https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&user=141.101.98.209&feedformat=atomexplain xkcd - User contributions [en]2024-03-29T15:29:42ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.30.0https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1773:_Negativity&diff=1326201773: Negativity2016-12-17T23:19:13Z<p>141.101.98.209: 1749 also involves talking inanimate organisms</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1773<br />
| date = December 16, 2016<br />
| title = Negativity<br />
| image = negativity.png<br />
| titletext = [Google search] how do I block my lawn<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Could probably be tuned up.}}<br />
[[Cueball]] is going outside for some fresh air because he wants to escape the {{w|Internet Troll|trolls}} of the {{w|Internet}}, which is known for hosting several hostile and unpleasant ideas and people. However, as he walks, some grass speaks up to insult him, and Cueball is upset to find that he hasn't escaped the negativity at all. <br />
<br />
The title text expands on this, with him searching {{w|Google}} for how to "block the lawn". Blocking someone refers to a standard setting on websites and online services that can prevent certain users from communicating with you, but it is as yet unknown how this would work for a lawn insulting you.{{Citation needed}} This is made ironic by the fact he is using the Internet to find an Internet technique (blocking) on a non-Internet object, while at the start of the comic, he just wanted to escape the Internet. (Wait, what?)<br />
<br />
The term "blocking" is actually used in lawn-care [https://www.bayeradvanced.com/articles/how-to-tell-if-your-lawn-needs-dethatching] to refer to techniques where sunlight is restricted from reaching the lower parts of the grass stems and to pursuade the root system to grow deeper into the soil.<br />
<br />
Comic [[1749]] also involves talking inanimate organisms.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
[Cueball walking on grass]<br />
<br />
Cueball: It's nice to get outside, away from the pain and negativity of the internet,<br />
<br />
[Cueball stops walking]<br />
<br />
Cueball: And just enjoy the cool breeze and the grass under my feet.<br />
<br />
[Cueball stands there, hands to his hips, looking to the cloudy sky]<br />
<br />
[Cueball looks surprised to the grass]<br />
<br />
Grass: You ''suuuuck''<br />
<br />
Cueball: ''HEY!''<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]</div>141.101.98.209https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1548:_90s_Kid&diff=97196Talk:1548: 90s Kid2015-07-08T13:49:34Z<p>141.101.98.209: Created page with "Usual gripes that the median does not have to mean typical ~~~~~"</p>
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<div>Usual gripes that the median does not have to mean typical<br />
13:49, 8 July 2015 (UTC)</div>141.101.98.209https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1521:_Sword_in_the_Stone&diff=925751521: Sword in the Stone2015-05-06T07:30:20Z<p>141.101.98.209: Per the second comment</p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1521<br />
| date = May 6, 2015<br />
| title = Sword in the Stone<br />
| image = sword in the stone.png<br />
| titletext = That seems like an awful lot of hassle when all I wanted was a cool sword.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|New page}}<br />
<br />
This comic references the fables of {{w|King Arthur}} and the {{w|Knights of the Round Table}}. In Arthurian legend, whoever can remove the Sword in the Stone is the lawful king of {{w|England}}. Arthur is an orphan being raised in secret; he notices the sword, removes it, and is proclaimed king. The sword is sometimes identified as Excalibur, although in other versions Excalibur was acquired by King Arthur from the {{w|Lady of the Lake}}. The most familiar version of this story is {{w|The Sword in the Stone}} by {{w|T. H. White}} which is based on {{w|Le Mort d'Arthur}} by {{w|Sir Thomas Malory}}.<br />
<br />
[[Megan]] pulls out {{w|Excalibur#Excalibur_and_the_Sword_in_the_Stone|The Sword in the Stone}}. A flash of light comes down and music plays, and a heavenly voice tells her she is heir to the throne of England. Megan then pulls out her phone, which is very much unlike the Medieval King Arthur and searches on Wikipedia for England and begins to replace the sword into the rock, either not wanting to take on the responsibility of queen, or more likely, not wanting to deal with England.<br />
<br />
The title text furthers this plot, having Megan comment on the hassle of being the queen of England when the only thing she was interested in was the sword.<br />
<br />
It should be noted that in Arthurian Legend, it is stated that Arthur would return when England most needed him. It is possible that Megan is the reincarnation of Arthur.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
<br />
:[Megan walks up to The Sword in the Stone]<br />
:[Megan tries to pull out The Sword in the Stone]<br />
:[A flash of light and music plays as she removes The Sword in the Stone]<br />
:Heavenly voice: The Throne of England is yours<br />
:Megan: Wikipedia. England.<br />
:[Megan starts to place The Sword of the Stone back into the stone]<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<!-- Include any categories below this line. --><br />
<br />
[[Category:Wikipedia]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]</div>141.101.98.209https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1355:_Airplane_Message&diff=81825Talk:1355: Airplane Message2015-01-01T19:00:53Z<p>141.101.98.209: </p>
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<div>How can Iry-Hor, who's name comes from a ''written record'', be considered "prehistoric"? History begins with the written record. By definition, Iry-Hor would be the earliest historical name we know. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.38|108.162.216.38]] 13:51, 14 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
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:I believe written records are "historic" only if they can be cross-referenced with other records (or other physical records, such as archeology). That goes for religious texts, as well. That's why Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" is a historical play, but isn't actually history. {{unsigned ip|199.27.128.93}}<br />
<br />
:I agree. In fact, the Hebrew Bible goes even farther back, making the beginning of recorded history a much earlier date. I've always thought that the term "prehistoric" was farcical.<br />
:The Hebrew Bible contains the names of many individuals alive before Iry-Hor was born. The man Adam would then qualify as the oldest named individual in history. Even if Adam isn't accepted (and I can't see why not; the Hebrew Scriptures being as much a historical document as any Egyptian papyrii) then take your pick of the many others named well before the Eqyptians came on the scene. [[User:Fiddlinmacx|Fiddlinmacx]] ([[User talk:Fiddlinmacx|talk]]) 14:18, 14 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
::The text (glyphs, really) about Iry-Hor were written during his lifetime. The Hebrew Scriptures were not written until around 2,500 years later, literally eons after the Egyptians had been 'on the scene.' Claiming that characters in Genesis are historical figures from 4000 BC is approximately as scientific as claiming that Tumok (from the 1940 film 'One Million B.C.') is actually the oldest human whose name we know. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.73|108.162.221.73]] 14:47, 14 April 2014 (UTC)Oz<br />
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::: +1 -- Religious scripts are not reliable as historical records. [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]]) 16:23, 14 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
:::: Not the ones in the Pentateuch, anyway. Once they get to the book of Joshua they start getting their facts straight. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.65|199.27.128.65]] 18:16, 14 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
The explanation seems complete. Can the incomplete tag be removed? [[User:Cheeselord99|Cheeselord99]] ([[User talk:Cheeselord99|talk]]) 17:32, 14 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
:DONE, but please check the language and the layout first before calling on this. I'm not native English, so I can't be better than native speakers. Couldn't believe...--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 22:48, 14 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
::Done. Editing on a mobile, though, so anyone else want to double-proof? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.88.210|141.101.88.210]] 02:19, 15 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
:::Looks okay to me - I'm on a desktop Computer [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.42|108.162.219.42]] 06:54, 15 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
The title text is a reference to a recent [http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1tqfef/what_is_the_oldest_recorded_human_name/ askhistorians question at reddit] [[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.131|173.245.53.131]] 13:22, 15 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I'm not sure about the trivia. I don't think it's appropriate to add a chunk of text every time cancer comes up. The category can be added, and those wanting more information can click through to that page. Second note, nowhere else on the wiki is a recurring theme noteworthy enough for the inclusion of a trivia section. I'm going to wholesale remove the section, but I wanted to be verbose enough to be clear about my reasoning for it. Anyone who thinks otherwise is welcome to either leave a compelling summary for its re-inclusion, or to comment on this thread. [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]]<span title="I'm an admin. I can help.">_a</span> ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 05:55, 16 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:::Iry-Hor is the pharoh's regnal name and not the name he was born with. Companion of Horus obviously is not a real name. Iry-Hor is the name he made up for himself when he took the throne.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.202|108.162.250.202]] 15:40, 18 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Just a side note, but banners are not usually assembled in hangers. The banner plane takes off without the banner, and circles back to hook the banner from a stand in some suitably open area of the airport. The banners are usually assembled (i.e. the letters spelling the message are attached to the banner frame) right before being put on the stand to be hooked. {{unsigned ip|108.162.237.219}}<br />
:You should put that on a banner. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.209|141.101.98.209]] 19:00, 1 January 2015 (UTC)</div>141.101.98.209https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1313:_Regex_Golf&diff=56827Talk:1313: Regex Golf2014-01-07T09:50:28Z<p>141.101.98.209: </p>
<hr />
<div>This is fairly simple fun little one.<br />
<br />
Regex is sort for regular expressions. A regular expression is a series of characters that denotes a search criteria. For example, you could write a regular expression that would search for anything that looks like an address (a la [http://www.xkcd.com/208/ comic 208]).<br />
<br />
Regex golf is a game in which you attempt to write a regular expression that will search through a list of items and bring back only those items that meet a certain criteria, but not anything else. The joke is that regular expressions are used to search text, but themselves are text strings. This means that you could write a regular expression that would look for another regular expression. You can then apply ''ad infinitum'', and the universe implodes or something.<br />
<br />
--[[User:Holshy|Holshy]] ([[User talk:Holshy|talk]]) 05:40, 6 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
The last panel includes, of course, a regex "/(meta-)*regex golf/," which represents the phrase "regex golf" preceded by the phrase "meta-" up to ''infinite'' times.<br />
<br />
As a punchline, it also refers to Jamie Zawinski's well-known quote about regex,<br />
<br />
<blockquote>Some people, when confronted with a problem, think "I know, I'll use regular expressions." Now they have two problems.</blockquote><br />
<br />
Thus, the punchline is that the addition of meta layers to regex golf generates more problems for the programmer, but that was also the setup of the comic. So either the punchline is really weak—worth a chuckle if you got the above two references—or I missed the joke.<br />
[[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.63|199.27.128.63]] 06:22, 6 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Could anybody comment on the first regex? Do I get it right that<br />
beyond others it will match all strings that contain a "b"? I can hardly believe that is not the case for any star trek subtitle... [[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.194|173.245.53.194]] 06:54, 6 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
:This is the case for all Star Trek Subtitles. Wikipedia's list of movies had no b. It'll match anything containing a word ending in ''m'', any word beginning with ''n'' or ''t'' that is not the first word, or any word with a ''b''. No Trek movies match. Oddly, so far as I can figure out, the regex in the first panel is wrong, in that it doesn't match the second Star Wars movie at all. And before you tell me prequels don't count, the sole purpose of "m " is to match The Phanto''m ''Menace.[[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.138|199.27.128.138]] 07:10, 6 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
Attack of[ t]he Clones (to be read plainly, not as a regular expression). [[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.107|173.245.53.107]] 07:29, 6 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
:Ah, I thought it was ''The Clone Wars''. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.138|199.27.128.138]] 15:36, 6 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
So, if I add an "e" to the "tn" and delete the "|b" I'm a better golf player than her? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.212.194|108.162.212.194]] 08:23, 6 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
:Or you could just move the "b" into the "tn" group. --11:08, 6 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I got a sneak preview of this comic at about 6:34 EST...at first it appeared to be random text in a irc message, but with this comic it now makes sense to me. [[User:Verticalbar|Verticalbar]] ([[User talk:Verticalbar|talk]]) 09:31, 6 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
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'''Regex golf''' (c.f. {{w|Perl golf}}) is a programming competition / is a pastime of finding regular expression that matches one set of strings while matching none of the other set. See for example http://regex.alf.nu --[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 11:03, 6 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
The title text isn't exactly true... I haven't tried everything, but that regex doesn't match "gerald ford" at all. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.109|199.27.128.109]] 11:23, 6 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
: Gerald Ford wasn't elected, he became President following Nixon's resignation.<br />
[[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.209|173.245.52.209]] 12:12, 6 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Inspired by regex.alf.nu, a reader built a page where the objective is to make a regular expression to match all Star Wars and no Star Trek: http://zegnat.github.io/xkcd1313/. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.127|173.245.53.127]] 14:00, 6 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I added a list of all US elected presidents and the part of the title regex they match. I used a python script to generate it, with input from [http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_presidential_candidates here], then I removed all presidents that do not match after finding they really weren't elected. There may still be superflous ones, that weren't elected but do match the regex, please check. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.49.64|173.245.49.64]] 14:29, 6 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
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Does anyone understand the final "No, I had those already"? Is it a reference to regexes in some way or could it be something like that there are infinite problems in life, even when not doing (Meta-)*-Regexes? --[[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.199|173.245.53.199]] 20:32, 6 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
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<br />
According to Peter Norvig (Director of research at google), one of the Regular Expression of Randall is wrong as demonstrated here : http://nbviewer.ipython.org/url/norvig.com/ipython/xkcd1313.ipynb [[User:Mbussonn|Mbussonn]] ([[User talk:Mbussonn|talk]]) 20:47, 6 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
"No one wins at [^ ]+ golf." [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.209|141.101.98.209]] 09:50, 7 January 2014 (UTC)</div>141.101.98.209https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=802:_Online_Communities_2&diff=54738802: Online Communities 22013-12-09T14:18:23Z<p>141.101.98.209: Skype region. Not much was done, but it's a start.</p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 802<br />
| date = October 6, 2010<br />
| title = Online Communities 2<br />
| image = online_communities_2.png<br />
| titletext = Best trivia I learned while working on this: 'Man, Farmville is so huge! Do you realize it's the second-biggest browser-based social-networking-centered farming game in the WORLD?' Then you wait for the listener to do a double-take.<br />
}}<br />
A larger version of this picture can be found here: [http://xkcd.com/802_large/ http://xkcd.com/802_large/].<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Not all of the regions are fully explained.}}<br />
This comic shows a map of internet communities where the size of each region roughly corresponds to its size, and its proximity to other regions indicates similarities.<br />
<br />
This is the successor of [[256: Online Communities]]. It differs in that it is updated, and furthermore, instead of using the ''membership'' of whichever service to determine its size on the map, it uses its "daily social activity."<br />
<br />
The map actually has two super−maps: the online community map is surrounded by the "countries" of E−Mail and SMS ("Instant Messaging"). These, in turn, are surrounded by the "Spoken Language" country (which is odd, considering that e−mail, SMS, and the Internet in general are based on ''written'' language) with its own sub−country, "cell phones" (which ''do'' involve e−mail and the Internet while being the mean medium of SMS's).<br />
<br />
At the title text [[Randall]] explains that, using his definition of "most activity per day", Farmville is actually the ''second'' most popular "Facebook farming game". This will strike many as odd, because Farmville is by far the most famous, leading one to wonder how the most famous could not be the most played. The phrase "browser-based social-networking-centered farming game" is an example of [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OverlyNarrowSuperlative an overly-narrow superlative]. <br />
<br />
==Facebook Region==<br />
The Facebook region deals with social networks, that is, websites oriented towards having people meet.<br />
<br />
'''{{w|Facebook}}''' is a social networking site that allows people to meet old real−life friends and make new friends that share similar interests. One of its most notable features is that a member can update a "status" or make normal posts about the happenings of the member's life, complete with pictures, other members "liking" these posts. The size of the Facebook region is not exaggerated; most websites seem to allow "liking" their content or allow/require logging in the website with a Facebook account. There even are cell phones with a "Facebook" button!<br />
<br />
'''Farmville''', '''Happy Farm''', and '''Farm Town''' are all Facebook games. The "Unethical Bay" refers to how these games tend to addict players into constantly buying virtual items of questionable value.<br />
<br />
The '''People You Can't Unfriend''' refer to people whom, due to real-life expectations and relationships, unfriending them is difficult, no matter how you really feel about them.<br />
<br />
The '''Data Mines''' refer to the data mining that Facebook does with the interests of its members. This fuels the profitable advertising business at the expense of customer trust.<br />
<br />
The '''Plains of Awkwardly Public Family Interactions''' refer to how interactions with family members on Facebook suddenly become more awkward because everyone on Facebook (and sometimes ''off'' Facebook, given that you do not necessarily need to log in if you want to see someone's Facebook account) if you are discussing with your family through post comments.<br />
<br />
'''"Old Facebook" Resistance''' refers to Facebook's earlier users, who have often resisted (and resented) changes made to Facebook as it became more popular. <br />
<br />
While Facebook is the largest "country" of the Facebook Region, there are a lot of smaller "countries" that represent smaller social networks.<br />
<br />
* Below Facebook (and "'Old Facebook' Resistance") is '''{{w|Diaspora (social network)|Diaspora}}''', a fully open-source, decentralized, privacy-respecting-and-expecting alternative to Facebook. From what this map tells, Diaspora is little-known, even if Facebook is taken out of the context.<br />
* '''{{w|Taringa!}}''' is a Spanish-speaking social network that is based on a forums. Copyrighted material is frequently found there.<br />
* '''{{w|Classmates.com}}''' is a services in which the user can meet fellow classmates that came from the same high school. The website is probably best-known by its memetic advertisement that said [http://dudemanphat.blogspot.com/2005/10/how-am-i-supposed-to-care-about-nick.html "She married him??!! And they've got 7 kids??"] (Incidentally, [http://seattletimes.com/html/businesstechnology/2003325519_adcouple27.html there is more to the coupled picture than what the advertisement says.])<br />
* '''{{w|MySpace}}''' is a social networking website that is a kind of proto-Facebook: users could customize their one-page websites with whatever they wanted, make their interests and daily lives public, and interact with other users. Back in the 1990's and the beginning of the 2000's, MySpace was the largest social network, many people using the website; however, the surprisingly-less-customizable Facebook ended up taking the place of MySpace. The "bands" country of MySpace refers to how a lot of bands in the day advertised and interacted using the website. Indeed, the latest incarnation of MySpace (in terms of 2013) is more oriented towards band members.<br />
* '''{{w|LinkedIn}}''' is a social network aimed towards people in the workplace.<br />
* '''{{w|Orkut}}''' is one of Google's first social networks before Google made [https://plus.google.com/ Google+].<br />
* '''{{w|Hi5}}''' is a social network that is very popular among people in Latin America.<br />
* '''{{w|Renren}}''' ('''「人人」''', "people" in Chinese) is "a Chinese copy of Facebook."<br />
<br />
Other areas of note are the '''Niche Market Mountains''', where social networks aimed towards more niche markets are located. Similar to how mountains tend to be isolated from mainland, niche social networks tend to be just that: niche, without much interaction with the general populace. Above the Niche Market Mountains are the '''Charred Wasteland of Abandoned Social Networks'''. Given the popularity of MySpace and Facebook, there would be no doubt tons of websites wanting to take advantage of the success of these websites or even wanting to compete or even overpower with them. Even so, these websites tend to not have the userbase or even the expertise towards the long-term, hence they become wastelands: environments devoid of life, except the few life forms that are from these wastelands (in this case, the ones who are loyal to the website or which are sadly few).<br />
<br />
Also visible are the '''Duckface Mountains''' and the '''Red Cup Mountains'''. "Duckface" refers to [http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/duck-face this incredibly obnoxious facial expression], and "red cup pictures" are any pictures containing party-goers holding disposable red plastic beverage cups. Facebook is absolutely flooded with both types of pictures.<br />
<br />
==MMO Isle==<br />
MMO's (short form of "MMORPG", short form of "Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Player Game") are websites that host online games where multiple people take the role of a character and play in a setting hosted by the website. These types of games tend to be fantastical in setting. Frequently, missions are added to the game, giving current player more incentive towards playing more.<br />
<br />
* '''[https://www.habbo.com/ Habbo Hotel]''' is a website where someone creates a human avatar an interacts in a virtual world that is not that different from the one in real life.<br />
* '''[http://www.clubpenguin.com/ Club Penguin]''' is [http://disney.com/ Disney's] MMO where someone creates a penguin avatar and interacts with other in a more polar, cartoony setting. Club Penguin is aimed towards children.<br />
* '''[http://maplestory.nexon.net/ Maple Story]''' is an MMO that has a more natural setting. The most distinguishing feature of Maple Story is its cartoony pixel art.<br />
* '''[http://www.gamefaqs.com/ GameFAQs]''', while not an MMO, is a website that has the largest repository of walkthoughs, that is, guides that help someone beat a game. GameFAQs is notable for not only its large repository of walkthroughs of games that are across an extreme variety of consoles, handhelds, and even computers (not all of them MMOs), but also the drama that is rumoured to happen in the GameFAQs forums.<br />
* '''[http://www.ign.com/ IGN]''' (full: '''Imagine Games Network'''), while also not an MMO, is the largest website that gives news on video games in general, not just MMOs. Each of the games mentioned in the site have pages that have summaries, reviews, screenshots, other art, videos, and links to news related to its games.<br />
* '''[http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/index.shtml FFXI]''' (full: '''Final Fantasy XI''') is an MMO from SquareEnix, being the first MMO of the popular ''Final Fantasy'' series.<br />
* '''[http://www.runescape.com/community Runescape]''' is an older MMO.<br />
* '''[http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/ Starcraft II]''' is a realtime strategy game with a science fiction setting that heavily involves space travel. While technically not an MMO, it has a significant online multiplayer component.<br />
* '''[http://us.battle.net/wow/en/ WoW]''' (full: '''World of Warcraft''') is the definitive MMO, being not only the most popular and one of the longest-running but also the most expansive (having its own spinoff games, comic books, novels, and even figurines), WOW giving the idea of how an MMO should be. A player can choose from a variety of races, each with its own heavy history.<br />
* '''[http://secondlife.com/ Second Life]''' is similar to Habbo, albeit with a bigger suspension of disbelief (one example being that the player does not need to be a human) and in a 3D setting. <br />
* '''[http://www.nationstates.net/ NationStates]''' is a text-based political simulation game. Notably, some of its traffic comes not from the actual game (which is optional), but the extensive set of political, roleplaying, and general forums attached.<br />
* '''[http://www.eveonline.com/ Eve Online]''' is a science fiction MMO which is notable because of its virtual economy.<br />
* '''[http://www.gaiaonline.com/ Gaia]''' (full: '''Gaia Online'''), while not an MMO, is a forums oriented towards pop culture, including video games and Japanese media. Its most notable feature is the heavy customization possible of a member's pixel-art avatar. Its members tend to roleplay a lot, albeit in a more written, story-based form. Gaia has gained a revaination of its members stealing art and causing drama.<br />
<br />
Other notable regions include:<br />
* The '''Mountains of Steam''', referring to the game distribution service [http://store.steampowered.com/ Steam] where people could buy and download video games in general, not just MMOs.<br />
* '''River Grind''' refers to "grinding." In most MMOs, the character is a fighter of some sorts, yet starts at a level 1, signifying the character's aptitude level in combat. The character can level up and gain more aptitude levels through earning experience, of which the most reliable and otherwise common way is the process of "grinding," that is, repeatedly fighting opposing monsters (sometimes of a level notably lower that your character's), gaining experience points from winning these battles until your character gains a level, that is, "levels up". While a practical necessity in strengthening the character, this process can be tiresome, hence the expression "grinding."<br />
* '''Spawn Camp''' refers to "spawn points", the places in combat-oriented MMO's tend to produce ("spawn") random AI-powered creatures, and the act of "spawn camping", in which the player character simply stands behind or around the spawn points to fight the enemy creatures as soon as they appear.<br />
* '''Gulf of Lag''' refers to how the MMO can be slowed down a considerable amount doe to the large amount of players simultaneously using the same server, this congestion bogging down the server and frustrating the users.<br />
* '''[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/final-boss-of-the-internet End Guy for the Internet]''' refers to "end bosses", the last -- and usually hardest to defeat -- "bad guy" in a game (or a section of a game).<br />
<br />
==YouTube Region==<br />
The YouTube region refers to websites that are based on user-created content.<br />
<br />
'''[https://www.youtube.com/ YouTube]''' is the definitive video website where people can upload videos with the purpose of public viewing, ranging from home movies through official music videos through Let's Plays of people playing video games to questionably-legal uploads of cartoons and films. Google had purchased YouTube.<br />
<br />
Many of the sites on the map are just references to {{w|viral video}}s at {{w|YouTube}}:<br />
* '''Viral Shores''' refers to how viral videos (whether they be viral marketing or simply memes) tend to proliferate on YouTube.<br />
* '''Britney''' likely refers to pop singer {{w|Britney Spears}} and the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHmvkRoEowc "Leave Britney Alone" guy].<br />
* '''Maru Gulf''' refers to Maru the Cat, a YouTube celebrity [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/676:_Abstraction also mentioned in xkcd].<br />
* '''Prairie Dog Habitat''' likely refers to the viral video [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1Y73sPHKxw Dramatic Chipmunk] (which is actually a Prairie Dog).<br />
* '''Rick Rolling Hills''' references, well, {{w|Rickrolling}}. More information [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ here]. The "deserted" note likely refers to how Rick Astley himself is tired of the meme, or again, how people tend to leave the video upon getting "Rick Roll'd," never actually going to the video with the express purpose of viewing the video.<br />
* '''Lunar Landing Soundstage''' is, of course, a reference to the {{w|Moon landing conspiracy theories}}, which Randall has railed on before.<br />
* '''{{w|OK Go}} Bay''' refers to the band "OK Go" who have multiple viral music videos on YouTube, most famously [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTAAsCNK7RA "Here it goes again"] featuring treadmills.<br />
<br />
The '''HTML5 swamp''' refers to the spotty support of HTML 5 (an update on HTML that is frequently touting its media capabilities, making HTML 5 a viable alternative to Flash) YouTube has. (Of course, by the time the comic was written, HTML 5 was still in its infancy.)<br />
The Music Video Bay refers to the amount of music videos (official or otherwise) are present in YouTube.<br />
<br />
Other counties of the YouTube region include:<br />
* '''[https://secure.flickr.com/ Flickr]''', a website where people can upload and share photographs they took.<br />
* '''[http://fotolog.com Fotolog]''', a photo website very popular in South America in 2004-2008, which was used as a social network.<br />
* '''[https://vimeo.com/ vimeo]''', a website where people tend to showcase artistic content that they made on their own, notably independent studios.<br />
* '''[http://www.last.fm/ Last.fm]''', a music website that is notable of its "scrobbling" feature.<br />
* '''[https://www.newgrounds.com/ Newgrounds]''', a website that hosts art, (Flash-based) videos, audio, and (Flash-based) games to which other users can comment and rate. Even so, content from Newgrounds tends to be obscene, though there is a filtering system if a viewer does not wish to see obscene content.<br />
* '''[http://www.deviantart.com/ deviantArt]''', the largest art website, where people can upload, sell, and buy not only art itself, but also video, audio, Flash-work, and even skins (the original purpose of deviantArt). While many big-name/professional people and organizations have their works in deviantArt, the site is more infamous for the large amount of people who upload low-quality fan-art and fan-characters, most notably of media from Japan. Another point of infamy is the large amount of drama that can happen in the website.<br />
* '''[http://www.chatroulette.com/ Chatroulette]''' is a website where people are randomly paired up with each other and video/text chat.<br />
* '''[https://tumblr.com/ Tumblr]''', where people could make a blog and post text, pictures, video, audio, quotes, and links. The most distinguishing feature is the ability to "reblog" these posts from other's people's blogs into the user's own blog. Notable features of Tumblr include sketchblogs (where people upload their sketches), Ask blogs (where people answer questions other users ask, the moderators of these blogs usually pretending to be a character from a form of media), and the large amount of "social justice" (where people fight against racism, sexism, and other forms of negative discrimination). See also [[1043: Ablogalypse]].<br />
* '''Isle of teenagers who just discovered macroeconomics''' is a joke about how teenagers tend to think that the world and the economy are a lot simpler than they actually are. Combined with the typical internet mindset, this leads to a lot of teenagers posting blogs and videos and comments on blogs and videos describing how idiotic the government and other red-tape-related adults are.<br />
<br />
The '''Snob Sound''' could refer to the large amount of people who look down on others in the surrounding websites (one example being an original artist looking down on people who draw mainly fan-art).<br />
<br />
==Twitter Region==<br />
<br />
==Skype Region==<br />
The Skype region deals with IM, or Instant Messaging services. These often allow services like voice chat and even video calls.<br />
<br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype Skype] is, according to Randall, the most popular of these among the internet. It has many features to allow peer-to-peer voice chats, as well as allowing calls to be made (at a price) to actual phones.<br />
<br />
==Blogosphere==<br />
<br />
==Blogosphere (Core Region)==<br />
<br />
==QQ Region==<br />
'''{{w|Tencent QQ}}''' is a Chinese instant messaging program.<br />
<br />
Incidentally, in English-speaking communities "QQ" has several more common definitions:<br />
* An {{w|emoticon}}, representing a face with two large, crying eyes.<br />
* A synonym for "rage quit", in which a video game player quits the game out of sheer frustration. It originated in ''Warcraft II'' multiplayer, where pressing Ctrl+Q+Q would quit the game, and became more widely known in ''World of Warcraft''.<br />
** These definitions are commonly combined, usually to mock the "rage quitter".<br />
<br />
==Forums Islands==<br />
* First and foremost we have '''[https://www.4chan.org/ 4chan.org]''', an {{w|imageboard}} in which people can upload pictures while others comment on them. The website is infamous for its loose/often non-existent rules, incredibly vulgar userbase, source of new memes, and spawning of trolls. 4chan's random board, known internally as '''/b/''', is almost constantly flooded with porn and image macros. This is why Randall's incarnation of 4chan is shaped like a penis.<br />
** The gulf labelled '''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anonymous_(group) Anonymous]''' is a reference to the trolls that label themselves "Anonymous" who recently had gained national acknowledgement because of the group's real-life tirades, including cracking attacks against the Church of Scientology and the founding of WikiLeaks (a website that leaks confidential material related to governments).<br />
** '''{{w|Catbus}} Route''' is likely a reference to {{w|Lolcat}}s in general.<br />
** '''Tunnel to Habbo''' is a reference to [http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/pools-closed the 2006 Habbo Hotel Raids], in which hundreds of 4chan Anons simultaneously logged onto Habbo Hotel and proceeded to be as obnoxious as possible, standing in formations of swastikas and penises or body-blocking the swimming pools.<br />
* '''Encyclopedia Dramatica''', labeled '''ED''' on the map (link omitted due to the malicious nature of their pop-up advertisements), is a wiki site dedicated to chronicling internet memes and other noteworthy sites, events, people, and anything else that catches their attention in an incredibly arbitrary and vulgar manner. The site is ''heavily'' steeped in the attitude of veteran, vulgar 4chan users.<br />
* '''420chan''' and '''7chan''' are other imageboards in the style of 4chan. Their relative lack of popularity and derivative nature leads a lot of 4chan users to mock them (hence, their position on Randall's map suggests that they're mere wads of semen).<br />
* '''[http://www.ebaumsworld.com/ eBaum's World]''' is a media-hosting website founded by Eric Bauman. The site has lost a lot of traffic after (quite valid) accusations of stolen content.<br />
* '''[http://www.2ch.net 2channel]''' is a Japanese imageboard that was actually the original inspiration for 4chan.<br />
<br />
(i have no idea where to place this next article; keeping it next to 4chan for now)<br />
* '''[http://www.craigslist.org/about/sites craigslist]]''' is a classified advertisements website with sections devoted to just about everything. Except sexual favors; that feature was stripped out of the site with extreme prejudice.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:'''Map of Online Communities'''<br />
:Size on map represents volume of Daily Social activity (posts, chat, etc). Based on data gathered over the Spring and Summer of 2010.<br />
<br />
:[Two insets on the upper left-hand corner shows that this map is a tiny portion of the huge continent of Spoken Language, encompassing portions of the Internet, Email, and Cell Phones (SMS).]<br />
<br />
:[The largest landmass on the map by far, which takes up nearly the entire northern half of the map is "Facebook" - with large states in the south-east of the country labeled 'Farmville' and 'Happy Farm'. There is a much smaller state to the west of these called 'Farm Town'. To the north of these states is a large swath of unremarkable land entitled 'Northern Wasteland of Unread Updates.' This is directly north of the large Dopamine Sea.<br />
<br />
:A peninsula on the south-west, just below the Plains of Awkwardly Public Family Interactions, houses many tiny states, such as MySpace, Orkut, LinkedIn, Bebo, & Hi5. It is bordered on the south by Buzzword Bay, which contains several islands of varying sizes. Among these are YouTube and Twitter (the largest), which are separated by the Social Media Consultant Channel. To the south-east of Twitter, across the Sea of Protocol Confusion, is another, equally large island. Most of it is Skype, with the north having two largish states called AIM and Windows Live Messenger. On the south-west part of the island are two smaller states called GG and Yahoo Messenger.<br />
<br />
:The Island of Skype is extremely close to, but separated by the Great Firewall (a dashed line), the large landmass of QQ. It's north shore is the Gulf of China and Grass Mud Horse Bay. Outside of these bays, over the Great Firewall are two islands called Craigslist and 2Channel.<br />
<br />
:In the Dopamine Sea, off the southern shores of Farmville and Happy Farm, is MMO Isle. Its largest state is WoW, with Runescape, Lineage, Maple Story, Habbo, and the Mountains of Steam among its notable landmarks. To the southeast of the island is the Gulf of Lag, in which sits the CDC Games island, with Eve Online.<br />
<br />
:To the east of Twitter is Troll Bay, with such islands as Reddit and Reddit, Digg, Stumbleupon, Delicio.us, and Wikipedia Talk Pages. To their south are the IRC isles, of which one is the tiny island of #xkcd.<br />
<br />
:East of these islands, and north of Skype island, is the Sea of Memes. In this sea, to the north of Craigslist and 2Channel, is an archipelago of tiny islands. There is an inset, labeled 'Forums.' (See below.)<br />
<br />
:To the southwest if Twitter island, in the Sea of Opinions, are the blog islands. These lie south of the islands in Buzzword Bay, as well. The northernmost islands in this group are centered around the Bay of Drama, on which can be found Diary Blogs, Gossip Blogs, and Livejournal. Gossip Blogs share an island with Political, Music, and Tech Blogs. To the north of this island is a smaller island called Photo Blogs. South of Diary Blogs, and off the southwest coast of Music blogs is a smaller island called Fandom Blogs. South of Tech Blogs, off of which sprouts the small peninsula of Business Blogs, is the Spamblog Straits. On the other side of the straits is a large island made up of Miscellaneous Blogs, with two states demarcated as Religious Blogs and Blog Blogs. Southwest of the Blog Islands is the Sea of Zero (0) Comments.]<br />
<br />
:[An inset of a group of islands in the sea of memes located on the lower right corner of the map, labeled 'Forums'. The largest by far is 4chan and /b/. Also found here are D2JSP, JLA Frums, Fan Forum, Something Awful, and many smaller ones, too numerous to list here.]<br />
<br />
:[The northeastern third of Gossip/Political/Tech Blogs island is another inset labeled 'Blogosphere (Core)'. This can be found on the lower left corner of the map. Two peninsulas in Political Blogs bookend the Bay of Flame -- these are Liberal Blogs and Conservative Blogs. Between them lie several tiny islands such as Politics Daily, CNN Politcal Ticker, and Mediaite. Off the coast of Liberal Blogs lies the island of NYTimes, off the coast of Conservative Blogs is Libertarian Isle. Between the two lies The Talk. The northern peninsula of Tech Blogs contains places such as Gizmodo, Engadget, Joystiq, and Kotaku.] <br />
<br />
:[Text found between the two insets, which are directly below the main map.]<br />
:ABOUT THIS MAP<br />
:Communities rise and fall, and total membership numbers are no longer a good measure of a community's current size and health. This updated map uses size to represent total social activity in a community -- that is, how much talking, playing, sharing, or other socializing happens there. This meant some comparing of apples and oranges, but I did my best and tried to be consistent.<br />
<br />
:Estimates are based on the numbers I could find, but involved a great deal of guesswork, statistical inference, random sampling, nonrandom sampling, a 20,000-cell spreadsheet, emailing, cajoling, tea-leaf reading, goat sacrifices, and gut instinct (i.e. making things up).<br />
<br />
:Sources of data include Google and Bing, Wikipedia, Alexa, Big-Boards.com, StumbleUpon, Wordpress, Akismet, every website statistics page I could find, press releases, news articles, and individual site employees. Thanks in particular to folks at Last.fm, LiveJournal, Reddit, and the New York Times, as well as sysadmins at a number of sites who shared statistics on condition of anonymity.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics with color]]<br />
[[Category:Large drawings]]<br />
[[Category:Internet]]</div>141.101.98.209https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=373:_The_Data_So_Far&diff=52416373: The Data So Far2013-11-09T19:13:38Z<p>141.101.98.209: </p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 373<br />
| date = January 21, 2008<br />
| title = The Data So Far<br />
| image = the data so far.png<br />
| titletext = But THIS guy, he might be for real!<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|TV series Supernatural should be mentioned.}}<br />
There are often people who claim to have supernatural powers, but then when their powers are tested by some sort of experiment, the experiment refutes their claims. This comic summarizes all the data from such experiments, observing that given the data, it's very unlikely that supernatural powers actually exist.<br />
<br />
The title text refers to a person who has claimed to have supernatural powers, and suggests that he might really have such powers. This invokes the fact that absence of evidence is not the same as evidence of absence, although there has never previously been a confirmed example of a person with superpowers this does not prove that this is certainly impossible. However the graph above suggests that, although not impossible, such an event would be highly unlikely. No matter how much evidence we collect there is always some positive (but vanishingly small) chance, that some person may hold supernatural powers. See also comic [[1122: Electoral Precedent]] for other false rules that appeared to hold only due to an absence of evidence.<br />
<br />
See also comic [[1235: Settled]] for more of Randall's thoughts on hoaxes and unusual claims.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[Bar graph titled "Claims of Supernatural Powers" and has two sets of data. The first data set is labeled "Confirmed By Experiment", and is empty. The second data set is "Refuted By Experiment" and goes to the top of the graph.]<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Charts]]</div>141.101.98.209