insults (correctly or otherwise), as it adds power to them. I can call someone a "numpty" in jest, for example, and colloquially that might be understood as the low-level insult (if that) which it is intended to be. But if I start to bandy around its {{wiktionary|numpty#Scots|dictionary definition}} then it becomes more of a seriously accusatory description.
 Just my opinion. Not really understanding the latest revert when it had seemed to be improved (if anything) in the version you reverted away. Just putting it there. I know you're doing a lot of editing (good stuff!) just wondering if you considered this one carefully enough in your obvious zeal. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.182.89|172.71.182.89]] 16:31, 28 May 2023 (UTC)
:Addendum. Meant to say, if you decide to undo/reform your own revert (I won't do it, but on the offchance you see my point), I'd have not said "''commonly'' used". They're used in slang, but I don't think we can say how frequently they pop up. They're "used in slang" (and also not in slang, or at least not insulting slang, where "gay" has a long history of just meaning "happy", whilst "retarded" is often to do with decceleration/minimised acceleration of physical systems) but I'm not sure they're no more than minority words in the whole world of such language. They depict a subset of insult-givers (like the character in the comic, for whom it adds a certain additional characterisation) amongst all the many and varied insult-givers, and Randall surely chose such semi-bowlderised terms to not have to write any of all the far worse words he might also have done. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.94.31|172.71.94.31]] 16:46, 28 May 2023 (UTC)

== IP page to delete ==

I didn't see your thinking about why the Deletion category was not needed there. And, believe me as an IP myself, I've never known anything useful being said on an IP's User or User Talk page. With that example not breaking the pattern any. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.131|172.70.85.131]] 00:41, 22 June 2023 (UTC)
:I just don't think there's a reason to delete it, it's useful to have a previous talk page if the IP continues to edit and people want to communicate with them [[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 10:51, 30 June 2023 (UTC)
::"The IP" is whichever one of 'us' happens to land on that particular Cloudflare route.
::I'm not going to go back and find out which IP it represents, to check if it's in their current stock of connected gateways, but it might not be. Or it was even (depending on date) a pre-Cloudflare 'straight' access unproxied and thus no longer seen, even if the exact same editor on the exact same IP lucked on ''their'' initial gateway.
::Certainly it won't map to a meaningful 'user', chances may even be that it doesn't map to ''any'' user. IP-version User/User Talk pages are anachronisms pretty much as soon as they're created. Or before, if based upon trying to contact an author of an older edit. I was on 172.70.85.131, above, but who knows (before I submit it) what this reply's sign-off will say.
::And a one-shot editor may never ever see the results of any conversation that was tried to be started. Whereas I ''might'' see any response, anywhere, that contextually makes it plain that they're talking about an edit I once made.
::Honestly, I think it'd be worthwhile checking ''every'' IP-focussed namespace page and archiving anything truly interesting that found itself in there in some other central location then condemning them all to deletion. Maybe, if possible, prevent their creation too. But I don't have the ability to do anything (except sift through them for any of the very rare gems of quality, but I wouldn't be able to do anything about it from there on in, so...
::...not gonna do anything more about it (I can't, other than reinstate the To Be Deleted membership, whch I won't bother with), but I hope you understand my perspective on this. I've seen you become a very useful member of the community, who I generally respect for your input and tweaks to the site, and don't expect you to take instruction from li'l ol' me (not even working with an established identity). Just consider this as food for thought, and leave it at that if you wish. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.34.19|162.158.34.19]] 20:12, 30 June 2023 (UTC)

== RTL/LTR: "...but I think it refers to me" ==

Yeah, it does. The point being that we might not do anything about the smartarses who vandalise knowingly (and I don't see a problem with what you otherwise did), but when someone thinks ''they'' have unique and funny joke (along the lines of putting "Citation needed"s ''everywhere'') they might spot the comment and then realise how we've seen it all done before so refrain from the prank. I can't even recall how many times we have had to revert things, but best to put off the casual comedian, and it won't change the outcome either way for the dedicated vandal with their blood up and looking to cause trouble. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.107|141.101.98.107]] 20:00, 29 June 2023 (UTC)
:I guess you're right, I just thought it was very clear for everyone that rendering an entire article unreadable was an act of pure vandalism, but I guess an editor comment doesn't hurt. [[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 10:53, 30 June 2023 (UTC)

== The reason "the image size wasn't there"? ==

...because it didn't need an image-size restriction, originally? Compare the [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/File:Miss_lenhart.png previous and current version sizes]. Nice to have a (''huge!'') high-res headshot, no doubt, but clearly that's why you found that it now needs artificially constraining... No actual mystery. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.63|172.70.85.63]] 17:16, 5 July 2023 (UTC)

:Yeah you're right, I just assumed every comic had the image size to be future-proof. The weird thing was that the "imagesize: " part was already there, but there was no value. Anyway, nothing important.

== I disagree with Oxford commas. ==

"For breakfast I had some bread, toast, and jam." - A legitimate(ish) case of ", and ". Or "I created the world, and saw that it was good." I otherwise prefer to suscribe to replacing all non-final conjunctions in sequence with commas but ''not'' adding one before the ultimate (remaining) conjunction. That's like having "Fish, and chips", where it isn't an actual afterthought. And best to rephrase or repunctuate (e.g. with super-listing semicolons to separate) if you have confusing comma-breakout clauses that ''so'' easily clash (or lead you down funny garden paths) with Oxford Commas. My opinion, but this is why syntax is clearer when leaving out OCs. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.93|172.70.85.93]] 13:59, 6 July 2023 (UTC)
:I just think it's better to use it everywhere to avoid any possible confusion. If we used it half the time, it would be inconsistent. But it's no big deal.
::Similarly, no big deal. Except that it ''looked'' like an error. You've done a lot of useful changes, recently... A ''lot''... Which is not a bad thing, I must add. Occasionally I've seen what (I thought!) you intended to say, and I've helped out with a misplaced word or two. And I honestly do not feel like OCs read correctly in many circumstances. How would you even OC something like "...you should paint it red, yellow or, maybe, orange"?
::The comma already does a lot of heavy lifting, four or five different uses can occur in the same sentence, with it commonly doing duty as a sub-clause parenthetical (except without the clear open/close distinction of an actual parenthetical) ''as well as'' conjunction-replacement within a list. You will find many instances of non-OCed lists on the site. In fact I find the "Please note that all contributions to explain xkcd..." bit, below this edit box, to be the exception and not the rule.
::Anyhoo... I 'corrected' an example, but did not re'correct' it once you made it obvious what rule you were working to. I think you're less right than me, naturally, even if I wouldn't say that you're more wrong. ;) But I thought I'd make you a brief note of my thoughts rather than edit-warring the issue. Less brief, now, but I hope you still take it in good humour. (Oh, yeah, I'm sort of Ok with Oxford Spelling, insofar as it's mostly what I use naturally. Except for the "-ize" bit. That and their Comma are totally against how I was taught at school, a number of decades ago. :P ) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.71|172.71.242.71]] 15:26, 6 July 2023 (UTC)
:::You really seem to care about this a lot more than I do, if you want feel free to revert my edit back. I'm not even sure why we're here talking about commas lol
:::I'm no expert and I just like commas. Thanks for checking my edits, I think I've seen a few of your corrections. I have a lot of free time at the moment and I seem to like fixing up unorganized things here --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 21:42, 6 July 2023 (UTC)

== Science Girl/Hairbun ==

You may have noted that several of the Talk pages attached to those you changed already had discussions about whether someone was Hairbun or (a possibly grown-up version of) Science Girl, and you had people like Kynde support the change ''to'' treating her as Science Girl. No skin off my nose, but I'm not sure your arguments are strong enough to support your broad sweep changes in that regard. I think I'd side with "bun with trailing hair" being SG (regardless of apparent age/maturity, as the description only really says ''usually'' a child, whether you take that as prescriptivist or descriptivist) but not enough that I'd reverse your considerable efforts in this matter. But on the off-chance that you hadn't noticed the prior discussions and conclusions, before making your own assessment. FYI, only. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.204|172.71.178.204]] 14:01, 7 July 2023 (UTC)

:I will properly reply to you tomorrow since it's midnight here. Btw thanks for letting me know these hyperlinks were rendered correctly, and for fixing my 1 typo <s>(after i corrected 100)</s>
::Guys, some things may be being taken too seriously. Assuming [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1608:_Hoverboard&diff=prev&oldid=317396 this was the 'one error'], yeah, the Pedant's Curse hits us all, that's the point. Easy to see how it was done (read as "a Category:Interactive..." rather than "an interactive", or whatever). Happens to the best of us, when concentrating on loads of other things. Not sure about the Jill thing, at all, myself, but that discussion is probably for soewhere else. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.158|172.69.79.158]] 22:22, 7 July 2023 (UTC)

:::Nonononono I wasn't serious when I thanked you about the typo, I was also just kidding. I was joking about how after I corrected a ton of typos I added one more.
:::On the main topic you brought up: I think Jill's main characteristics (I'll talk about why I renamed her) are that she is a child, she is usually interested in science, and has always one or two buns with trailing hair. [[Hairbun]] isn't as defined as Jill: she just has a bun. This is what the page [[Hairbun]] (written entirely by Kynde, I haven't reformatted to remove the bullet points yet), say about the bun:
----
:::*Her appearance, apart from her glasses, can also change.
:::**In 703: Honor Societies, 708: Sex Dice, 1511: Spice Girl, 1601: Isolation and in every instance in 1608: Hoverboard her hair looks somewhat different, curly and with some kind of ponytail, but since '''her main distinguishing characteristic is the hair bun''', these comics are included.
:::[...]
:::*There are some characters with hair buns that are not Hairbun:
:::**Since she is a grown woman, she should not be confused with Jill or any other small girls with hair bun like in 1584: Moments of Inspiration.
----
:::And on the Page for Jill, before I ever touched it, it said:
:::*As she is usually also clearly a child she usually cannot be confused with Hairbun
----
:::Kynde mentioned [[1511: Spice Girl]] and [[1601: Isolation]] as featuring Hairbun and not Jill, but they look exactly like a grown-up Jill. Plus, on the gallery section on [[Hairbun]] (I'm working on adding back a better one since the old one was kinda broken UPDATE 11:13, 8 July 2023 (UTC): Added the gallery back with vector images), this was the first picture of Hairbun:
:::[[File:Hair Bun Girl with curly hair and ponytail.png]]

:::So, to recap: Hairbun has always had a version with a bun with trailing hair, but it was inconsistent between comics, so I settled on Jill is a girl that always has trailing hair and Hairbun is an adult that sometimes has trailing hair.

:::On the topic of renaming Jill:
:::*I searched the wiki for Jill and found 3 discussions. One of them ended up "why world we even create a page for that girl, there aren't many comics featuring her.", but didn't criticize the name too much iirc
:::*We did the same thing for [[Danish]]. The only time she was given ''any'' name ("Danish in the sense of "darling" iirc), that was the name used.
:::*If we change our minds and Jill also becomes a woman, we don't have to remove the "girl" part.
:::*I'm not sure about this, but I think she's slowing being added more and more outside science comics.

:::Wow this was long --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 10:20, 8 July 2023 (UTC)

== In reply to [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2794:_Alphabet_Notes&curid=26437&diff=321127&oldid=320916 this query]... ==

There's {{w|Welsh orthography|the Welsh}}, at the very least! (Well, you did ask! Even if it's truly not so relevent. ;) ) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.159|172.70.86.159]] 11:29, 18 August 2023 (UTC)
:Lol. TIL! --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 20:13, 18 August 2023 (UTC)

== Plural animals ==

Following on from Ferret->Ferrets, what about the last remaining singular that is Category:Apatosaurus? (I must admit, all your edits/re-edits are making my head spin, as worthy as they often are, but this seems like the next logical step that I thought you might have done to finish that particular neatening job.) But I'll leave it up to you as to whether it's Apatosauruses, Apatosaurii or whatever else you might consider most appropriate... ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.98|172.70.85.98]] 10:15, 24 August 2023 (UTC)
:I actually thought about it, and I came to the conclusion that I don't know what the plural of that word is. Feel free to research if there's a "right" word and rename that category :)
:> (I must admit, all your edits/re-edits are making my head spin,
:Yeah I don't really organize everything I want to change beforehand, so whenever i notice a little thing is missing, I add it to every page that needs it. I guess it's easier to review my edits in bulk from a page's version history lol --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 10:53, 24 August 2023 (UTC)

== Community portal spam ==
The spammers seem to be deleting text from Community Portal. [[User:ConscriptGlossary|ConscriptGlossary]] ([[User talk:ConscriptGlossary|talk]]) 07:28, 3 November 2024 (UTC)
:Thanks, but I couldn't find any recent example concerning me. Do you mind giving an example? --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 07:49, 3 November 2024 (UTC)

== Possible Adminship? ==

Hi FaviFake, I’m Victoria. I’m planning on reaching out to Jeff via Twitter/X because there’s a long list of things that only he can do. You can see the list at my [[User:42.book.addict#To_Do_List_for_Jeff|user page]]. One of these tasks is promoting more admins. Seeing as you are quite active, and have done quite a lot of edits (top 10 in CS score-wow!), would you like to be mentioned in my message as a possible admin candidate? [[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]] ([[User talk:42.book.addict|talk]]) 17:21, 3 November 2024 (UTC)
: Oh hey, thanks for messaging me! I started caring a lot for this site about a year ago, went on a complete pause for a few months, and came back this week. You seem very active, love to see some new active users! I saw your message on the community portal saying you were trying to find a way to contact Jeff. That's actually something I've thought about doing for a long time but never actually tried since not even Davidy22 was able to contact him at one point iirc.
:Anyway, yes, I'd love to be an admin for this site since there are so many things I can't do as a user (i have my own to-do list, which includes 1) actually deleting pages in Pages to delete and 2) improving/fixing the comic templates and Main page).
: So yeah, I wish you good luck contacting him! My only advice is to use any possible way to (or to get someone else to) contact him without worrying too much about annoying him. His last contribution was more than a year ago, he can totally jump back in for a moment after being unreachable for so long. I really like your message, it's very well-written, now the hard part is getting it to him. Asking Davidy22 for his email address (or finding it online) sounds like a great idea to me. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 22:12, 3 November 2024 (UTC)

== Trivia below transcript ==
The FAQ page says that trivia is below transcript. I'm very sorry about this. [[User:ConscriptGlossary|ConscriptGlossary]] ([[User talk:ConscriptGlossary|talk]]) 00:41, 4 November 2024 (UTC)
:Nono don't be sorry, you're totally right! I came back here after months of being offline and forgot about the order! I realised my mistake yesterday but didn't have the time to go look for the article to revert my edit. Please revert it if you get the chance to do it before me. [[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 04:53, 4 November 2024 (UTC)
::There, I should've fixed it now. I see you also reverted my edit, thanks! [[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 04:59, 4 November 2024 (UTC)

== On the Ghosts in the NavPane ==

When I saw 42's inclusion of Ghosts in the Character NavPane, I was pondering asking for Demons and Aliens (the blob-monster types, or near variations, from both UFO-ish comics and far-future) to be added alongside.

But I agree with you that they're not ''really'' minor characters. Yet I think they (all of them) deserve a slot there, as they are as much a feature as the (Animals/)Squirrels section. Originally thought to suggest "Groups" (could include "Multiple Cueballs" and even "Children" for groups with otherwise un-IDed child characters), which you could still ''also'' add (but for human-character groups only), but now thinking "Other Beings" could hold Ghosts, Demons and Aliens (maybe "Future Beings" separate from the latter, or at least the differently-futuristic "Floating Orbs" as ''another'' other classification category in there). As a section between Real People and Animals, I thought, unless it's decided best to put them after Animals.

Food for thought, anyway. You (and 42, and maybe others) may have your own ideas on this, and I wouldn't (and can't) spring my own ideas upon you by suddenly just editing the appropriate source. It probably needs discussion. I nearly put my earlier thoughts in the Community Portal area, but as you're personally active on this at the moment I thought it might be easier for you to ponder if I finally commited it to writing just here. (Feel free to move this contrib/advertise it wider, if you see fit.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.62|172.70.91.62]] 14:19, 5 November 2024 (UTC)
:Just popping in to add my 2 cents-I wholeheartedly agree with the idea of having “other beings” in the navbox. '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 16:02, 5 November 2024 (UTC)
::Hey there, thanks a lot for messaging me about this. I disagree with you for one specific reason: the navbox was initially supposed to catalogue the recurring characters in the comics which displayed more or less the same behaviours across comics, such as [[Black Hat]] and [[Beret Guy]]. It then expanded to include real people, such as politicians, which still remained the same characters across different comics. The animal section is different in that some of them are the same animals across comics (such as bobcats and red spiders, for example), but since we had to include them, we included EVERY animal, even when they were completely different every time, because it'd look weird if the only animals there were the specific ones i mentioned.
::If we included a section such as Other beings that includes ghosts, I believe it would be filled with characters that are not the same in every comic they appear in and the navbox would completely lose its intended purpose. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 18:13, 7 November 2024 (UTC)

== (Whoops, forgot a header!) ...FYC ==

If you agree with {{diff|356369|these additions/changes}}, with or without other adjustments, I was wondering if you'd like to do the respective changes to the Incomplete Article category page, as I find it's semi-protected and I'm thus locked out from the edits that I thought I might duplicate there too (in my IP state – yes, I know I could change this, but I'm happier just to leave it up to you/whoever). Anyway, for your consideration. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.202.75|162.158.202.75]] 17:09, 10 November 2024 (UTC)
: Done! Thanks. I removed a few technical details. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 07:24, 16 November 2024 (UTC)

==The [[What If? chapters|''What If?'' article index]] project==
''The messages regarding the [[What If? chapters|''What If?'' article index]] project have been moved to '''[[Talk:What If? chapters]]'''. To add a new topic regarding the index, [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:What_If?_chapters&action=edit&section=new click here].'' --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 09:15, 2 February 2025 (UTC)

== Removed "Discussion" super-header. ==

I had wondered, as (at that time) you hadn't bothered to remove any of the ''other'' equivalent super-headers. It looked a bit like an accidental select-and-cut, like sometimes editors do, given your actual edit was waaay down the other end of the page. (It was a bit too neat, not like the usual case of somehow snipping off just one of the "="s, make a =="header"== into a ="header="=, effectively, but I've also seen similarly unmessy accidents happen, so your decent tightening up of the whitespace could have just as easily been a part of the same misclicking.)

I did check the companion pages, and they were all happyily as they (once) were. Note that the extra level of header ''does'' have use for (e.g.) putting a similar level of header at the bottom to give Archive, FAQ, etc, sections (not part of the now-top-levelisted points), or even such that we can have "for <foo>, see <otherPortal#section>" to gather things up with less repeats. Not to have their own subheaders (unless they, too, get so large that we have to further split them!), but to be seperate-but-appended like a Transcript (and maybe Trivia) section, regardless of how subheadered an in-depth Explanation gets. If we ever get that (and, really, we could do with a ''lot'' of archival for most of the Community Pages, and maybe some FAQing, for which I ''might'' suggest a subheadering to easily scan for... e.g. ... the situation with the MathML that seems to get revisited more often than not), then we probably need the superheaders back, unless we put messy indented-bullet-trees (at the top? with or without "expand"-hiding?) ''only'' for non-discussion items.

Not that I totally agree that "1.<many...>" (and the occasional "1.<something>.<subsubitem>" was unreadable, either, but ''so long'' as we don't have a further main(ish) header, of equal import, then ''maybe'' it's ok to do it your way. Just it seemed like a big decision to make, to cut out all the (admitedly untaken) options out of the equation. ...And that is a summary of the mental arithmatic whizzing through my head when I had decided (on balance) that you'd probably just made an unknowing misedit that needed bringing back in line with the others. Just to explain the snap decision to undo your 'accident'. Not sure whether you'd been purposefully thinking about it for far longer, of course. Maybe even a couple of minutes! ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.58|172.71.178.58]] 14:53, 8 February 2025 (UTC)

:I totally agree with everything you said! One day I noticed there was a useless superheader at the top which was making the TOC unnecessarily slightly harder to scan through. We should definitely bring it back if someone decides to organise the portals, but I figured since it was untouched for more than a decade, it's likely it won't happen in the near future. There was no need to explain the reasoning behind your revert, but I appreciate you reaching out! --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 16:06, 8 February 2025 (UTC)

==A simple Thank-you==
Thank you so much for expanding my knowledge of xkcd, the wiki, and wikis overall. That user page creation left a bit of a mark on me lol. I have found out that I have reached a high enough level to create user pages. I have created 2 user pages and 2 discussion pages for other worthy members of the community. Thank you for the very helpful advice, and thanks again for providing helpful information from the community. Sincerely, [[User:DollarStoreBa'al|DollarStoreBa'al]] ([[User talk:DollarStoreBa'al|talk]]) 05:14, 27 February 2025 (UTC)
:No worries! I'm glad we have another active contributor <3   --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 16:09, 27 February 2025 (UTC)
::It's relevant to note that we only create User pages when people explicitly ask for them. On the other hand, '''User talk''' pages are created if you want to talk to that specific member privately. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 16:14, 27 February 2025 (UTC)

== Removing references to order of LiveJournal comics ==

[https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1%3A_Barrel_-_Part_1&type=revision&diff=320394&oldid=320342 But WHY?] 
I'm very unhappy to realize you have deleted my hard work giving people a possibility to click through the first comics in the order they where released on livejournal. I have not checked them all, but I'm not happy that it has been deleted and would like to get it back. Pleas try to explain why you found it a good idea to remove this info from so many comics! I'm quite upset about it at the moment. And since you removed it would like you to restore it if you cannot make me see why! Seems there is also more info I put in that have been deleted? :-( --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 19:31, 10 March 2025 (UTC)

:You are mistaken! I actually liked the idea of browsing the first comics in the original order ''so much'' that I moved it above the explanation! This means it's now much easier to browse them in the correct order, because the user is no longer required to scroll to the bottom of the page: the links are right below the comic.

:I did this for all the 50ish comics. I think you might also have missed the "Original title" and "Original caption" parts of these first comics. In every one of these comics, right under the title (above the image) there's an "Original title". Likewise, below every Title text there's now an "Original caption" part, which contains the LiveJournal caption. See for example comics [[4: Landscape (sketch)]] or [[8: Red spiders]]. I also added a link to the specific LiveJournal post both on the title and caption parts, so users can see them for themselves. Your hard work no longer sits in the hidden Trivia section, but is actually above everything else and easier to read and use!

:I do think it's still not perfect, especially part to browse the comics. I'd like to create a custom template with real buttons (not just links) and an actual explanation of the situation, or maybe integrate it directly into the {{tl|comic}} template. But still, a much better solution than putting everything in the last section! --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 15:47, 11 March 2025 (UTC)

::I'm sorry for the harsh words. Late that night I realized all my trivia info was deleted (did see the original title text was added), but did not realize that the info was relegated to a more prominent place. So I take back my comment, and instead now thank you for improving my work. Hope you accept this apology from a message written at a bad time. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 12:58, 12 March 2025 (UTC)

:::Of course! You were very polite. I'm glad you're still active in this wiki :) --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 15:16, 12 March 2025 (UTC)
::::Me to, so there at least is one active admin. Sadly I'm not very good at the tech stuff a<nd also do not have time to look into all kinds of wiki policies... Glad there are others like you who lift the mantle on those parts. We really need a guy like Davidy... --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:12, 13 March 2025 (UTC)

:::::UPDATE: I moved the sentences above the ==Explanation==, so it should now be clearer. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 18:01, 1 April 2025 (UTC)

== Jill's renaming ==

Hi FaviFake 
Just came around to think about the renaming og Science Girl, that I created, to Jill. I really do not like it, and we do not generally give generic figures a name, Megan and Danish the exceptions. And because she is in a comic based on a children song, the name is clearly from the song not because the generic Science Girl is called Jill. Jill is not even used in the comic, only in the title text. You wrote there where no less than three discussions regarding this name change, agreeing with you. But they are not on the talk page of Science Girls page. I'm seriously considering changing it back, so let me know where these discussions are located. I also think it was a mistake to call Danish, Danish, but it beats calling her Black Hats girlfriend. It was just a nickname he used, and they killed the witness as no one must know... But that was done way before I began editing this page. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 16:21, 30 March 2025 (UTC)

:Hey, thanks for your message! I'll respond tomorrow because I don't have time, but for now I just wanted to note somewhere (before I forget) that I looked though all 41 appearances and counted the times where science is the main theme of the comic. The result was that the majority of Jill appearences are not related to science. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 20:07, 30 March 2025 (UTC)

::Well I will have to check that but the first instance was included because it was a girl who where interested in science even though she doesn't look like ScienceGirl. And an adult version of her was included because it was science again. The question is of course if there are now a different girl... But I do not like the naming of her. We did refrain from naming Cueball Rob, and there was also someone who did not like Megan. But that I like now. I prefer keeping Danish, but do not like the reason why she got than name. And other generic characters have been given a name in some comics without we used this. And really feel it is wrong to name her after a children song just because she was in a comic about that song! --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 09:26, 31 March 2025 (UTC)

{{Outdent|::}}
Hey.
And an adult version of her was included because it was science again.
I'm not entirely sure what you're referring to, but this would actually help my case! "Girl" implies she's either a teenager or a child. This means that, if you wanted to broaden her definition to also include "adult versions", you'd have to use another name. Science Woman? Science Female Charachter? I think Jill is better: it sounds like a name a child would have, but doesn't prevent us from giving the name Jill to adult versions. If we change our minds and Jill also becomes a woman, we don't have to remove the "girl" part.

We do not generally give '''generic figures''' a name
But I don't think she's a generic figure. In a bit more than a third of the comic appearences, she's specifically interested in science. This, to me, means she's likely the same person on most of the comics. SHe also has a similar behaviour.

Even if that weren't the case, we would still have to find a name for her that's generic enough, that represents her qualities, AND that's not a proper name. Or, we could just call her what Randall called her, "[[Jill]]". There is precendent on this wiki for giving a name to a character based solely on one instance, where the name wasn't even intended: that's [[Danish]]. Even more: Danish was used by Randall as an adjective, but here Randall gave us a proper name!

There where no less than three discussions regarding this name change, agreeing with you.
I didn't say they agreed with me. There was no consensus on all of them, iirc, mainly because few people partecipated. Yes, I remember they weren't on her talk page, which is weird, but they were somewhere else. I remember they were mostly even.

The first instance was included [...] even though she doesn't look like Science Girl
That specific comic is an exception, in all other comics she has a bun with trailing hair. Randall may have drawn a ponytail because of the limited space. Anyways, as I said, the majority of the comics featuring her aren't mainly about science. (Of course, almost all Randall comics relate to science, but I counted comics where it was intented.)

We did refrain from naming Cueball Rob
That's because there was consensus on the fact that Cueball is an everyman, while Rob is the same charachter.

And really feel it is wrong to name her after a children song just because she was in a comic about that song!
Well that's the only mention of her name we have, even if it's unrelated. I like that she was named after a nursery rhyme, it fits her character, since she's a child.

[...] I really do not like it, [...]

[...] I do not like the naming of her. [...]

[...] There was also someone who did not like Megan. But I like [Megan] now. [...]

[...] I really '''feel''' it is wrong to name her after a children song [...]
I'm starting to see a trend here. Do you think it could be possible you're against the name change because you simply... don’t like how it sounds? I didn't like how "Science Girl" sounded, but that's not why I changed her name...

--[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 15:34, 31 March 2025 (UTC)
:Thanks for the reply. Sadly you could not show me any discussion about the name change. Only that you said there where. So that did not help. Yes maybe I used the same wording many time. Also not native English speaker so may have less options to express my meaning... What I do not like about Jill and using that comic to name her, is that I do not think that comic at all is representative of the character I had identified and named Science Girl. But I do agree that if there are several instances where she is represented as an adult it could be a problem. I only new her as adult in [[1520: Degree-Off]] and I can see this has been changes, although I believe this should be reverted as this is not hairbun bu Science Girl. I did not know it had been removed. In this [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1520:_Degree-Off&oldid=123879 version] she was named Science Girl] but it was removed without my knowing. And that she was an adult version was in this [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Jill&oldid=123921 version]. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 16:35, 31 March 2025 (UTC)
::Looking at comics now, and just found this one, without looking for Jill and saw her here: [[2747: Presents for Biologists]]. To me the important thing is the interest in science and that the hairbun is not tight but with strings of hair hanging loose. So maybe the explanation to Jill should be changed to a young woman, often a child with a loose hairbun, not to be3 confused with the generic every woman Hairbun... Then Degree-Off is also clearly Jill. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 17:56, 31 March 2025 (UTC)
{{Outdent|::}}
Also not native English speaker so may have less options to express my meaning
I'm also not a native speaker, I'm Italian! :D I wasn't pointing out your choice of words but rather what you were trying to say, which is (I think?) that you don't like the name. Anyways:

To me the important thing is the interest in science [...] So maybe the explanation to Jill should be changed to a young woman [...]
It seems your opinion has changed completely then! This is what [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Jill&oldid=123921 you wrote] about [[Hairbun]] before I joined this wiki:
''Since she [Hairbun] is a '''grown woman''', she should not be confused with Science Girl or any other '''small girls''' with hair bun like in [[1584: Moments of Inspiration]].''
According to this logic in this comic:
* [[1520: Degree-Off]] - taller than other woman and man, so a woman → '''not Jill'''
* [[2747: Presents for Biologists]] - as tall as other woman and man, so a woman → '''not Jill'''

Also, this would mean we'd have to rename Jill to someone else in a third or a fourth of her appearences.

But I do agree that if there are several instances where she is represented as an adult it could be a problem
I agree! If there's one thing that I think everyone can agreen on is that we shoudn't call a grown woman a "girl". And "Science Woman" sounds like a superhero.

So, to avoid naming Hairbun '''based on how she looks''' and Jill '''based on her displayed interest''' (I'll remind you, you said in Hairbun's page that this is Hairbun:)
[[File:Hair Bun Girl with curly hair and ponytail.png]]

...all i did was standardise the matter:
*'''Jill is a child OR girl that always has trailing hair''' (except 1 comic), and
*'''Hairbun is an adult that sometimes has trailing hair.'''

I think any other definition would be incredibly confusing. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 16:03, 1 April 2025 (UTC)
:Well I originally put in degree off as Science Girl as she both looked and behaved like Science Girl. So I may have changed my mind. Cannot find the picture you said that I said was Hairbun? Maybe it was from before I introduced Science Girl. I have created both of these characters and then others have changed the explanation and the name. I also called her [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Hairbun&oldid=88388 Hair Bun Girl], which I can now see it wrong since she was a woman, but again, not native English. Here is my first creation of [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Jill&oldid=123862 Science Girl]. There where more than a year between, so maybe I changed my mind regarding which could be hairbun in between? I'm certainly more interested in having those characters with hairbun and dangling hair to be another than normal hairbun now. And would today have collected those that looks like that together. Also there are many instances of Jill where she do not have a speaking part, thus saying she is always interested in science doesn't fit with how she is listed now... It is difficult. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 12:57, 2 April 2025 (UTC)

::Oh yeah that makes sense, I didn't consider the fact that Science Jirl was created possibly years after Hairbun. I'm not sure I understood your last sentence, about Jill not speaking? --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 14:26, 2 April 2025 (UTC)
:::I think only a year after. But still. I meant that there are several instances with Jill where she do not have a speaking part in the comic, and thus cannot be said to have a special interest in science or her sharp wit. So if science should be her main indicator then she has to say something. But I do not really know how to make this as best as it could be. (Science Jirl, Jirl a combination of Jill and Girl ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 12:46, 4 April 2025 (UTC)

::::It'd be so funny if we settled on Science Jirl haha. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 15:10, 4 April 2025 (UTC)

== As I can't edit it... ==

Regarding the Editor FAQ:
For headlines, you have to use wiki-style code. The simplest way is a preceding semicolon at the beginning of the line which causes the entire line to be rendered in bold.
...I might be tempted to say something like "This makes use of {{w|Help:Wikitext#Description_lists|Description List}} markup", given how there are circumstances when a ";something:fuller description of something" is also actually useful. And then go on to say something about how this is functionally simpler than the actual (sub-)header use of =s, ==s, ===s, etc, (which you'd be advised to check what 'level' of (sub-)header you're already working in and go for the next level on from that) and would the usually be recorded in a Table Of Contents of either the page concerned or any page which it is transcluded within.

Except that we're going into really ''technical'' territory with the latter bit. Generally, ==s are for Explanation, Transcript, Trivia headers in comics, you could say. (The reason being is that the Main Page has a single-= header under which the Latest Comic is transcluded and so ==s are best to be inherited as transient sub-headers - but you don't need to say that... it's just an obvious reasong behind the stylistic decision.) Headering a section other than these, in a comic (such as a place for a Table Of Things, or similar) would generally be ===ed (or, rarely, ====ed, as a sub-sub-header of the Explanation/whatever). It is best to avoid any ===+ing at all in the Comic Talk page because, if the Comic page itself gets a TOC (some do, most don't, but all ''potentially'' could) then the transcluded Discussion gets (probably!) inadvertently and improperly added in. (You can force a NOTOC, and some other tricks, but I've never been able to find a NOTOCIFTRANSCLUDED-like thing, not without peppering noinclude sections around section headers, which is... getting ''far'' too complicated.) So, just saying "Don't use '==...'s in Talk Pages, stick to ';'s..." (even without the reasoning) might be an advisable statement.

Yeah, I'm giving you a lot of stuff here (I think you know all of it, actually), hopefully you can tease out some of the bits actually useful to suggest in the FAQ. :P [[Special:Contributions/172.68.205.164|172.68.205.164]] 21:52, 11 April 2025 (UTC)

Darnit, also meant to add that in the {{template|Citation needed}} explanation you wrote, could you change {{template|actual citation needed}} to {{template|Actual citation needed}}? The latter is the actual template, the former is just a redirect. No harm in ''using'' the redirect-needing ones (generally), but you might as well advertise the correct ones. Like you don't advertise {{template|cn}} or <nowiki>{{template|fact}}</nowiki> (both ->{{template|Citation needed}}, as are {{template|citation needed}}, {{template|Citation Needed}} and other case-accomadating variations), though people still are able to use them. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.205.164|172.68.205.164]] 21:58, 11 April 2025 (UTC)

:Sorry but you're gonna have to give me exactly what you want me to paste in the article, I haven't understood a word of what you said. I changed the actual cit needed thinghy--[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 09:45, 12 April 2025 (UTC)

==User page creation==
I just wanted to say thanks again for making my user page! --[[User:Xnerkcd|xnerkcd]] ([[User talk:Xnerkcd|talk]]) 17:38, 13 April 2025 (UTC)
:No worries! --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 18:22, 13 April 2025 (UTC)

==Admin==
What does an admin do? Are they just the people that can create pages?
:Not an admin, but they basically manage the wiki state-of-affairs and oversee day-to-day operation. Basically, a stepup from typical moderators. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.208.206|172.69.208.206]]
::I guess that's what they're ''supposed'' to do. Because of the status quo, they just sometimes pop back in and do stuff we can't. We can however create pages ourselves. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 15:46, 15 April 2025 (UTC)

== A Barnstar For You :3 ==

{| style="border: 1px solid {{{border|gray}}}; background-color: {{{color|#fdffe7}}};"
|rowspan="2" style="vertical-align:top;" | {{#ifeq:{{{2|}}}|alt|[[File:Blueprint Barnstar 3.PNG|100px|border]]|[[File:Blueprint Barnstar 2.PNG|100px|border]]}}
|rowspan="2" |
|style="font-size: x-large; padding: 0; vertical-align: bottom; height: 1.1em;" | '''The Template Barnstar'''
|-
|style="vertical-align: top; border-top: 1px solid gray;" | Thanks for all of your work on improving the templates on here! '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 20:01, 18 April 2025 (UTC)
|}
:Thanks so much! But [[User:Firestar233]] definitely deserves that award more than I do! He created the templates for the what if? index that are still incredibly useful! --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 20:31, 18 April 2025 (UTC)

==''Restructuring [[Header text]] as a table''==
''The messages regarding the [[Talk:Header text|''Header text'' reformatting]] project have been moved to '''[[Talk:Header text]]'''. To add a new topic regarding the projects, [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:Header_text&action=edit&section=new click here].'' --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 09:15, 2 February 2025 (UTC)

== So, the HiddenCat..? ==

You do seem pleased that it works, but I can't work out what you've done by it (presuming it has effects upon a different page). And slightly worried by the additional redlinked category that the page now has. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.229.161|172.68.229.161]] 19:31, 5 May 2025 (UTC)

:Sure. See {{mw|Help:Categories#Hidden_categories}}. I only applied it for the new All pages and the old All comics cats. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 15:13, 6 May 2025 (UTC)

:Solved the redlink (non-)issue by un-redlinking it (aka creating the cat). --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 15:55, 6 May 2025 (UTC)

::Still less than wise as to what ''problem'' it solves, but I'm just happy that you're happy. ;)
::Also "The categories that a page is in are normally listed at the bottom of the page." I'd have written as "The categories that a page are in are normally listed at the bottom of the page.", to match "categories=>are" ''or'' "Each category that a page is in is normally listed at the bottom of the page." to force "category=>is" agreement- but maybe that's a UK-English v.s. US-English thing. (Or just my particular regional sub-dialect of English (quite near me there's a place where "we was" and "I was" are considered 'correct' and another where "we were" and "I were" are, so there's easily room for such confusion, even though I'm a "we were" and "I was" person myself). Or just me be entirely mistaken about something!) [[Special:Contributions/172.68.205.187|172.68.205.187]] 20:52, 6 May 2025 (UTC)

:::> ''Still less than wise as to what ''problem'' it solves
:::Solves the problem of displaying a category that should not be seen by users.

:::Also, your suggestion seems grammatically incorrect. The "is" you'd like to change to an "are" is referring to "a page", not "categories". You may want to read the sentence again. afaik, "a page is here" is correct and "a page are here" is incorrect. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 14:18, 7 May 2025 (UTC)

== Exclusive xkcd textbook comics ==

Hey uhhh does anyone know about [https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/22/science/randall-munroe-xkcd-science-textbook.html this]? Should we make explanations for these?
--'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al |DollarStoreBa'al]][[User talk:DollarStoreBa'al |'''''Converse''''']][[DSBContribs |'''''My life choices''''']] 20:48, 8 May 2025 (UTC)

Google's Ai says there are multiple exclusive comics for the textbook, but I've only been able to find Inside Body, shown here:

[[File:Inside Body.jpg|300px]]

 {{unsigned|DollarStoreBa'al|23:07, 8 May 2025‎}}
:Hey, I'm afraid you'll have to be more specific about what "this" and "these" are. You might be looking for this page: [[New York Times: Good Question]]. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 15:06, 9 May 2025 (UTC)
::'This' links to a NYT article about randall munroe doing illustrations for a science textbook. Google's AI overview says there are three exclusive comic for this. I've only been able to find one. I'm asking if we should add explanations for these new comics. I have given it the temporary name 'Inside Body', since when I saved the image from the NYT article, the name 'Inside Body comic' was used.--'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al |DollarStoreBa'al]][[User talk:DollarStoreBa'al |'''''Converse''''']][[DSBContribs |'''''My life choices''''']] 16:59, 9 May 2025 (UTC)
:::upon further investigation, the article is on the page you linked to. My question is still whether we add an explanation for Inside Body. Also, do we add explanations for the other comics shown in the science textbook pages? --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al |DollarStoreBa'al]][[User talk:DollarStoreBa'al |'''''Converse''''']][[DSBContribs |'''''My life choices''''']] 17:02, 9 May 2025 (UTC)

::::A large language model is one of the most unreliable sources of information. Unless you find any other site or person mentioning that there are exclusive xkcd comics on some textbooks, I don't think we should in any way create pages based on what a large language model generated. Can you find any actual sources?

::::We might still explain that one specific comic, but this is not the right place to discuss this, we should use the community portals. Besides, there are many other comics in [[New York Times: Good Question]] that aren't explained. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 17:06, 9 May 2025 (UTC)

== It's a date. ==

I'm confused by {{diff|377635|the ISO Dates edit}}. First of all, as explained in my full revert's summary, lowercase are (mostly) reserved for time-placeholders and uppercase used for date-placeholder. And I checked a number of separate documentations and implementations where datetime format variations are described/configured, without finding even one that consistently reserved only "MM", etc, for month, for disambiguation with time's equivalent "mm"-for-minutes, but lowercased everything else.

Secondly, the apparent reason for this edit did not mention this. (Perhaps an overzealous editor auto-correct? Except it/you 'missed a few' and came back to 'fix' them.) The reason actually suggests a sentence's meaning was previously reversed when it clearly was not.

I reverted to before both your edits and those which had prompted your mass-'correction'. Technically, this leaves the "US format in binary" incorrect, which was the only case-change that the prior editor had actually rationalised before you. An argument ''could'' be made that "mm/dd/yyyy" could be parsable as being "MM/DD/YYYY, but in binary", like kb/kilobits is to kB/kilobytes... though that's not even how it's phrased and I'm sure that this should indeed be uppercased like it had been. I also think the other change, to the sentence, is more elegant (for the exact same meaning), but am allowing for a slight possibility that I'm wrong about that. As such, I'm letting you consider where we go from here. Revert my change (the latest, as I type) to re-'fix' things back into lowercase, if you have enough reason to, or reassess the things you blitzed and restore the "binary date" and/or rephrased "drop leading zeros" edits.

Any further discussion, on either original issue, I will leave between you and the other editor, though I thought I'd give you a direct nod about my full reasons why I nuked ''both'' changes, as you had apparently put far more effort into your contributions (for right or wrong). And I'm not currently unconvinced by ''their'' edits, but maybe you can take the opportunity to explain things better and switch my opinions over to your POV. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.229.44|172.68.229.44]] 04:05, 13 May 2025 (UTC)

:Sure! I just made the table on that page sortable again. Microsoft has always used yyyy, dd, and MM in their settings, so I assumed that was the standard. Thanks!--[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 14:55, 13 May 2025 (UTC)

== From Kynde's page ==

::::: And finally: the typos in the message you replied to were caused by my keyboard autocorrecting my words (my pc is broken). When you reply, do it on my talk page so we don't spam Kynde's. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 12:44, 29 June 2025 (UTC)
{{outdent|:::::}}
:Hello, I think you mistook another IP's recent comment as being from me-IP, from things said prior to the above. There are a few of us around, and I don't mind being mixed up with some of them (or vice-versa) that are similarly longterm maintainers of seemingly good intentions. Though I think that IP also used "propogate" instead of "propagate" (like I know I've got my own blindspots in spelling/grammar, and occasional tendency to lapse into dialect), which also amused me.
:As to your autocorrection-errors, it surprised me... In my experience, non-native but fluent of English don't let mistakes like that happen, and you're certainly up there with native speakers (il mio italiano è per lo più limitato a ciò che può fare un traduttore online... così!). I think it just looked... careless. Also, strangely induced errors.
:Don't let me discourage you, you've gone to a lot of trouble. Some things maybe necessary, some things maybe more just 'your own vision' that I could take or leave. Just that the "diff" page doesn't always align things to make it easy to compare old vs. new versions for anything more complicated than paragraphs/bullets/tabling to bullets/tabling/paragraphs or tabling/paragraphs/tables (as required). Complete rewrites don't help, even assuming that they accurate rewrites.
:...so, this is my response. From your invitation. Of course I can't speak for anyone else involved. [[Special:Contributions/92.23.2.228|92.23.2.228]] 18:17, 29 June 2025 (UTC)

::Oh well, until you decide to create a proper account I will blindly assume every IP that uses parentheses and subclauses is the same exact person! You are everyone.

:: Grazie per il complimento; il mio inglese would be better if I cared about looking over every message I post. I usually only extensively proofread article changes. You're right, that specific mistake wasn't an auto correction, I just didn't want to explain everything, but I have time to kill so I guess I'll just do it. On mobile, i prefer using Gboard's glide typing feature, which can sometimes mistake two words even if their letters are almost completely different. You can look it up, it looks cool, though I doubt it'd be ergonomic to use on your tablet. That's why help became hello.

:: Amusingly, there's a grammar error in your reply that I'll let you find! --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 22:17, 30 June 2025 (UTC)

== Rather than re-de-revert. ==

{{quote|The text "Don't remove this notice too soon" is there when there isn't a specific reason the page is incomplete. Now there is a clear moment when the page can be marked as complete. Not sure why you put back the PAGE CREATED BY thingy|{{diff|381894|Your re-revert}}}}

It's not just "Don't remove the 'Don't remove this text too soon' text too soon"... It's contectually applying to the ''whole'' incompleteness tag. Now, I'm not saying that, without it, people will think it ok to remove the whole thing, but there's no reason to remove it until you're removing the whole thing as solved. What even is the benefit of doing so?

But, honestly, I restored it not for meta-ontological purposes, but because I was actually trying to counter the strange removal of the PAGE CREATED BY bit. I appreciate that you may think that it confuses new readers, and I daresay that it does (a little bit), but it probably confuses them more when some new comics have this time-honoured bit of site culture and some do not. Whereas they shouldn't really take too long to realise that:
* "CREATED BY A BOT" is basically what it says on the tin, before any human has had a chance to ponder the newly added page,
* "CREATED BY <A JOKE>" is a new article once the rabble have gotten to it,
** ...though, IMO, you should only normally change it as "first editor" (or "first editor with a good idea ror a joke to put there") with something to contribute into the Explanation and/or Transcript (or will do momentarily), not ''just as a "FIRST!"-type thing then leave it...
** ...and you should think twice before changing someone else's joke to your own; perhaps refine it (oapply mild corrections to grammar/spelling/whatever it's trying to reference), but if you just totally "no, MY IDEA!" it, what's to stop the next person going "no, no, ''MY'' IDEA!!"? Just accept what's there (or tweak it, honourably), you'll perhaps be able to get (and keep for a reasonable time) the subtle 'bragging rights' to a future comic, if everyone plays nice and doesn't just entirely change it on a whim. Or remove it for no good reason, before the whole tag is considered superfluous anyway...
* If someone (like yourself) adds in an incomplete tag ''back'' into a previously 'presumed complete' page, that can happily stay without the BOT-inspired humour. Unless one feels like it, but actually adding the tag back in to pages, which (by wiki convention) are always open to being re-edited if you so wish,
** ...if I may say, adding an "incomplete|X and Y need doing to this page", instead of just doing X and Y to the page, is a waste of edits. I appreciate there are some things you might not be able to actually do (explain something that currently confuses you, for example), but occasionally it's a request to trivially reformat something, and no obvious reason why you haven't just done the reformatting in this edit. If you haven't time to do it all now, it doesn't need a placeholder to make a note to yourself to come back and do it when you can..
** ...and, unless you've changed it since I last looked, there's at least one "X needs doing" that seems to have been done but the "X needs doing" tag is still there. Haven't been able to work out if ''not all'' X has been done (for some reason), or whoever did complete it left this tag (whether or not they've deleted othersz along the way). When I have time to to through it line-by-line (more work than to quickly write something like this, which is to explain things that are clearly not as self-evident as I had thought), maybe I'll be the one to remove the notice to that effect..

I have no doubt that some of my thinkings around these matters (and various site traditions/conventions, which may predate me and do definitely prefate you) are perhaps a little strange. Similarly, I find some of your thinking strange. Or at least what I imagine is your thinkings, based upon your occasional doings. As it is practically impossible to cover all the various aspects of thought (or ideas about your aspects of thought) in an Edit Summary, especially one with "Reverting edit by..." filler already in it, this is to make up for the rather limited and compressed 'explanation' you perhaps had to make do with previously.

And it's only my opinion, albeit based upon site consensus (messy and ever-changing as that is) that I've absorbed from my time here. Perhaps you wish to shift consensus, but I'd of course like you to at least know that ''this is what you're doing''. If you don't know this, your well-meaning attempts to restandardise the groupçsnhive mind may just be more confusing than productive. Perhaps you may want to say "I don't think we should <foo> any more", rather than just de-<foo> everything without warning people that you might be treading on their metaphorical toes. Not that I can stop you, but every now and then I might be seeming to tread on your own toes (with no malicious intent), just because we're dancing to completely different beats. [[Special:Contributions/82.132.246.216|82.132.246.216]] 17:10, 25 July 2025 (UTC)

:Hi!

There's no reason to remove it until you're removing the whole thing as solved. What even is the benefit of doing so?

:That message is part of the default text for new comics. If someone has changed the incomplete tag, it's harder to notice that a specific reason has been created if the old text is still there. For these reasons, I believe editors are more likely to overlook what's written in the notice, thinking it only contains the default text.

[H]onestly, I restored it not for meta-ontological purposes

:What's a meta-ontological purpose?

the strange removal of the PAGE CREATED BY bit. I appreciate that you may think that it confuses new readers, and I daresay that it does (a little bit), but it probably confuses them more when some new comics have this time-honoured bit of site culture and some do not.

:Two things:
:1. The main reason I remove it is to avoid the above: editors thinking nobody pointed out specific page issues. And not just newer editors, even I sometimes miss an incomplete reason because I SEE THE ALL CAPS TEXT AND THINK NOBODY CHANGED IT. (im not screaming)

:2. Recently, I don't remove the joke from the LATESTCOMIC, unless it's really hard to see the actual incomplete reason.

"CREATED BY A BOT" is basically what it says on the tin, before any human has had a chance to ponder the newly added page,

:That hasn't been the case for months now. Look at the OG versions of the pages. Editors are adding it wholesale.

...though, IMO, you should only normally change it as "first editor" (or "first editor with a good idea ror a joke to put there") with something to contribute into the Explanation and/or Transcript (or will do momentarily), not just as a "FIRST!"-type thing then leave it...
...and you should think twice before changing someone else's joke to your own; perhaps refine it (oapply mild corrections to grammar/spelling/whatever it's trying to reference), but if you just totally "no, MY IDEA!" it, what's to stop the next person going "no, no, MY IDEA!!"? Just accept what's there (or tweak it, honourably), you'll perhaps be able to get (and keep for a reasonable time) the subtle 'bragging rights' to a future comic, if everyone plays nice and doesn't just entirely change it on a whim. Or remove it for no good reason, before the whole tag is considered superfluous anyway...

:I haven't considered this type of edit warring before, and I'm happy to stay away from it. I'm not sure whether the "you" was referring to me specifically, because I only edited the CREATED BY once or twice (i mostly remove it when it's old or hides the real reason a page is incomplete).

adding an "incomplete|X and Y need doing to this page", instead of just doing X and Y to the page, is a waste of edits

:I've been trying to do that less recently

If you haven't time to do it all now, it doesn't need a placeholder to make a note to yourself to come back and do it when you can..

:I thought this use was accepted. I do it because if someone else gets there before me, they can do it themselves. Could you suggest other ways for saving these small-but-needed edits?

unless you've changed it since I last looked, there's at least one "X needs doing" that seems to have been done but the "X needs doing" tag is still there.

:I think I've always removed an incomplete tag I created myself for all comics that aren't the ~20 most recent if, after chacking the page, I notice the editor has forgotten (and I always check the edits within a few days unless im on vacation). Please feel free to remove all my or others' incomplete tags if you notice it's complete. I don't understand why you're saying you noticed one and seemingly didn't remove it? If the editor that fixes the page forgets, it's up to whoever notices first to remove it.

Similarly, I find some of your thinking strange. Or at least what I imagine is your thinkings, based upon your occasional doings.

:Yeah I don't think I've ever explained my removals of the CREATED BY things. To summarise:
:Reason number 1) editors thinking nobody pointed out specific page issues because they think it's still the default notice.
:Reason number 2) the comic is old
:Reason number 3) confuses new users, but in the last year or so I haven't worried about this because I removed the incomplete notices from the [[Main Page]]. Hopefully the newbies will look at the mainpage first.

Perhaps you may want to say "I don't think we should <foo> any more", rather than just de-<foo> everything without warning people that you might be treading on their metaphorical toes.

:It's not that I want the tradition to stop, it's just that it gets in the way of productiveness. A notice is the most powerful thing we have to spread a message, and yet we use it as a joke which sometimes hides what's actually wrong with the page. I wish there were a way to keep the CREATED BY's and still allow for important notices to be highly visible. Currently, if I have to choose one, I choose the latter. Do you have any ideas about this? New templates, edits to the bot script, new fields for the existing template, a different notice type, etc?

:Also, any thoughts on the topic above. Your suggestions are often a good start but then you stop replying :( ㅤ [[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 13:21, 26 July 2025 (UTC)

::Ok, my prior reply seems to have been not posted, for reasons I can only guess (dodgy connection, looked like it happened but I moved on too quick, or didn't notice I'd landed on Edit Conflict, something like that?). But I've also been way too busy to actively ponder if you've not bothered to respond to me, in turn.
::Not going to recompose everything, at length, but Incomplete templates ''easily'' contain the original BOT text/user-version, as long as users don't go over-creative over it. Genuine reasons added to this are still visible. The BOT-original "don't delete this too soon" doesn't become any more superfluous than the now ubiquitous "editing it" link. For as long as the notice is 'new' on a new article, there's no reason at all to squeeze anything out in most circumstances. Don't underestimate the readership.
::If you're adding a box back in for an old article that has passed such 'newness' (or where there never was one), keep it as businesslike as you wish, of course.
::If you have a long, complicated list of things, it's probably a long, complicated article where you can site an Incomplete notice by the side of each troublesome item (as you have done).
::Not going any further, like pointing you back at innumerable 'classic' examples of it all just working (whether new users or old users took the necessary hints), as that was a lot of wasted work from last time I 'replied'. But it's all there in the back-pagesz if you care to look. [[Special:Contributions/82.132.245.128|82.132.245.128]] 16:45, 5 August 2025 (UTC)

:::Short and sweet reply, I like it! You should have a dodgy connection more often :D I seem to care about the notice much less than you do, so, sure; I'll keep it on relatively new articles and do whatever if it's older and doesn't still have the original. I still wish there were an easier solution, but it's just a notice. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 10:53, 6 August 2025 (UTC)

== Questions ==

Dear FaviFake

I posted a new question on the Randall question thing. I have no clue how to use the Wiki, but I still did my best to post a question. If I did it wrong please forgive me and I'll do my best next time.

PS. The question I posted is all the way down, at least as I am writing now.

[[User:Little Timmy|Little Timmy]] ([[User talk:Little Timmy|talk]]) 01:30, 29 July 2025 (UTC)Little Timmy[[User:Little Timmy|Little Timmy]] ([[User talk:Little Timmy|talk]]) 01:30, 29 July 2025 (UTC)

:No worries, that was good. You can learn more about editing this wiki on [[explain xkcd:Editor FAQ]]. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 08:50, 29 July 2025 (UTC)

==''Restoring the mini [[Comic series]]''==
''The messages regarding the [[Talk:Comic series|definition of a proper "comic series"]] have been moved to '''[[Talk:Comic series]]'''. To add a new topic regarding the comic series, [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:Comic_series&action=edit&section=new click here].'' --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 14:46, 31 July 2025 (UTC)
== Leaderboard ==

Wow, you probably know already but I’m just re-reminding you that you fell out of 1st place. Keep up the good contributions! {{Special:ContributionScores/10/7/nosort,notools}} [[User:Aprilfoolsupdate!| Aprilfoolsupdate!]]([[User talk:Aprilfoolsupdate!|talk]]) 09:57, 7 August 2025 (UTC)

:Oh well, I surely care more about [[Special:ContributionScores#All time (Top 50)|this other list]]. Thanks! --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 13:09, 7 August 2025 (UTC)

::I never knew this list existed! I wonder what’s behind it? The “well known” one is <nowiki> {{Special:ContributionScores/50/7/nosort,notools}} </nowiki> I guess, but what’s the one for this list?[[User:Aprilfoolsupdate!| Aprilfoolsupdate!]]([[User talk:Aprilfoolsupdate!|talk]]) 13:11, 7 August 2025 (UTC)

:::Who knows! Maybe Mediawiki has the answer. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 13:20, 7 August 2025 (UTC)

== Small Talk (Or Something Like That) ==

Hey, how's things going? Everything alright? Any wiki-wide events I missed? Really miss how things were before. -Tori '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 15:51, 9 August 2025 (UTC)

:Hi welcome back!!! The only interesting thing imo opinion is that Randall replied to me again, I'm not sure if you saw that, see my userpage. :) --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 16:39, 11 August 2025 (UTC)

::Oh and the [[Comic series]] page was divided into main series and miniseries and is now just a list of transclusions so we don't have to keep 2 pages up to date. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 16:41, 11 August 2025 (UTC)

== "I'll omit this part because I'm not sure it should be published." ==
why? [[user:lett‪herebedarklight|raeb]] 09:28, 18 August 2025 (UTC)
:What? could you elaborate? --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 10:37, 19 August 2025 (UTC)
::randall's reply. the answer that starts "Most of those were inside jokes sent to friends [...]" [[user:lett‪herebedarklight|raeb]] 11:44, 19 August 2025 (UTC)
:::Oh right. Some have said it's a bit personal. Now that the sitewide banner's off I'll reinstate it. Thx. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 10:40, 20 August 2025 (UTC)
:::{{Done}} --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 10:42, 20 August 2025 (UTC)

== A rational rationale? ==

You know, some people complain about explanations being too long. Copying {{diff|384566|a swathe of wikipedia}} about twice as large as the original explanation text seems about as odd as initially deciding to removing that text (which linked to the page in question, for the curious) ''possibly'' because you personally didn't know about it. It's ok, not everyone does know, even native speakers, but also maybe the treatment originally given to that part could be reworded to slightly more compact. (I liked the flippant bit. But I wouldn't have said it quite like that, myself.) Yet there's some confusion over your underkill-then-overkill approach. And if I was going to rewrite it, it'd be more considered than either excising or copypasting. Could have just been left alone, though. [[Special:Contributions/82.132.237.85|82.132.237.85]] 17:27, 20 August 2025 (UTC)
:It said singular they was considered incorrect, iirc, which is not really the case nowadays. I did a bit of ce before pasting it; my logic was: either add it back correctly, or remove the wrong part. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 15:28, 31 August 2025 (UTC)

==Tori and I have an idea==
Please check the proposals board for an idea to subvert the 255 character signature limit. --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al|DollarStoreBa'al]][[User_talk:DollarStoreBa'al|'''''converse''''']] 17:40, 29 August 2025 (UTC)

==[[:Template:comic discussion 1167]]==
Hi FaviFake. I was looking through the unused templates page to try to do some cleanup on here when I noticed a [[:Template:comic discussion 1167|template]] from back in 2013. You had originally tagged it as a page to delete, but then added a lot more to the template. Since it is still unused and I cannot surmise any purpose for it, I have re-tagged it. Would you mind explaining your thought process? Thanks, '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 16:36, 10 September 2025 (UTC)
:I don't remember why I used it, probably as a sandbox. It's unnecessary, thanks for flagging it.--[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 10:58, 13 September 2025 (UTC)

==Contact Info Google Site==
Hi FaviFake, what is the URL for your Google Site of contact info? I remember that you had posted it on here, but I cannot find it. I was experiencing Cloudflare errors in the past 24 hours and was unable to contact anyone on Explain XKCD. I would greatly enjoy it if we had some other form of communication outside of here. Thanks. '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 20:17, 12 September 2025 (UTC)
:Oh, thank god it's back. I noticed the outage and it seems someone had posted about it on reddit.
:The website is https://sites.google.com/view/FaviFake, you can bookmark it if you want. I noticed you're also on Reddit (and Wikipedia iirc), so I might contact you there if there's a more serious outage. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 10:58, 13 September 2025 (UTC)

{{Links}}

== [[Hoverboard]] ==

I glad that someone has looked at my changes to this game description.

I am sorry, however, that you disagree with my two main points.

Can we discuss?

I see no point in getting into a "reversion war" over comments to a comic.

[[User:Sprucegrouse|Sprucegrouse]] ([[User talk:Sprucegrouse|talk]]) 13:52, 4 October 2025 (UTC)
:Of course. I simply think your version is too odd:
The best way to enjoy this comic is just to play the game! (Just be sure that you play using a web browser other than Safari.) If you have not yet tried (hard) to play it "cold" already, do so now. Reading beyond this Alert first will deprive you of the best this game has to offer.
Mine:
The best way to enjoy this comic is just to play the game! If you didn't do that already, reading anything below will spoil you from truly enjoying the comic.

I don’t see the need of specifying browsers, and the complex language you used, in a ''spoiler alert''. [[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 16:11, 4 October 2025 (UTC)

== Comic list numbers. ==

Had a look at all today's edits to the Comics-bar template, carefully, after making it fully correct. Though the other person apparently didn't spot it, and I didn't have enough space in the Explanation to say it in longhand, I think I need to appeal to you directly. Not ''entirely'' sure you realised what you were dealing with. Or you just have a weird idea of what's acceptibly correct.

If I'm actually wanting to look at the list that contains (say) comic 1500, I wouldn't find it by following the text "1500-<whatever>" that links to a 1501-2000 page. I would if I was followed the "<whatever>-1500" one, before that, that links to the explicitly 1001-1500 page. But quick scanning of the text might miss the obvious overlap and initially get you to explore only the latter. When you do, you get to the page that starts "2000, 1999, 1998, ...", then you scroll down to the bottom to find that it ''doesn't'' have the desired 1500 after all. (Before you ask, there are possible reasons that you might want to view the ''list'' item, and deliberately didn't go to the [[1500]] explanation page itself.) The explanation "unnecessary specificity" is at least misleading, and that edit made the whole top-bar misleading.

(Personally, I'd have gone with 1-499, 500-999, etc, even though the lack of a '0' makes the first one shorter. Each of them being (500n)+1 to 500(n+1), as it is, is also ok. But neither method is (500n) to 500(n+1), however you look at them.) [[Special:Contributions/81.179.195.93|81.179.195.93]] 18:44, 4 October 2025 (UTC)
:Fine, sure. If someone is looking for exactly 1500, rounding it will be annoying for them, but I thought the nicer round numbers were more important than full correctness. But I don't mind, you can change it back. There are bigger fishes to fry. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 21:26, 4 October 2025 (UTC)
::That's a very strange thought to have had, here in the home of mathematical nitpicking, nerd sniping, over-anaylsing and all-round adherence to the ideals of accuracy and/or precision. I'm just surprised that it spent so much time with a partial off-by-one error.
::Although I didn't actually personally notice it until one or more other people did and at least partially tried to fix it. I suppose we all have our blind spots! Though maybe this is one of those cases where some people, once they see the issue, [[2598: Graphic Designers|couldn't unsee it]]. [[Special:Contributions/81.179.195.93|81.179.195.93]] 22:28, 4 October 2025 (UTC)

==2==
`^ -_ /| /\ -\ /_ /` -\ -\ /` -` /\ %20 `^ ‘_ -`%20 -`|_ %20 |_ -` `’ -_ %20 ‘_ -’ /_ ‘_

^UP|DOWN -LEFT_RIGHT %20SPACE /DIAGDOWNLEFT \DIAGDOWNRIGHT `DIAGUPLEFT ‘DIAGUPRIGHT

:Ok, I've not worked out the exact symbolic logic, in use, but the plaintext is obvious. Then the significance of the tetragrams may be the final puzzle. (Sorry, Favi, they put this here. For whatever purpose.) [[Special:Contributions/82.132.245.223|82.132.245.223]] 22:30, 12 November 2025 (UTC)