explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

1506: xkcloud

2026-06-15T22:46:11Z

Capycapybara:

{{comic
| number = 1506
| date = April 1, 2015
| title = xkcloud
| image = xkcloud.png
| titletext =
}}
{{series
| series = April
| number = 8
| date = April 1, 2015
| days_late =
| day_category = Wednesday
| prev_title = 1350: Lorenz
| prev_date = April 1, 2014
| next_title = 1663: Garden
| next_date = April 4, 2016
| extra_text =
}}
<div class="toclimit-3">{{TOC}}</div>To experience the interactivity of the game, visit the {{xkcd|1506|original comic}}.

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|
*Need to remove bullet points throughout the [[#Explanation]] and [[#Trivia]] sections.

* Also, clean up section [[#Don't contact us]] (don't use references or <s>striked text</s>, make a cohesive and clear explanation of what happened to the chatroom).

* Also need to move the explanation of the reasons OUTSIDE of [[1506: xkcloud/Transcript|the full transcript]] and inside the, you know, [[#Explanation]]...}}
In this interactive {{w|April Fools' Day}} comic [[Cueball]], presumably representing [[Randall]], admits to the readers he built a flimsy {{w|Cloud computing|cloud}} services company using spare computers and parts. Included in the cloud hardware are (from left to right) a {{w|Macintosh}}, several old laptops, an {{w|Alienware}} tower, a {{w|Nintendo}} {{w|Virtual Boy}}, an old desktop with the cover off, and an {{w|Atari, Inc.|Atari}} {{w|Pong#Home_version|Pong Console}}. He named the company after xkcd, xkcloud being a [[:category:Portmanteau|portmanteau]] of "[[xkcd]]" and "{{w|Cloud computing|cloud}}", here pronounced XK-cloud. The portmanteau incidentally still contains all four xkcd letters in the correct order: xkcLOUd. This was later reused for the xkcd keyboard in [[2150: XKeyboarCD]], where the word Keyboard, has an X before the word and a C before the D with the xkcd letters capitalized.

After providing his services to various (very big) companies ({{w|Facebook}}, {{w|Twitter}} and {{w|Tumblr}}), that are very concerned with securing the users data, his setup failed (some portions may even have caught fire? He is not sure). This has caused him to lose the data he was required to preserve as part of his service. He thus requests the readers help to make up and re-imagine the lost data by pressing the large red button at the bottom of the comic. Preferably ''before Facebook & Co notice we lost it.''

If you take him up on his request and push the button, you will be taken to a "survey" where you will get the chance to help by either trying to combine a posted picture with its lost text or, vice versa, by trying to combine a posted text with its lost picture. In either case you get a selection of texts/pictures to choose from but can also choose to write your own text or even draw the picture. After doing this you get to see this combination in the news feed together with several other posts (which other people have helped combine from other lost data). And then you can continue helping as long as you like.

The content of the "surveys" appear to come from reader submissions, and are different upon every click. This is thus both an interactive and a dynamic comic with only the first picture shown on top of this page. By inviting the xkcd readers to add content that will be displayed in the comic later, the result of all the interactions leads to the generation of {{w|Crowdsourcing|crowd-sourced content}}.

It was not immediately clear if the reader-created drawings or captions are, in fact, being cycled into the surveys and feeds, or if the displayed items were all created by Randall and the reader-created content is simply discarded. With the huge amount of different comments and drawings that already appeared on the first day, and since especially the drawings look like they are created in the simple Paint app (i.e. not by Randall), there can be no doubt that most of the content is created by the users. However he must have made some pictures to get it all started, and at least one of these can be seen [[1506: xkcloud/Pictures posted by users#Randall's pictures|here]].

This comic resembles last years April Fools' Day comic [[1350: Lorenz]] where user input also generated a very complex crowd-sourced comic. In both comics it was possible to create a [[#Permalink|permalink]] to save a given version of the comic to share with others. An earlier comic was also related to problems with cloud computing: [[908: The Cloud]].

Due to the very complex nature of this comic, there are lots of details that may need an explanation. This can be found in the sections below. Note that there have been some [[#Changes and bugs|changes and bugs]] regarding this comic after it was first released. Some of the pictures that are referenced below were saved before these changes took place. So consult [[#Changes in the comic|these changes]] if the pictures do not match the expectations.

===Extra xkcloud pages===
Since this comic is so big and complicated, extra pages have been created to include much more information than is wished for on this main page (which is already of considerable size). These pages are listed here for convenience, but they are also listed in the relevant sections below:
*[[1506: xkcloud/Pictures of other pages]] - Pictures representing the other three main types of pages.
*[[1506: xkcloud/Pictures posted by users]] - Some of the pictures of the comic created by users.
*[[1506: xkcloud/Transcript]] - A transcript of these pages with explanations for the reason for data loss and other features, such as usernames, like buttons, etc.

===Functionality===
*Pressing the red button at the '''front page''' (shown here above) links to one of two interactive survey pages (see [[1506: xkcloud/Pictures of other pages|the pictures]] of all types of pages.).
**All these pages have a news feed below the top post. This will be described [[#News feed|here below]].
*The '''Lost picture page''' (see several [[1506: xkcloud/Pictures of other pages#Help.21 We lost the picture page|pictures here]]) asks the reader to indicate which of eight '''line-drawings''' (see several [[1506: xkcloud/Pictures posted by users|examples here]]) best matches a given caption, or the reader can create their own drawing.
**This can be done on the '''Draw one your self sub-page''' (see several [[1506: xkcloud/Pictures of other pages#Draw one your self page|pictures here]]) in a simple web-based "{{w|Paint (software)|paint}}"-style {{w|Web application|app}}.
***Note that someone found a way to copy a picture into the comic. See at least one example of this [[1506: xkcloud/Pictures posted by users#Copy pasted pictures|here]].
*The '''Lost text page''' (see several [[1506: xkcloud/Pictures of other pages#Help! We lost the text page|pictures here]]) asks the reader to indicate which of eight captions best matches the given drawing, or the reader can create their own caption and submit this instead.
**These captions are user generated. See transcribed examples of these '''post from users''' [[1506: xkcloud/Transcript#Post from users|here]].
*In either case, at the top of the pages, we are given the '''Reason for the data loss'''. And there are many different reasons (all by account of Randall).
**A list of transcribed reasons (with explanations included) [[1506: xkcloud/Transcript#Reason for data loss|can be found here]].
*After completing the "survey" you go to a new page appears:
*The '''Help us recover more data''' page (see several [[1506: xkcloud/Pictures of other pages#Help us recover more data page|pictures here]]) has yet another red button like the front page, but on this page it is at the top of the page, saying exactly ''Help us recover more data''.
**By pushing this button you go to one of the two "Lost" pages mentioned above.
*It is possible to go back to the front page at any time by clicking the picture of Cueball sitting behind his desk in the same way as he does in the first picture on the front page.
**Cueball is always present to the left on all pages after the front page.
**But if you go back to the front page like this, then if you again click on the "original" red button to return to help with the recovery, you will always go back to the same page you came from (with the same posts in the news feed and if it is one of the lost data pages also with the same post to fix.)
**You can thus only get to a new survey page by finishing the current task (or pressing a permalink as [[#Permalink|discussed below]]).

===News feed===
*Below the "survey" or the post you just recovered (to begin with), you will be presented with a listing similar to a {{w|Facebook features#News Feed|Facebook news feed}}, listing six posts of the line-drawings apparently tagged with the captions as paired up by other users survey results.
**The posts are made by apparently '''fictional randomly-named readers''' (see transcribed examples [[1506: xkcloud/Transcript#User names|of names here]]).
**But there are only 20 '''user pictures'''. See these (and why it is known that there are only 20) as well as a description of these pictures [[1506: xkcloud/Transcript#User pictures|here]].
**The posts are accompanied by a button similar to Facebook's "'''{{w|Like button}}'''" but here the button is labeled with different words which are all {{w|synonyms}} for ''[http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/want want]'' (see transcribed [[1506: xkcloud/Transcript#Like buttons|list of words here]]). So not "to like" but "to want" is the new thing in this version of Facebook.
*After the first time you recovered a post, there will thus be seven posts on the ''Help us recover more data'' page, six new posts below the one you just helped complete.
**The only difference when you click this pages red button (rather than when you start for the first time at the front page) is that there will now be seven posts below the one you need to fix.
**These seven posts are the same as those you had on the previous page, including your own at the top.

===Permalink===
*Next to each post there is a text ''Link'' above the "Want" button above the picture. (This goes for all three types of pages mentioned above.)
*The "Link" is an actual link of the type that is called a "'''{{w|permalink}}'''", a portmanteau of "permanent-link".
*If you wish to "save" any given post for future reference (for instance one with your own drawing) you can do so by copying down this link.
**Last year's April Fools' Day comic, [[1350: Lorenz]], was the first time the [[1350: Lorenz#Permalink|concept of a permalink]] was used on xkcd.
**The permalink option did not appear in the comic until very late in the afternoon on April 1. The "Link" was thus not present on the pictures refereed above. (See [[1506: xkcloud/Pictures of other pages#After 18:00 ET on April 1st|these pictures]] instead).
*Pressing the "Link" next to any given post takes you to the page of the permalink:
**This page will show a version of the ''Help us recover more data'' page with the chosen post as the top post.
**When you click the permalink it takes you to this "new" page and this page will '''not''' show all the posts from the page where you chose it.
**Only the post you saved via the "Link" next to it.
***All the other post will again just be chosen at random, and these will change again every time you reload this page via the saved permalink.
***Even the text on the "want" buttons also continues to change.
***The user name and user picture stay the same though.
*As an '''example''' of a [http://xkcd.com/1506/#post/50b47c70-3a7c-504d-bcc0-60597338e999 permalink] this is a post saying: ''We told Iran that atomic energy is unsafe'' for a picture of a black devil and two Cueballs next to a road.
**Originally the user name was {{w|Mark Zuckerberg}} but this has since changed to ''Destiny1983'' next to a user picture of a stick figure with black hair on a skateboard.
**See [[#Changes in the comic|Changes in the comic]] below for a possible reason.
**Also please make a note here, if the user name and picture is no longer the same.
*A huge '''collection of permalinks''' with link to the pictures have been amassed here:
**[[1506: xkcloud/Table of Permalinks|Table with permalinks]] contains all known images and captions at least once. (2179 feed entries, featuring 1481 different pictures and 1935 different captions, as of 2015-04-24)
**[[1506: xkcloud/List of Permalinks|List of Permalinks]] contains all known permalinks (25585 links, as of 2015-04-24)

====Details on the permalink====
*Since the post from the page where you choose the first permalink is reloaded... Can you then only save one post at a time?
*The answer is "no" - you can save all posts on any given page.
**For each "Link" text on a given page, there has already been generated a unique permalink {{w|URL}}.
**Thus you can copy any permalink via the "Link", without actually pressing the "Link" to obtain the permalink for a given post.
**Furthermore, since this may be the only comic where you can copy the text, you can simple mark the entire page and copy paste it into a document that contains formatting. If you do this then you will have all the text, pictures and most importantly the permalinks for all the posts.
*If you click the Link and go to the permalink page there will be seven posts, six new and the one you just saved.
**The behavior of the posts is very strange from here if you press more permalinks on this first permalink page
**Also it will not be the same again after this first time as compared to if you continue to help recover more data and use the permalink later.
**On this first permalink page, where your chosen post is at the top, if you click on another post's permalink the following will happen:
***The post you originally choose disappears from the page, as the new chosen post is moved to the top.
***The other five post remains in the same order, so there are not only 6 posts.
***If you continue to choose the other posts one at a time, they will simply exchange place with the one at the top, with all six posts remaining.
***Once you have been through all of them, then the order of the post has been determined.
****So if you click on a "Link" that you have already once activated, then this page will just reload, and the post will have the same order as last time.
****This is only until you choose to reload, or when you load such a permalink later. Then again it will just be the chosen post, and then always six other new posts.
**If you then at some point move on via the red button you kind of stay in the permalink page, now just with new options to choose from.
***If you then create a new post, six new posts will be loaded below.
***When you click on a permalink at this point, there will not be any reloading of the post (because it is not the first time).
***Any post you click will move to the top, but all the other (six this time) will stay, the top post just moving down to another position.
****It is not always a direct exchange. Sometimes the top post moves to another position and then pushes the others down until they reach the now calculated position of the post now at the top.

===Our policy regarding your personal data===
:On every of the pages after the front page Cueball sits at his desk labeled XKCD.COM
:Below him are xkcloud's policy:
:''Our policy regarding your personal data'':
*Please stop sending us your personal data
*We are running out of places to put it
*Is this even yours?
*Does anyone recognize whose data this is?
*Oh jeez never mind here comes more data
*Why are you doing this
*Please stop
*Help
:As can be seen he is getting desperate because people keep sending them more data.
::He has no place to store it.
::And he do not even know who the data belongs to.
::So now he hopes someone else recognize the data (what you are doing if you choose to help).
::In the end he simply pleads for people to stop and then shouts ''Help''.
:If you click on the desk you are sent back to the front page of the comic.
:But below Help is their real contact detail [[#Don't contact us|Don't contact us]]:

===Don't contact us===
*At the same time the permalink appeared, there was also suddenly a new link on all other pages than the front page, written in a very light grey font. It can be hard to see on some screens and has possibly changed colour to become harder to see since it first appeared.
**It is located right beneath ''help'' at the bottom of the list of problems written under ''our policy regarding your data'' right beneath Cueball at his desk to the left (see [[1506: xkcloud/Pictures of other pages#After 18:00 ET on April 1st|picture here]]).
**In some cases, tilting the screen will help to make it visible- if you still can't see it, you can still find it with the cursor, or you can also highlight the text below Cueball down to make it easier to see.
*The link text reads '''Don't contact us''' and links to [https://euphoria.io/room/xkcd a now-defunct chatroom formerly hosted at euphoria.io].
*Click the [https://euphoria.io/room/xkcd/ link] to open an xkcd chatroom on Euphoria. (See a [[1506: xkcloud/Pictures of other pages#xkcd chat forum|picture here]]).
**Several xkcd users began posting on the original chatroom at around 18:00 {{w|Eastern Time Zone|Eastern time}} (Randall's timezone).
**After picking a username, you can chat in real time with the other users. You can change your username by clicking on it near the bottom of the screen and entering a new one.
**On November 23rd 2023, euphoria shut down. The xkcd room lives on in the form of a new instance on [https://euphoria.leet.nu/room/xkcd/ euphleet].
''We are open for anyone to chat here. Hey you! Come right over and say hello to us! ~<s>[https://euphoria.io/room/xkcd euphoria.io/room/xkcd]</s> https://euphoria.leet.nu/room/xkcd/ ''
(PS. Please say thank you to @Xyzzy on it; He did make the new chat, after all. (From @KurzgesagtDuck11. (Now @Geometrist.))
====Undocumented Feature====
*This chat room is reminiscent of the one in a comic [[1305: Undocumented Feature]].
*As mentioned above, this chat room is hard to access - to access it, click on the hidden link saying "Don't contact us" under "Our Policy Regarding Your Personal Data"{{xkcd|1506}}.
**You do get to choose your username, unlike [[1305: Undocumented Feature]], but you could change it. Or others could use the same.
*When it came out, many users began using the chatroom.
*Maybe Randall timed these extra features for when people came back from work all over the US.

==Changes and bugs==
During the first day there occurred several changes to the comic, and also some bugs very present.

===Changes in the comic===
*All the changes mentioned here occurred during April 1 on the release day:
*Since being [[Media:Originalxkcloud.png|originally posted]] the words "Click here" were relatively quickly added in large text to the top of the red button followed by the word "to" being added to the beginning of the existing text.
**The text changed from
***''Help us recover user data before Facebook & Co notice we lost it.'' to
***''Click here to help us recover user data before Facebook & Co notice we lost it.''
**The reason for this is most likely that too few users understood that they could enter a second part of the comic by clicking on the red button.
*Late in the afternoon on April 1 (around 18:00 {{w|Eastern Time Zone|ET}}) several changes occurred to the pages that can be reached from the front page:
**The [[#Permalink|permalink]] option appeared
**The link that says [[#Don't contact us|Don't contact us]] appeared under the text beneath Cueball's desk with a link to an xkcd chat room.
***Though only for the text font to fade out to being almost invisible again later on April 1.
**The alignment of the text right beneath Cueball's desk changed. (Compare this [[1506: xkcloud/Pictures of other pages#Help us recover more data page|before picture]] with this [[1506: xkcloud/Pictures of other pages#After 18:00 ET on April 1st|picture after]] 18:00 ET).
**The number of posts increased from 3 or 4 to 6 or 7. (See the pictures above — scroll down to see the relevant after picture).
**Also the number of pictures and text to choose from increased from five to eight (as can also be seen by comparing the pictures found here for before — for [[1506: xkcloud/Pictures of other pages#Help! We lost the text page|text]] and for [[1506: xkcloud/Pictures of other pages#Help! We lost the picture page|picture]] — with the [[1506: xkcloud/Pictures of other pages#After 18:00 ET on April 1st|pictures after]] (scroll down as mentioned before)).
***The reason he increased the number of posts (both to see and to choose from) could simply be because there where now is so many possible posts that the risk of seeing the same is smaller even with 6 posts.
*Sometime on April 2, Randall made an update to the names list.
**That this happened could be seen since the names shown in permalinks did change. And since then they have stayed constant.
**For instance, [http://xkcd.com/1506/#post/3c34fb48-1a07-51d2-a81d-5257a3681024 this permalink], to an atomic bomb explosion with the caption ''that's one nasty burn!'', had the name "Lauren Ibsen Dolores Amit" (a play on "{{w|Lorem ipsum|Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet}}"), but then displayed the name "Virginia2006" next to a picture of a man with black hair. Currently, it displays the name "Michelleii" next to the same image.
***(If this changes please make a note - then the names list have either been changed again, or the assumption that the names stay constant is wrong.)

===Bugs===
From time to time, instead of the interactive page there is a page with [[Media:three dots only.png|three dots only]]. Also, at around 18:00, when all the changes occurred, the xkcd page did not work properly. The chat room was also overloaded at this time.

==Transcript==
:'''[This transcript only transcribes what can be seen in the first picture shown at the top of the explanation here. The standard text for the next possible pages can be seen on the [[1506: xkcloud/Transcript|full transcript]].]'''

:[One large frame with a five part comic and a large red button at the bottom.]
:[Cueball sitting behind a desk.]
:Cueball: We've made a huge mistake.
:Desk: XKCD.COM

:[Cueball stands and indicates a motley collection of computers and related equipment strewn around the desk.]
:Cueball: I figured starting a cloud services company would be easy.
:Cueball: After all, I've got ''tons'' of computers!

:[A zoomed view on Cueballs head.]
:Cueball: Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr— they all struggle to protect privacy and user data...
:Cueball: And '''''we''''' offered a solution.
:Cueball: <small>I forget what it was, though.</small>

:[Cueball is standing with his arms up.]
:Cueball: Anyway, long story short, we screwed up ''immediately'' and lost ''tons'' of their data.
:Cueball: <small>Also a bunch of stuff is literally on fire?</small>

:[Cueball standing behind a desk.]
:Cueball: We can fix this.
:Cueball: But we need your help.
:Desk: XKCD.COM

:[Below the above is a large red rectangular clickable button, that will take the reader on to the interactive part of the comic. On the button it says in large white letters:]
:'''CLICK HERE'''
:To help us recover user data before Facebook & Co notice we lost it.

:'''[The standard text for the next possible pages can be seen on the [[1506: xkcloud/Transcript|full transcript]]. Also here will be a list with possible text for the lost data.]'''

==Trivia==
This is the first comic:
*Without a title text. (If you don't count the unnumbered [[A Smarter Planet]] comics and [[404: Not Found]].)
*Where you can copy and paste most of the text from the comic. I.e it is not drawn but printed.
**This goes only for the follow up pages after the front page.
**It does not only go for the user input.
These two facts could go together because of the format of this comic (it is not a single picture). There may not have been any way to add a title text. Also, the source code of elements in the drawing interactive contain the attribute "data-reactid", indicating it is written using the [http://facebook.github.io/react/ React JavaScript library,] developed to use with Facebook & Instagram.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Interactive comics]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Knit Cap]] 
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Portmanteau]]
[[Category:No title text]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Elon Musk]]
[[Category:Dynamic comics]]
[[Category:Characters with hats]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Joe Biden]]
[[Category:Giraffes]]

1506: xkcloud

2026-06-15T22:44:32Z

Capycapybara: fixed grammatical errors

{{comic
| number = 1506
| date = April 1, 2015
| title = xkcloud
| image = xkcloud.png
| titletext =
}}
{{series
| series = April
| number = 8
| date = April 1, 2015
| days_late =
| day_category = Wednesday
| prev_title = 1350: Lorenz
| prev_date = April 1, 2014
| next_title = 1663: Garden
| next_date = April 4, 2016
| extra_text =
}}
<div class="toclimit-3">{{TOC}}</div>To experience the interactivity of the game, visit the {{xkcd|1506|original comic}}.

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|
*Need to remove bullet points throughout the [[#Explanation]] and [[#Trivia]] sections.

* Also, clean up section [[#Don't contact us]] (don't use references or <s>striked text</s>, make a cohesive and clear explanation of what happened to the chatroom).

* Also need to move the explanation of the reasons OUTSIDE of [[1506: xkcloud/Transcript|the full transcript]] and inside the, you know, [[#Explanation]]...}}
In this interactive {{w|April Fools' Day}} comic [[Cueball]], presumably representing [[Randall]], admits to the readers he built a flimsy {{w|Cloud computing|cloud}} services company using spare computers and parts. Included in the cloud hardware are (from left to right) a {{w|Macintosh}}, several old laptops, an {{w|Alienware}} tower, a {{w|Nintendo}} {{w|Virtual Boy}}, an old desktop with the cover off, and an {{w|Atari, Inc.|Atari}} {{w|Pong#Home_version|Pong Console}}. He named the company after xkcd, xkcloud being a [[:category:Portmanteau|portmanteau]] of "[[xkcd]]" and "{{w|Cloud computing|cloud}}", here pronounced XK-cloud. The portmanteau incidentally still contains all four xkcd letters in the correct order: xkcLOUd. This was later reused for the xkcd keyboard in [[2150: XKeyboarCD]], where the word Keyboard, has an X before the word and a C before the D with the xkcd letters capitalized.

After providing his services to various (very big) companies ({{w|Facebook}}, {{w|Twitter}} and {{w|Tumblr}}), that are very concerned with securing the users data, his setup failed (some portions may even have caught fire? He is not sure). This has caused him to lose the data he was required to preserve as part of his service. He thus requests the readers help to make up and re-imagine the lost data by pressing the large red button at the bottom of the comic. Preferably ''before Facebook & Co notice we lost it.''

If you take him up on his request and push the button, you will be taken to a "survey" where you will get the chance to help by either trying to combine a posted picture with its lost text or, vice versa, by trying to combine a posted text with its lost picture. In either case you get a selection of texts/pictures to choose from but can also choose to write your own text or even draw the picture. After doing this you get to see this combination in the news feed together with several other posts (which other people have helped combine from other lost data). And then you can continue helping as long as you like.

The content of the "surveys" appear to come from reader submissions, and are different upon every click. This is thus both an interactive and a dynamic comic with only the first picture shown on top of this page. By inviting the xkcd readers to add content that will be displayed in the comic later, the result of all the interactions leads to the generation of {{w|Crowdsourcing|crowd-sourced content}}.

It was not immediately clear if the reader-created drawings or captions are, in fact, being cycled into the surveys and feeds, or if the displayed items were all created by Randall and the reader-created content is simply discarded. With the huge amount of different comments and drawings that already appeared on the first day, and since especially the drawings look like they are created in the simple Paint app (i.e. not by Randall), there can be no doubt that most of the content is created by the users. However he must have made some pictures to get it all started, and at least one of these can be seen [[1506: xkcloud/Pictures posted by users#Randall's pictures|here]].

This comic resembles last years April Fools' Day comic [[1350: Lorenz]] where user input also generated a very complex crowd-sourced comic. In both comics it was possible to create a [[#Permalink|permalink]] to save a given version of the comic to share with others. An earlier comic was also related to problems with cloud computing: [[908: The Cloud]].

Due to the very complex nature of this comic, there are lots of details that may need an explanation. This can be found in the sections below. Note that there have been some [[#Changes and bugs|changes and bugs]] regarding this comic after it was first released. Some of the pictures that are referenced below were saved before these changes took place. So consult [[#Changes in the comic|these changes]] if the pictures do not match the expectations.

===Extra xkcloud pages===
Since this comic is so big and complicated, extra pages have been created to include much more information than is wished for on this main page (which is already of considerable size). These pages are listed here for convenience, but they are also listed in the relevant sections below:
*[[1506: xkcloud/Pictures of other pages]] - Pictures representing the other three main types of pages.
*[[1506: xkcloud/Pictures posted by users]] - Some of the pictures of the comic created by users.
*[[1506: xkcloud/Transcript]] - A transcript of these pages with explanations for the reason for data loss and other features, such as usernames, like buttons, etc.

===Functionality===
*Pressing the red button at the '''front page''' (shown here above) links to one of two interactive survey pages (see [[1506: xkcloud/Pictures of other pages|the pictures]] of all types of pages.).
**All these pages have a news feed below the top post. This will be described [[#News feed|here below]].
*The '''Lost picture page''' (see several [[1506: xkcloud/Pictures of other pages#Help.21 We lost the picture page|pictures here]]) asks the reader to indicate which of eight '''line-drawings''' (see several [[1506: xkcloud/Pictures posted by users|examples here]]) best matches a given caption, or the reader can create their own drawing.
**This can be done on the '''Draw one your self sub-page''' (see several [[1506: xkcloud/Pictures of other pages#Draw one your self page|pictures here]]) in a simple web-based "{{w|Paint (software)|paint}}"-style {{w|Web application|app}}.
***Note that someone found a way to copy a picture into the comic. See at least one example of this [[1506: xkcloud/Pictures posted by users#Copy pasted pictures|here]].
*The '''Lost text page''' (see several [[1506: xkcloud/Pictures of other pages#Help! We lost the text page|pictures here]]) asks the reader to indicate which of eight captions best matches the given drawing, or the reader can create their own caption and submit this instead.
**These captions are user generated. See transcribed examples of these '''post from users''' [[1506: xkcloud/Transcript#Post from users|here]].
*In either case, at the top of the pages, we are given the '''Reason for the data loss'''. And there are many different reasons (all by account of Randall).
**A list of transcribed reasons (with explanations included) [[1506: xkcloud/Transcript#Reason for data loss|can be found here]].
*After completing the "survey" you go to a new page appears:
*The '''Help us recover more data''' page (see several [[1506: xkcloud/Pictures of other pages#Help us recover more data page|pictures here]]) has yet another red button like the front page, but on this page it is at the top of the page, saying exactly ''Help us recover more data''.
**By pushing this button you go to one of the two "Lost" pages mentioned above.
*It is possible to go back to the front page at any time by clicking the picture of Cueball sitting behind his desk in the same way as he does in the first picture on the front page.
**Cueball is always present to the left on all pages after the front page.
**But if you go back to the front page like this, then if you again click on the "original" red button to return to help with the recovery, you will always go back to the same page you came from (with the same posts in the news feed and if it is one of the lost data pages also with the same post to fix.)
**You can thus only get to a new survey page by finishing the current task (or pressing a permalink as [[#Permalink|discussed below]]).

===News feed===
*Below the "survey" or the post you just recovered (to begin with), you will be presented with a listing similar to a {{w|Facebook features#News Feed|Facebook news feed}}, listing six posts of the line-drawings apparently tagged with the captions as paired up by other users survey results.
**The posts are made by apparently '''fictional randomly-named readers''' (see transcribed examples [[1506: xkcloud/Transcript#User names|of names here]]).
**But there are only 20 '''user pictures'''. See these (and why it is known that there are only 20) as well as a description of these pictures [[1506: xkcloud/Transcript#User pictures|here]].
**The posts are accompanied by a button similar to Facebook's "'''{{w|Like button}}'''" but here the button is labeled with different words which are all {{w|synonyms}} for ''[http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/want want]'' (see transcribed [[1506: xkcloud/Transcript#Like buttons|list of words here]]). So not "to like" but "to want" is the new thing in this version of Facebook.
*After the first time you recovered a post, there will thus be seven posts on the ''Help us recover more data'' page, six new posts below the one you just helped complete.
**The only difference when you click this pages red button (rather than when you start for the first time at the front page) is that there will now be seven posts below the one you need to fix.
**These seven posts are the same as those you had on the previous page, including your own at the top.

===Permalink===
*Next to each post there is a text ''Link'' above the "Want" button above the picture. (This goes for all three types of pages mentioned above.)
*The "Link" is an actual link of the type that is called a "'''{{w|permalink}}'''", a portmanteau of "permanent-link".
*If you wish to "save" any given post for future reference (for instance one with your own drawing) you can do so by copying down this link.
**Last year's April Fools' Day comic, [[1350: Lorenz]], was the first time the [[1350: Lorenz#Permalink|concept of a permalink]] was used on xkcd.
**The permalink option did not appear in the comic until very late in the afternoon on April 1. The "Link" was thus not present on the pictures refereed above. (See [[1506: xkcloud/Pictures of other pages#After 18:00 ET on April 1st|these pictures]] instead).
*Pressing the "Link" next to any given post takes you to the page of the permalink:
**This page will show a version of the ''Help us recover more data'' page with the chosen post as the top post.
**When you click the permalink it takes you to this "new" page and this page will '''not''' show all the posts from the page where you chose it.
**Only the post you saved via the "Link" next to it.
***All the other post will again just be chosen at random, and these will change again every time you reload this page via the saved permalink.
***Even the text on the "want" buttons also continues to change.
***The user name and user picture stay the same though.
*As an '''example''' of a [http://xkcd.com/1506/#post/50b47c70-3a7c-504d-bcc0-60597338e999 permalink] this is a post saying: ''We told Iran that atomic energy is unsafe'' for a picture of a black devil and two Cueballs next to a road.
**Originally the user name was {{w|Mark Zuckerberg}} but this has since changed to ''Destiny1983'' next to a user picture of a stick figure with black hair on a skateboard.
**See [[#Changes in the comic|Changes in the comic]] below for a possible reason.
**Also please make a note here, if the user name and picture is no longer the same.
*A huge '''collection of permalinks''' with link to the pictures have been amassed here:
**[[1506: xkcloud/Table of Permalinks|Table with permalinks]] contains all known images and captions at least once. (2179 feed entries, featuring 1481 different pictures and 1935 different captions, as of 2015-04-24)
**[[1506: xkcloud/List of Permalinks|List of Permalinks]] contains all known permalinks (25585 links, as of 2015-04-24)

====Details on the permalink====
*Since the post from the page where you choose the first permalink is reloaded... Can you then only save one post at a time?
*The answer is "no" - you can save all posts on any given page.
**For each "Link" text on a given page, there has already been generated a unique permalink {{w|URL}}.
**Thus you can copy any permalink via the "Link", without actually pressing the "Link" to obtain the permalink for a given post.
**Furthermore, since this may be the only comic where you can copy the text, you can simple mark the entire page and copy paste it into a document that contains formatting. If you do this then you will have all the text, pictures and most importantly the permalinks for all the posts.
*If you click the Link and go to the permalink page there will be seven posts, six new and the one you just saved.
**The behavior of the posts is very strange from here if you press more permalinks on this first permalink page
**Also it will not be the same again after this first time as compared to if you continue to help recover more data and use the permalink later.
**On this first permalink page, where your chosen post is at the top, if you click on another post's permalink the following will happen:
***The post you originally choose disappears from the page, as the new chosen post is moved to the top.
***The other five post remains in the same order, so there are not only 6 posts.
***If you continue to choose the other posts one at a time, they will simply exchange place with the one at the top, with all six posts remaining.
***Once you have been through all of them, then the order of the post has been determined.
****So if you click on a "Link" that you have already once activated, then this page will just reload, and the post will have the same order as last time.
****This is only until you choose to reload, or when you load such a permalink later. Then again it will just be the chosen post, and then always six other new posts.
**If you then at some point move on via the red button you kind of stay in the permalink page, now just with new options to choose from.
***If you then create a new post, six new posts will be loaded below.
***When you click on a permalink at this point, there will not be any reloading of the post (because it is not the first time).
***Any post you click will move to the top, but all the other (six this time) will stay, the top post just moving down to another position.
****It is not always a direct exchange. Sometimes the top post moves to another position and then pushes the others down until they reach the now calculated position of the post now at the top.

===Our policy regarding your personal data===
:On every of the pages after the front page Cueball sits at his desk labeled XKCD.COM
:Below him are xkcloud's policy:
:''Our policy regarding your personal data'':
*Please stop sending us your personal data
*We are running out of places to put it
*Is this even yours?
*Does anyone recognize whose data this is?
*Oh jeez never mind here comes more data
*Why are you doing this
*Please stop
*Help
:As can be seen he is getting desperate because people keep sending them more data.
::He has no place to store it.
::And he do not even know who the data belongs to.
::So now he hopes someone else recognize the data (what you are doing if you choose to help).
::In the end he simply pleads for people to stop and then shouts ''Help''.
:If you click on the desk you are sent back to the front page of the comic.
:But below Help is their real contact detail [[#Don't contact us|Don't contact us]]:

===Don't contact us===
*At the same time the permalink appeared, there was also suddenly a new link on all other pages than the front page, written in a very light grey font. It can be hard to see on some screens and has possibly changed colour to become harder to see since it first appeared.
**It is located right beneath ''help'' at the bottom of the list of problems written under ''our policy regarding your data'' right beneath Cueball at his desk to the left (see [[1506: xkcloud/Pictures of other pages#After 18:00 ET on April 1st|picture here]]).
**In some cases, tilting the screen will help to make it visible- if you still can't see it, you can still find it with the cursor, or you can also highlight the text below Cueball down to make it easier to see.
*The link text reads '''Don't contact us''' and links to [https://euphoria.io/room/xkcd a now-defunct chatroom formerly hosted at euphoria.io].
*Click the [https://euphoria.io/room/xkcd/ link] to open an xkcd chatroom on Euphoria. (See a [[1506: xkcloud/Pictures of other pages#xkcd chat forum|picture here]]).
**Several xkcd users began posting on the original chatroom at around 18:00 {{w|Eastern Time Zone|Eastern time}} (Randall's timezone).
**After picking a username, you can chat in real time with the other users. You can change your username by clicking on it near the bottom of the screen and entering a new one.
**On November 23rd 2023, euphoria shut down. The xkcd room lives on in the form of a new instance on [https://euphoria.leet.nu/room/xkcd/ euphleet].
''We are open for anyone to chat here. Hey you! Come right over and say hello to us! ~<s>[https://euphoria.io/room/xkcd euphoria.io/room/xkcd]</s> https://euphoria.leet.nu/room/xkcd/ ''
(PS. Please say thank you to @Xyzzy on it; He did make the new chat, after all. (From @KurzgesagtDuck11. (Now @Geometrist.))
====Undocumented Feature====
*This chat room is reminiscent of the one in a comic [[1305: Undocumented Feature]].
*As mentioned above, this chat room is hard to access - to access it, click on the hidden link saying "Don't contact us" under "Our Policy Regarding Your Personal Data"{{xkcd|1506}}.
**You do get to choose your username, unlike [[1305: Undocumented Feature]], but you could change it. Or others could use the same.
*When it came out, many users began using the chatroom.
*Maybe Randall timed these extra features for when people came back from work all over the US.

==Changes and bugs==
During the first day there occurred several changes to the comic, and also some bugs very present.

===Changes in the comic===
*All the changes mentioned here occurred during April 1 on the release day:
*Since being [[Media:Originalxkcloud.png|originally posted]] the words "Click here" were relatively quickly added in large text to the top of the red button followed by the word "to" being added to the beginning of the existing text.
**The text changed from
***''Help us recover user data before Facebook & Co notice we lost it.'' to
***''Click here to help us recover user data before Facebook & Co notice we lost it.''
**The reason for this is most likely that too few users understood that they could enter a second part of the comic by clicking on the red button.
*Late in the afternoon on April 1 (around 18:00 {{w|Eastern Time Zone|ET}}) several changes occurred to the pages that can be reached from the front page:
**The [[#Permalink|permalink]] option appeared
**The link that says [[#Don't contact us|Don't contact us]] appeared under the text beneath Cueball's desk with a link to an xkcd chat room.
***Though only for the text font to fade out to being almost invisible again later on April 1.
**The alignment of the text right beneath Cueball's desk changed. (Compare this [[1506: xkcloud/Pictures of other pages#Help us recover more data page|before picture]] with this [[1506: xkcloud/Pictures of other pages#After 18:00 ET on April 1st|picture after]] 18:00 ET).
**The number of posts increased from 3 or 4 to 6 or 7. (See the pictures above — scroll down to see the relevant after picture).
**Also the number of pictures and text to choose from increased from five to eight (as can also be seen by comparing the pictures found here for before — for [[1506: xkcloud/Pictures of other pages#Help! We lost the text page|text]] and for [[1506: xkcloud/Pictures of other pages#Help! We lost the picture page|picture]] — with the [[1506: xkcloud/Pictures of other pages#After 18:00 ET on April 1st|pictures after]] (scroll down as mentioned before)).
***The reason he increased the number of posts (both to see and to choose from) could simply be because there where now is so many possible posts that the risk of seeing the same is smaller even with 6 posts.
*Sometime on April 2, Randall made an update to the names list.
**That this happened could be seen since the names shown in permalinks did change. And since then they have stayed constant.
**For instance, [http://xkcd.com/1506/#post/3c34fb48-1a07-51d2-a81d-5257a3681024 this permalink], to an atomic bomb explosion with the caption ''that's one nasty burn!'', had the name "Lauren Ibsen Dolores Amit" (a play on "{{w|Lorem ipsum|Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet}}"), but then displayed the name "Virginia2006" next to a picture of a man with black hair. Currently, it displays the name "Michelleii" next to the same image.
***(If this changes please make a note - then the names list have either been changed again, or the assumption that the names stay constant is wrong.)

===Bugs===
From time to time, instead of the interactive page there is a page with [[Media:three dots only.png|three dots only]]. Also, at around 18:00, when all the changes occurred, the xkcd page did not work properly. The chat room was also overloaded at this time.

==Transcript==
:'''[This transcript only transcribes what can be seen in the first picture shown at the top of the explanation here. The standard text for the next possible pages can be seen on the [[1506: xkcloud/Transcript|full transcript]].]'''

:[One large frame with a five part comic and a large red button at the bottom.]
:[Cueball sitting behind a desk.]
:Cueball: We've made a huge mistake.
:Desk: XKCD.COM

:[Cueball stands and indicates a motley collection of computers and related equipment strewn around the desk.]
:Cueball: I figured starting a cloud services company would be easy.
:Cueball: After all, I've got ''tons'' of computers!

:[A zoomed view on Cueballs head.]
:Cueball: Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr— they all struggle to protect privacy and user data...
:Cueball: And '''''we''''' offered a solution.
:Cueball: <small>I forget what it was, though.</small>

:[Cueball is standing with his arms up.]
:Cueball: Anyway, long story short, we screwed up ''immediately'' and lost ''tons'' of their data.
:Cueball: <small>Also a bunch of stuff is literally on fire?</small>

:[Cueball standing behind a desk.]
:Cueball: We can fix this.
:Cueball: But we need your help.
:Desk: XKCD.COM

:[Below the above is a large red rectangular clickable button, that will take the reader on to the interactive part of the comic. On the button it says in large white letters:]
:'''CLICK HERE'''
:To help us recover user data before Facebook & Co notice we lost it.

:'''[The standard text for the next possible pages can be seen on the [[1506: xkcloud/Transcript|full transcript]]. Also here will be a list with possible text for the lost data.]'''

==Trivia==
This is the first comic:
*Without a title text. (If you don't count the unnumbered [[A Smarter Planet]] comics and [[404: Not Found]].)
*Where you can copy and paste most of the text from the comic. I.e it is not drawn but printed.
**This goes only for the follow up pages after the front page.
**It does not only go for the user input.
*These two facts could go together because of the way this comic had to be created (it is not a single picture). There may not have been any way to add a title text
*Source code of elements in the drawing interactive contain the attribute "data-reactid", indicating it is written using the [http://facebook.github.io/react/ React JavaScript library,] developed to use with Facebook & Instagram.
*One of the pieces of text you can get explains the reason why you need to put in the image for it.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Interactive comics]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Knit Cap]] 
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Portmanteau]]
[[Category:No title text]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Elon Musk]]
[[Category:Dynamic comics]]
[[Category:Characters with hats]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Joe Biden]]
[[Category:Giraffes]]

Disappearing Sunday Update

2026-06-15T22:36:03Z

Capycapybara: fixed grammatical errors

{{comic
| date = August 4, 2019
| title = Disappearing Sunday Update
| image = disappearing_sunday_update.png
| titletext = This comic won't exist in the archives. NOTHING IS REAL.
| ldomain = web.archive.org/web/20190804230254/https://www
| lappend =
| extra = yes
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Use coherent sentences in the [[#Trivia]] section and clean up the [[#Explanation]], there are a lot of grammatically-questionable sentences. Also, the explanation of [[#Unusual Means]] is incomplete and lacks necessary details.}}The comic is a special Disappearing comic that was placed between the Friday comic [[2184: Unpopular Opinions]] but before the normal Monday comic update, which became [[2185: Cumulonimbus]]. As the title suggests, it was [[:Category:Sunday comics|released on a Sunday]], becoming only the fifth comic to be released on a Sunday. It was also the first comic that was fully deleted from the xkcd archives, as it was replaced by the normal Monday update. It left no trails on the official site, but other sites, like [[explain xkcd|this wiki]] and in the [http://web.archive.org/web/20190804230254/https://www.xkcd.com/#/ Internet Archive], saved a copy of the image. Also, the [https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/disappearing_sunday_update.png image] and its [https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/disappearing_sunday_update_2x.png 2x version] were still on the xkcd image server after it had disappeared.

The entire comic was an advertisement for [[Randall]]'s then-upcoming book ''[[How To]]''. In fact, clicking on the comic brought the user to https://xkcd.com/how-to/. The first part of the comic, the advertisement, included a drawing of the cover, two sets of pages (showing the open book) and a sampling of the table of contents of the book. The full table of contents can still be found in the Blag post mentioned above.

The second part of the comic, the joke, showed Randall (as [[Cueball]]) at the bottom, where he apologized in advance regarding the various bots cataloguing xkcd comics, which might break because of this special one. See more under [[#Unusual Means|Unusual Means]]. This ''Explain xkcd'' website is one example of such a page, where the bot that creates new pages assigned the comic the number 2185 despite the comic not having a designated number at the time of its release. Two weeks later, he released a permanent comic with a reference to one of the chapters in his book, [[2190: Serena Versus the Drones]].

===Unusual Means===
Randall notes that ''if you read xkcd through unusual means... ...I hope this ephemeral ghost comic doesn't break them too badly''.

Between the dots he suggested different methods of reading xkcd, other than on the {{xkcd}} home page. These methods get progressively sillier (many still need explanations). Here is a list:

; Apps
: The Android app [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.tap.easy_xkcd easyxkcd] was broken by this comic when used in offline mode, as reported [https://github.com/tom-anders/Easy_xkcd/issues/162 here]. An iOS app called "xkcd: Open-Source" was also broken by this comic, permanently assigning the comic number 2185 to this comic, and not replacing it with the *actual* 2185 comic. Because of that, this comic can be viewed in the app, but the real 2185 isn’t viewable.

; Custom screen-scraping systems
: See more {{w|Data_scraping#Screen_scraping|on Wikipedia}}.
; Google Reader clones
: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Reader Google Reader] was an RSS/Atom aggregator that Google discontinued in 2013. Enthusiasts created a full-featured work-alike replacement, called [https://theoldreader.com/ The Old Reader.]
; Twitter bots
: Scripts that automatically post content to a designated [https://twitter.com/ Twitter] account.
; BASH scripts
: A popular Unix shell; one might, say, write a script in it to run on one's personal Unix machine, checking for a new xkcd comic and displaying it somewhere.
; Gopher portals
: [https://www.minnpost.com/business/2016/08/rise-and-fall-gopher-protocol/ Gopher] was a method of surfing the Internet that predated the Web (by about five months) and was vastly more popular (for about three years).
; Lynx-based ASCII art browsers
: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynx_%28web_browser%29 Lynx] is a text-based Web browser. It can launch external programs to view images, but Randall is suggesting that instead a Lynx variant might convert images to [https://www.asciiart.eu/ ASCII art], which renders images using the 94 visible ASCII keyboard characters.
; Third-party Second Life feeds
: [https://secondlife.com/ Second Life] is a virtual world that opened in 2002 and has [http://www.gridsurvey.com/charts/historicalconcurrency.png averaged about 40,000 simultaneous users for the past five years].
; RFC 2549
: An RFC is a proposal for how to run the Internet. [https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2549 RFC 2549] is about transmitting data using carrier pigeons (This was one of the earliest [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_Fools%27_Day April Fools' Day] RFCs).
; Massive Google docs sheets
: See #[[2180]].

Another example of an unusual method is [[unixkcd]].

==Transcript==
:[Heading:]
:~Special Disappearing Sunday comic~

:[Below the header to the right are the following text:]
:I'm posting this ephemeral Sunday update to let you know that I wrote a book! It's a guide to solving everyday problems in terrible ways using science.
:It comes out next month, and it's available for preorder now.

:[Below this text is an arrow to an image of the book to the left. The arrow comes from this text:]
:The cover looks like this

:[The book is shown to the left as a black rectangle with large blue text and smaller white text. On the book cover, in white drawings, are seen Ponytail with a ladder and either Black or White Hat (hard to say on black background). Both are looking up on Cueball who is floating in the air with a quadcopter beneath either leg, trying to plug in an electric light bulb in a naked lamp hanging down near him. It seems he has already removed the broken light bulb, as he has one in both hands. And now he tries to put in the new one. He could have let Ponytail use the ladder...]
:[The header in blue above it all:] How To.
:[Sub header in white to the left of Cueball:] Absurd Scientific Answers to Common Real-world Problems
:[Author name in blue below the drawing:] Randall Munroe
:[Sub header to this below in white:] Creator of xkcd
:[Sub header to this below in white:] Author of ''what if?'' and ''Thing Explainer''

:[Below the text with the arrow to the book is the following text with an arrow pointing down to an image of two pages in the open book, shown to the right:]
:And the inside looks like this.

:[To the left of the open book are the following text:]
:Chapters include:
:'''How to charge your phone'''
:'''How to throw a pool party'''
:'''How to move'''
:'''How to build a lava moat'''
:'''How to ski'''

:[The open book to the right has almost only unreadable text. The left page shows a drawing of car in front of a trailer which is loaded with about 15 of boxes in four layers. Two stick figures are standing between the car and the trailer, talking with each other. The trailer is not attached to the car. There are some lines of text beneath the drawing and then what appears to be a chapter heading. It probably says something as "How to move", as this is mentioned as a chapter in the text to the left of these pages, but there one of two more unreadable words at the end of that heading. Beneath that the rest of the page is text and at the bottom there seems to be a footnote. The right page shows a house that seems to be floating a couple of meters above the ground, two arrows pointing up to the bottom of the house on either side. A stick figure stands to the left of the house which float at the figures head height. There is text beneath this drawing. Beneath that there is another drawing of a house towed on a truck, which speeds up a steep hill and jumps over a cliff to get to the other side. Seems like it will work. The speed of the truck seems to be very high as indicated by two curly lines indicating exhaust from the truck. It becomes three small clouds further behind the moving house. There is a footnote beneath the drawing. The driver of the truck yells as the truck jumps. This can actually be read:]
:Driver: ''Woooooo''

:[Beneath the above text and pages are another image of the open book with two other pages. This time to the left. This time there is text to the right.]

:[These book pages are also mainly unreadable. At the top of the left page is a drawing of what could be a lake. Two people seems to be standing out in the water, only heads showing above the water. A sign is standing on the brink, is may say "Sorry"? Behind the lake is some mountains in the background. Beneath the drawing is some text of, then a smaller diagram like drawing which may show some black clouds above and below a line in the middle of this drawing. One of the clouds are beneath a curly bracket which are beneath the line. The curly bracket lies down and has the same length as the cloud. Beneath this drawing is more text and then a third drawing at the bottom. Here is shown a cross section of the lake. At the left side of the lake the water is shallow and a stick figure is standing in the water on the bottom, head above water with its arms held up in the air. It is directing its attention to the four stick figure standing on the brink to the left looking at the figure in the water. To the right the lake becomes more than three times as deep. Clouds are above the lake, one large just right of the stick figure and one smaller further right. At the right edge the lakes edge is vertical. On the brink is what may be a diving board protruding over the lake. Something is lying on top of the board. And above is what seems to be another cloud. To the right of the lake is a pile of earth with what appears to be a large black Nuclear bomb (with the nuclear icon on it) stuck with its tip in the pile. On the right page is a line coming down from the top, which then turns to the right ending in an arrow. There is a line of text above the horizontal part of the line. The arrow points to a large heading in two rows. (See below). Beneath the heading are a few lines of text. Then a drawing of a torn map (like an old treasure map whit a X at the end of a trail marked with dots. Mountains indicated with small "^" and coast line is visible. There seems to be text beneath the X. There are text beneath the drawing. Beneath that are a header with a line beneath it, and then text beneath the line.]
:How to Dig a Hole

:[To the right of these pages are the following text:]
:You can learn more and preorder it at '''xkcd.com/how-to'''
:And read an excerpt at '''blog.xkcd.com'''

:[Beneath all this Randall (drawn as Cueball) is telling about the problem this disappearing comic may cause:]
:Randall: If you read xkcd through unusual means, including apps, custom screen-scraping systems, Google reader clones, Twitter bots, bash scripts, gopher portals, lynx-based ASCII art browsers, third-party Second Life feeds, RFC 2549, or massive google docs sheets full of =IMPORTHTML() and =IMAGE() formulas, I hope this ephemeral ghost comic doesn't break them too badly.
:Randall: It will disappear with the normal Monday update.
:Randall: (At least, I think it will. I've never tried this before. So I'm honestly not sure what the server will do.)

==Trivia==
*Clicking on the comic brings the user to https://xkcd.com/how-to/. Notably, Randall's [[Blag]], the other link mentioned in the comic, was not linked from the comic. The link to this is https://blog.xkcd.com/. When this comic was released the top blog post was the one about the ''How To'' book.
*The comic even broke the xkcd site itself as the previously released Friday comic, [[2184: Unpopular Opinions]], had a next button that linked to comic 2185, which did not exist at the time of release. Using that button from comic 2184 displayed a [[404]] error. Later this was fixed by giving this comic the number 2185, although only temporarily. However, giving it a temporary number also put it into the archives, so the title text, ''This comic won't exist in the archives. NOTHING IS REAL.'' was false for a time until this comic was removed from the archive and from the site on Monday. One of the bot methods mentioned may be in reference to the then-recent comic [[2180: Spreadsheets]], in which [[Cueball]] debates either making a real program to do a task or using a Google spreadsheet instead.
*This August 4th 2019 [[:Category:Sunday comics|Sunday comic]] was first posted on the front page without any number relating to it, breaking the next comic button on xkcd.
**Since it was scheduled to be deleted on Monday August 5th 2019, when the next comic arrived on xkcd, it was not supposed to have a number or be in the archive. However, it seems like this caused too many problems for the xkcd site itself (not just for all the other sites Randall jokes about).
**Later it was given the next number in the comic list (2185) and was also included in the archive for the duration of its stay on the xkcd front page.
**It was then removed from the archive and 2185 was assigned to the Monday comic [[2185: Cumulonimbus]].
*Here are some pictures documenting that the comic at some point between release and the next comics release worked like a normal comic with number 2185 as shown in the web address at the top.
*[[File:Disappearing Sunday Update with number 2185.png|750px]]
*It was also part of the archive with the release date showing correctly when hovering over the title:
*[[File:Archive with Disappearing Sunday Update and date.png]]

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Extra comics]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Randall Munroe]] 
[[Category:Book promotion]]
[[Category:How To]]
[[Category:Comics with color]] 
[[Category:Comics with lowercase text]]
[[Category:Deleted comics]]
[[Category:Footnotes]]
[[Category:Comics edited after their publication]]