3074: Push Notifications

Push Notifications

|< < Prev #3074 (April 9, 2025) Next > >|

Title text: NOTIFICATION: Now dismissing a head of the Notification Hydra… NOTIFICATION: Success! You have dismissed a head of the Notification Hydra! Different title text: :3

|< < Prev Random Explanation Next > >|

To experience the interactivity of the game, visit the original comic.

Explanation

This explanation is incomplete: Edited by a NotificationBOT. The transcripts for the additional #Comic images are not detailed enough! The current explanation is too messy (unrelated paragraphs and too many bullet points). If needed, reorganise it, use tables, or divide it into subsections. Also, the explanation for the title text is too far down, make it more prominent. The gallery is missing many image links! Links to all images are on the index.js at https://xkcd.com/3074/marconi/static/js/index.js?v=1. You can easily identify them, they look like this: static/xyz.png Since that same link contains all the comic pictures, including each notification, we might as well use them to showcase the normal onboarding flow. Upload the notification pictures in order (take them from here, by using Ctrl+F to search for "static/" and then pasting into the URL), and create a new section for them! (Make sure to download the bigger version, labelled "4x" instead of "2x"!) If you can fix this issue, edit the page!

The turtle that appears when graphing the coordinates from the zoom notifications.

This interactive comic is the 15th April Fools' Day comic released by Randall, just over a week late. It uses push notifications to change the comic image over time and make other statements.

Upon viewing the comic for the first time, a sequence of notifications will be rendered over the comic itself. The notifications have a fade-in animation and appear one after another. The sequence is divided into several "groups" of notifications, each containing up to 4 regular notifications and an interactable button, which has a circled arrow icon to the right as well as a different text color. Clicking the arrow removes all notifications on screen and proceeds the sequence to the next group.

At the end of the sequence, a red-background option to sign up for xkcd notifications is presented. This part differs depending on if the user is "playing" from a mobile or desktop browser.

• On desktop, clicking this will result in the browser prompting the user to allow or block xkcd.com's request to send push notifications. By allowing, the game begins. If blocked, the comic shows a message "An actual error occurred :(", and the laptop bursts into flames (see the image in the table below). It also blows up in response to any other browser error, such as a 500 Internal Server Error, which is reported to happen if you click the pause button too quickly.^{[actual citation needed]}

• On mobile, a new on-screen notification will show up, telling the user to add xkcd.com to their home screen in order for it to send push notifications on mobile. Upon doing so and opening the webpage from the home screen, the system will prompt the user to allow or block push notifications from this webpage. The outcomes of allowing and denying are the same as on desktop.

Once the game begins, you are provided with two buttons: one labeled "Emergency Stop", and one labeled "Silence notifications at a cost". Clicking the "Emergency Stop" button allows you to either restart the full game or to subscribe just to thrice-weekly notifications for new xkcd comics, while the second button will temporarily silence notifications, supposedly at the cost of notifying two random people.

The title text references the Lernaean Hydra, a multi-headed serpent-like monster from Greek mythology; the Greek hero Heracles was tasked with slaying the Hydra as the second of his twelve labours. When he cut off one of its heads, however, two heads would grow in its place, resulting in more heads than before; Heracles soon realized he could not kill the Hydra in this fashion. It describes a similar situation with the "Notification Hydra": a push notification "head" of the Notification Hydra was dismissed, which subsequently spawned two more push notification heads providing updates about the status of the dismissal. If one of these new notifications were to be dismissed, it would again spawn another set of the same two push notification heads; thus, the Notification Hydra is unkillable in a manner similar to the original.

The subdirectory where the images and scripts for this comic are stored is titled 'marconi,' which is likely a reference to the Italian engineer and inventor of the same name, Guglielmo Marconi, who is credited with inventing the radio, and did much work in the field of early communication systems.

Up to 7 clickable cats periodically spawn at predetermined positions around the page, including one on the edge of the Emergency Stop button.

For a table of all notification messages, see 3074: Push Notifications/Table of Notifications.

A general list of notification types include:

• A few starter notifications about this comic, the successful sending of a notification of this comic, and the lack of another comic.

• An announcement that an old comic was posted, specifying a (seemingly) random comic and its publication date. The publication date seems to be shown in a random calendar date format.

• A word game where a first notification asks you to type a word, with further notifications apparently to be sent whenever someone chooses the same word as you.
  • The word can be chosen by clicking on the first notification, which lands you in the comic page. The comic pane will be changed to a comic-style input dialogue with a space for the word and a submit button. Upon providing a word, a notification informs you that you will then receive notifications (of the form "Someone else has selected the word <Your Word>!"), and that your choice is permanent and cannot be changed. You can also submit a blank text field, thus receiving "Someone else has selected the word !" notifications.

• A "streak" notification counting the number of times you've clicked it. To start with, the message changes every 10 clicks; then every 50 clicks (after 100) and then at increasing intervals. After every 50 clicks there is an offer to make future clicks count twice, making this a simple version of Cookie Clicker. If you choose to accept the offer by clicking on it, it will reset your clicks back to zero but makes all future clicks count double of the current click rate; you can also reject the offer by continuing to click on the click counter message. There are occasionally notifications encouraging you to keep clicking and "extend your streak," tempting you with "a free click to keep you going". After 400 clicks it will reset your clicks back to zero but makes all future clicks count four times.
  • Early notifications encourage further clicking.
  • Approaching a hundred, the messages grow more concerned and later start warning that the server will crash or has crashed.
  • Above 750: "Are you just doing this to annoy me?"
  • 1000-2000: "You're just doing this to annoy you?"
  • Above 2000: "I guess it worked"
  • Above 1000000: "Wow, you're really into this"

• A "have you seen my cat?" notification which causes all the cats to spawn when clicked.

• Cat fact notifications that appear when a cat is clicked, in reference to this exchange.

• Various "Erroneous Alerts" with a warning triangle emoji (⚠ U+26A0), some with just flavor text, some corresponding to changes in the comic image.

• "Zoom notifications" including numeric coordinates, sometimes prefixed with "oh look!"; plotting these coordinates creates an image that appears to be a turtle, which could be a reference to 1416: Pixels.

• "Constant reminders" with references to mathematical, physical, or some other constants. The constant values are stated to be "at the tone", likely in reference to time-of-day phone services, which are live or recorded human voice services that tell you the exact time "at the third stroke" over the phone. (In at least some portions of the USA, the wording did use "tone" rather than "strike." For example, "At the tone, the time will be 2:32pm, and 10 seconds ... (beep)")

• A notification that offers to provide weather alerts for your location, which leads into a series of notifications asking whether you live in a named city. If none of the cities that it knows are selected, your location is set to the summit of Mount Washington.

• When the time is near a full hour or half-hour, that the current time is five o'clock.

• An invitation to subscribe to the "What if?" YouTube channel

• A notification with the heading "System Log" that reads (INFO): A user has paused notifications
  • This notification presumably appears when a random user has pressed the "Silence notifications at a cost" button.

• A reminder to comment and subscribe. When click on it will redirect to one of various Wikipedia pages, including: Talk:Mathematics, Talk:Romance, Talk:Language, Talk:Alarm_fatigue, Talk:Boneless, Talk:Sitting, Category talk:Unix text editors, Talk:Robot, Talk:Jamming avoidance response, Talk:Squircle, Talk:Like, Talk:Drafting linen, Talk:Hot dog, Talk:Goomba, Talk:Tidal locking, Talk:Multiple unit, Talk:Flag semaphore, Talk:Stoating, Talk:Roseate_spoonbill, Talk:Teleportation, Talk:List of dumplings, Talk:List of hat styles, Talk:Cats and the Internet, Talk:Laminar flow, Talk:Time management, Talk:Hole, Talk:Spot welding, Talk:Myst, Talk:Agriculture in ants, Talk:East, Talk:Smoot.

• A "Carriage Return Line Feed", referencing the Windows standard of storing line returns as a carriage return character followed by a line feed (newline) character. However, the xkcd Carriage Return Line Feed is instead a news feed concerning the next stop on a supposed "Carriage Return Line" of a train system. The announcements are all related to stations on the London Underground, including the use of the phrase "Mind the gap".

Comic images

Image	Transcript and explanation
	Cueball sitting at his desk, with his laptop.
	Cueball sitting at his desk, with a very large laptop.
	Cueball sitting at his desk, with a small potted plant.
	Cueball sitting at his desk, with a squirrel in the pot.
	Cueball sitting at his desk, with a much larger plant that has clearly outgrown the pot, at least vertically.
	Cueball sitting at his desk with the larger plant, with a cat on one of the branches.
	A second image of Cueball sitting at his desk with the larger plant with a cat on one of the branches, but in a different spot.
	Cueball sitting at his desk, with a cat in the foreground near the point of view.
	Cueball sitting at his desk, his chair replaced with a large cat.
	Cueball sitting farther back from his desk, with the laptop on the desk on fire. This image only appears if xkcd.com is denied the permission to send notifications (see the explanation above).
	Cueball, the desk, and the laptop floating in the air.
	Cueball spinning in his chair.
	Cueball sitting on the desk, facing the laptop on the chair.
	The desk vacant with "Game Over" displayed if you use the emergency stop.
	Cueball sitting at his desk, with a laptop on the desk, and a sword leaning against the desk on the other side.
	Cueball and Ponytail swordfighting while the computer has an hourglass icon, referencing 303: Compiling.
	The room flooded 2/3 of the way up the desk. Cueball is still sitting with his laptop.
	The same flooding, with a miniature sailboat behind Cueball.
	The same flooding, with a cat face behind Cueball.
	The same flooding, with a shark fin on the far side of the desk, facing toward Cueball.
	Cueball sitting at the desk, which has been extended behind his laptop like a long meeting table.
	No Cueball, only the chair, desk, and laptop.
	Cueball using the laptop on his lap, with no desk.
	Cueball with a squirrel on his head.
	A squirrel sitting at the desk, seemingly using the laptop.
	Cueball standing on top of the laptop keyboard.
	Cueball sitting at the desk, wearing a wizard hat.
	Cueball sitting on the floor behind the desk.
	Cueball sitting in his chair, shielding his face from a tentacle coming from the computer screen.
	Cueball sitting at his desk, typing on his laptop, while in an office chair raised to an excessive height – likely a reference to 2144: Adjusting a Chair.
	The cat that appears after returning to the comic window after leaving it idle for long period of time. It has a unique title text of ":3".

Transcript

This transcript is incomplete: Need to finish the transcript in the table ABOVE, it's not detailed enough. If you can fix this issue, edit the page!

[Cueball sits at a desk in an office chair. He is typing on a computer.]

[Gray message boxes with a small circled “x” at the top right corner are shown:]

Happy April 1st (observed)!

To celebrate, we were excited to introduce a new xkcd.com feature: push notifications for new comics!

Unfortunately, this feature has gone horribly wrong.

Until further notice, we are asking people NOT to sign up for new comic notifications.

Frankly, we recommend not even clicking on any notifications to learn more.

Click this notification to learn more! (a circled arrow is shown)

“Push notifications for new comics” sounds like a simple feature, right?

There’s a nice API for browser notifications. xkcd updates three times a week.

So you just send a notification for each update, right?

That’s what we thought, too.

Click to continue! (a circled arrow is shown)

[To the side of the comic frame is a big, horizontal hexagonal stop sign]

Sign: Emergency STOP

Below the sign: Halt ALL notifications and forget everything

The good news is that we did build a button to stop xkcd new comic notifications.

You can press this button at any time and the system will stop sending you notifications.

The nightmare will be over and the server will forget you ever existed.

This part definitely works.

The rest of the system does NOT work. (a circled arrow is shown)

We’re sorry.

We don’t know how things went so wrong.

The system is sending more than three notifications a week. A LOT more.

We cannot recommend signing up for xkcd new comic notifications at this time.

Click here to ignore the warnings. (a circled arrow is shown)

No, really.

Our notification system may send a large number of very real system notifications.

These may flood your browser, displace other notifications, and cause problems.

⚠️DO NOT ENABLE XKCD NEW COMIC NOTIFICATIONS⚠️

Yeah, I get it, but I definitely want to enable xkcd new comic notifications. (a circled arrow is shown)

Are you sure?

Yes! (a circled arrow is shown)

Absolutely sure?

YES!! (a circled arrow is shown)

To enable push notifications on mobile you need to add xkcd.com to your home screen.

Click here to subscribe to xkcd notifications

[Initial static image shows Cueball sat on an office chair at a desk using a laptop computer. A notification 'window' is speech-bubbled above the computer]

[Grey notification box, header:] April 1^st (Observed)

[Notification box, further text:] Open xkcd.com to view.

Laptop: [Warning sign.]

[When viewed live, various xkcd-style popover notifications appear, each can be dismissed or (usually the last on every page) invited to press an 'onwards'-style button.]

[First page of messages]

Happy April 1^st! To celebrate, we were excited to introduce a new xkcd.com feature: Push Notifications for new comics!

Unfortunately, this feature has gone horribly wrong.

Until further notice, we are asking people NOT to sign up for new comic notifications.

Frankly, we recommend not even clicking on any notifications to learn more.

[Notification with 'onwards button':] Click on this notification to learn more

[Upon choosing to continue, further messages appear, replacing any prior ones left open]

"Push Notifications for new comics" sounds like a simple feature, right?

There's a nice API for browser notifications, xkcd updates three times a week.

So you just send a notification for each upafte, right?

That's what we thought, too.

[Notification with 'onwards button':] Click on this notification to continue

[Next set of popover messages]

The good news is that we did build a button to STOP xkcd new comic notifications.

You can press this button at any time and the system will stop sending you notifications.

The nightmare will be over and the server will forget you ever existed.

This part definitely works.

[Notification with 'onwards':] The rest of the system does not work.

[To the right of the comic frame, a red, octagonal button has white text upon it:]Emergency Stop

[Below the button is red text:] Halt all notifications and forget everything

[Next set of popovers, "stop" button remains permanently so long as you continue]

We're sorry.

We didn't know how things went so wrong.

The system is sending more than three notifications at this time.

['Onwards' notification:] Click here to ignore the warnings

[Next set.]

No, really.

Our notification system may send a large amount of very real system notifications.

These may flood your browser, displace other notifications, and cause problems.

[Text bookended by warning triangles:] Do not enable xkcd new comic notifications

['Onwards':] Yeah, I get it, but I definitely want to enable xkcd new comic notifications

[Just two popovers, initially]

Are you sure?

['Onwards':] Yes

[On clicking onwards, two more appear below]

Absolutely sure?

['Onwards':] Yes!!

[On clicking, a further popover]

[Red-tinted 'onwards'-style popover with warnings:] Click here to subscribe to xkcd notifications.

[...something appeared then dissappeared...]

[Genuine(?) browser dialogue activated:] xkcd.com wants to send you notifications. Block / Allow

[If allowed, one more popover in the original style]

Success!!

[Below the Emergency Stop button, an oval gray button appears labeled in white:] Silence notifications at a cost

[Below that, in grey text:]Temporarily pause your notifications at the cost of notifying two random people.

[Further changes include the contents of the comic. The transcript for these changes is available on the Comic images section.]

  Add comment        Create topic (use sparingly)       Refresh 

Discussion

So...this is the April Fool's comic, if I'm not mistaken... Oh ye of little faith! 172.71.26.106 20:00, 9 April 2025 (UTC)

I turned this on thinking it would just be a few every so often but I quickly realized how this is xkcd and it doesn't "joke". I had to turn this off because it disrupted my schoolwork by popping up every fricking 5 minutes -- Moss (talk) 20:22, 9 April 2025 (UTC) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Personally, I'm disappointed by how long I have to wait between notifications. 172.71.178.32 15:39, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

Apparently my employer (or ublock) is keeping me from experiencing the full effect of any notifications. All I get is "An *actual* error has occurred. 162.158.91.173 20:52, 9 April 2025 (UTC)

Yeah, I'm confused too. I've tried Chrome and got nothing. I've tried Edge and got effectively nothing. I progressed one message further, but nothing showed up. No notifications, popups, or whatever. And I have never installed an add-on for Edge. Edge did give me access to the game over screen by disabling notifications, but when I tried to re-enable them, nothing happened.

Is this a mobile-only thing? EebstertheGreat (talk) 02:51, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

I'm having the same issue. Firefox doesn't work, which I understand, but neither does Safari. I haven't gotten a single notification. Mushrooms (talk) 06:57, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

Problem solved! Turns out I *was* getting notifications, I just wasn't seeing them. --Mushrooms (talk) 07:07, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

Where were you getting them? 172.70.207.212 17:08, 20 April 2025 (UTC)

What the heck are the "Zoom Notification" ones, with just a pair of numbers? Now that I've been sitting with this for a little bit, they're by far the most common notifications, and the most mysterious. What is "zoom"ing or should be zoomed-in-on or whatever, and what do the two numbers signify? 172.68.22.75 20:35, 9 April 2025 (UTC)

I think they're coordinates. So far (x,y) has had x from 4 fo 73 (that I've seen) and y from 2 to 28. That gives a tad over 2000 possible combinations, but omething tells me there won't be more than 500 or so in total. Quite a few y=24 (not yet adjacent by x), and any given x has 0 to 3 different y partners (so far). They do repeat (I'm not recording how many times, but I'm scatterplotting what I get). The ones prefixed with "oh look!" are tightly clustered in x=6..13 and y=4..11, so far, with no non-"oh look!" ones there, so I'm plotting them in a different marker. I suspect, after many many more Zoom Notifications, I'll be left with (enough of) a pixelated image's pixels (of two types, background colour excluded), or else I'm doing it wrong and I should be drawing lines between the dots, but I never managed to grab them all, so I'm relying on it being a random "spraygun droplets" sort of image-reveal. (Still some way to go...) 172.71.241.66 23:08, 9 April 2025 (UTC)

Also, Zoom is a video chat app, if you didn't know that. That's the joke. EebstertheGreat (talk) 02:53, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

"They're by far the most common" - not for me - I got a couple early on, and nothing since. All I'm getting now (apart from cat ones when I click a cat) is constant 'comment and subscribe' ones.172.71.178.28 16:07, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

Last night, right from the start (well, as soon as I got around to going through the process, after I started this Talk page off), Zoom stuff was the most common. The messages would change as I was documenting them, they were more frequent than the "you have clicked N times" ones. This morning, on reconnecting (exactly how much "Push" there is to the Push Notifications, I don't know, I suspect it's more long-polling in the end), I have had zero new Zoom messages, the "clicked N times" had promoted itself to "click Nth away, N+1th pops up immediately" most of the time, with Constants and Leave A Message On This Random Wikitalk and Old Comic Published essentially, tying for next most frequent, except for when the occasional Cat Facts splurge gets mixed in (all this without re-viewing the comic-page's tab).

Anyway, my "spraygun coordinates" list hasn't been expanded all today. I was wondering if its frequency had been reduced, server-side, because it was turning out to be the most polled (and/or pushed) bit of information... And that happened while I was asleep anyway.

Whilst writing this, I only actually got three alerts... Old Comic, Erroneous Error and Have You Seen My Cat? No... now four, just had a Constant Reminder. Earlier today, I'd have had twice as many in merely a few seconds, at times. So maybe (effective) throttling back has happened across the board, one way or another. 172.69.43.171 21:16, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

I got multiple "At the tone, your favorite number will be 14", and I don't lnow what to do with that... Is 14 a reference? 172.68.234.180 (talk) 10:00, 24 April 2025 (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Table of notification

Made a new page called 3074: Push Notifications/Table of Notifications, much like 1506: xkcloud/List of Permalinks. I’m hoping that we can put all of the possible notifications into the table, along with any possible images that go along with it and an explanation (if necessary). 42.book.addict^{Talk to me!} 21:26, 9 April 2025 (UTC)

I think it might be a good idea to make the table something more like source/name/notification, because there are chains of notifications where the name changes, like the How Many Times Can You Click This? notification. --Magicalus (talk) 23:19, 9 April 2025 (UTC)

Might even want to track the URL that the notification leads to in the cases where it opens a new tab. 172.71.142.57

Did you mean a page much like 1506:_xkcloud/List_of_Permalinks? 162.158.175.171 01:25, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

Weird, someone changed that. I just reverted it. --Jack (t|c) 02:07, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

Yes, the user behind this change appears to have a keyboard->leopard sort of autochanger active (for cloud->butt) (unless they're deliberately doing it alongside deliberate changes to try to get it under the radar?)... I reverted something else they did, with the intention to check everything else (in Right Click's explanation) and unreverting the actually good changes. 172.70.162.160 08:39, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

It's like herding LOLcats... anyone else remembering the Secretary arc about now? 172.71.142.2 16:12, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

I clicked on the silence notifications at a cost button a lot and it set Cueball's PC on fire?

Code source

I found what is presumably the source code (?) of the comic through the transcript. It’s all JS pages. No idea what they mean (I’m not good with code), but I’m sure that there are some on here that can help dissect it. 42.book.addict^{Talk to me!} 21:50, 9 April 2025 (UTC)

https://xkcd.com/3074/marconi/manifest.json

https://xkcd.com/3074/marconi/static/js/42.4f5b21b3.js

https://xkcd.com/3074/marconi/static/js/index.js?v=1

I found this list of states in there, saved to the "iU" variable: intro, wordgame, gameover, biglaptop, boat, default, floating, longdesk, missing, nekotree, nekotree2, nekowater, nodesk, onfire, peek, shark, spinning, squirrel, squirreldesk, squirrelplant, standing, sword, tallchair, tentacle, water, wizard, bigplant, catchair, catonhead, compiling, floor, plant, reverse. Presumably, this is all the images we're looking for. I'll get back to you if I identify what chooses them or all their actual filepaths. --Jack (t|c) 00:43, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

I found more urls:

https://xkcd.com/3074/marconi/static/js/async/marconi-sw.e9d36d05.js

https://xkcd.com/3074/marconi/static/js/async/491.7b4e7556.js

https://xkcd.com/3074/marconi/static/js/async/491.7b4e7556.js --172.69.23.45 03:11, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

I have a sneaking suspicion the Zoom Notifications are sketching out an image of some sort (Update: after plotting like 60 of them no apparent pattern is to be found) SkiesShaper (talk) 22:24, 9 April 2025 (UTC)

I've plotted 397 and it seems to be forming some kind of animal. Maybe a cat, given the comic theme? 172.68.35.119 23:24, 9 April 2025 (UTC)

That could make sense yeah - there is definitely an organic sort of pattern emerging from the points I've been plotting out SkiesShaper (talk) 00:35, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure it's a turtle. I have 311 points so far and while it isn't clear, it looks like a turtle. IMW (talk) 01:51, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

After plotting more I think the "Oh look" coordinates help with drawing out a butterfly sitting on the left side of the turtle. IMW (talk) 03:36, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

I also am seeing a turtle after graphing the non-“Oh look” ones (and flipping the image vertically). Could the “Zoom notifications” be a reference to 1416: Pixels, which is about “zooming” in on turtles? 172.68.12.119 12:54, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

Is it fractal? If you zoom in, is it turtles all the way down? 172.68.186.43 14:15, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

Once we have enough coordinates, someone should plot them and upload the image. 172.71.142.56 23:07, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

when the image is saved, it appears to have a hex code as a file name. could be some other thing though Pncak (talk) 04:07, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

Apparently one of the notifications is: "The Earth is spinning at a rate of 1 rpd" This is true if you round it, but not exact. The time it takes to rotate is called a sidereal day, and there's one extra sidereal day a year. Basically, there's one solar day removed in a year, because the Earth's motion around the sun cancels it out. Think of it with a tidally locked planet. It spins around once a year, but the sun never moves. Really there's 1.0027379 rotations per day. DanielLC (talk) 23:02, 9 April 2025 (UTC)

then it is rotating at 1 revolution per sidereal day, which could still be written as 1 rpd guess who (if you desire conversing | what i have done) 05:23, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

This is the most chaotic comic I've seen in a while. Part of me wants to keep notifications on to see what happens, and part of me wants to turn it all off and throw my phone in a lake Alcatraz ii (talk) 00:40, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

Sheet with coordinates

I am making a sheet with the cordinates: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/133jGfOM6EVuEco4j2NumOAOv6pEealyZpbDoMkESXvs/edit?usp=sharing 108.162.216.81 01:31, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

Should we start uploading different images? guess who (if you desire conversing | what i have done) 03:48, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

And should we create a new page for the images or put them all on the same page, like with umwelt. guess who (if you desire conversing | what i have done) 03:49, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

Underneath the "Silence Notifications at a Cost" button, it says "Temporarily pause your notifications at the cost of notifying two random people". Does anyone know how for how long notifications stay silenced, or if there is a way to "unsilence" notifications? Also, when I click on the cats they just disappear. PDesbeginner (talk) 04:09, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

When I click on the cats I get a push notification with a cat fact.172.70.127.58 05:35, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

Just like any other button, you can click it really fast by clicking the button and then holding "enter" or spacebar. guess who (if you desire conversing | what i have done) 04:35, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

Someone should probably comment on "April 1st (observed)". I assume it's a reference to the fact that the comic is late? --Mushrooms (talk) 07:53, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

Aye, as in: observed #2 172.71.26.43 08:02, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

Is it morally wrong to spam the temporary silence button, just because I want to give other people notifications? Broseph (talk) 08:01, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

Notifications are so 2024. Ever since Trump imposed the penguin tariffs, dmesg is where it's at. 162.158.91.126 09:07, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

Finally yay!! Aprilfoolsupdate! (talk) 10:28, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

Where have you been? ;) 172.71.178.160 10:39, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

Good, we don't have to hear you whine like a baby anymore 172.70.100.202 18:54, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

I got the file for "Cueball sitting at his desk, with a cat in the foreground near the point of view.", what do I do to add it :⁾ Toby (talk) 13:24, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

upload it if you can (with the exact file name from imgs.xkcd.com), or copy paste the link here and someone else with uploading rights can upload it. the upload button should be under tools in the left side, under related changes and above special changes. or, you can click this link 42.book.addict^{Talk to me!} 16:29, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

If you refresh the screen when a clickable cat is on it, it moves. 162.158.62.173 14:49, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

Notification typos

I revieved two typos in two different notifications: "Or" is "r" in a message saying that it's confused whether is is fhe server or the client. "Ratio" is "ration" in the message "At the tone, the Golden Ratio will be equal to one half of 1 plus SQRT(5)". Does everyone get those typos? 172.70.34.16

I don't know if they're typos or part of the humor. Enjoy your golden ration.  :) 162.158.63.41 16:33, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

I am not getting any notifications. I have three questions: 1) Does anyone know how long the "temporary silence" button lasts? 2) Does its effect last after you press the emergency stop button and re-subscribe to the nonsense? And 3) Is there just a problem with using Chrome? Thanks, Xnerkcd (talk) 17:49, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

Update, the clickable cats are showing up but not doing anything

They just sit there unless you refresh the screen. Then they can change where they are.162.158.62.108 17:52, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

The problem's fixed; my computer had notifications disabled :) Xnerkcd (talk) 17:56, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

Hi, I was able to get one of the currently placeholder images but just made this account to add it, looks like i'm to new to upload it. Is there a good way to get the file to the community? Namely it's the flooded one with the Shark Fin.--ItemCrafting (talk) 19:40, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

Links to both the Shark https://xkcd.com/3074/marconi/static/a592ca.png and the Foreground Cat https://xkcd.com/3074/marconi/static/cb0653.png .--ItemCrafting (talk) 20:23, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

Also Found: https://xkcd.com/3074/marconi/static/3b9830.png Large Tree, Current version looks to be a broken link. --ItemCrafting (talk) 20:39, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

thanks guess who (if you desire conversing | what i have done) 21:20, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

Here's the cat version of the tree: https://xkcd.com/3074/marconi/static/8eeb55.png Rerere284 (talk) 01:10, 11 April 2025 (UTC)

April fools comic!!! LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO - me, hi (talk) 21:27, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

Cat reference

The cat image itself and the concept of cats appearing after leaving the page idle for some time are a reference to Neko Atsume --162.158.103.82 21:52, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

I don't seem to ever get more than 2 clickable cats at a time.104.23.190.37 18:57, 11 April 2025 (UTC)

Not working

The page doesn't work for me in Chrome on Google Plxel. I just get a image missing symbol. :( 172.71.98.245 22:54, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

Same here -- the image loads initially and then real quickly it's replaced by the broken image. This happens using m.xkcd.com, but not the "desktop" site version. Chromebook with ChromeOS: Version 134.0.6998.183 (Official Build) (64-bit); also broken on Pixel 8 Pro, Android 15. Elizium23 (talk) 23:10, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

Push Notifications disabled in browser

My browser config doesn't allow sites to request push notifications, and the result is that once I reach the point of enabling them, the laptop immediately blows up. Is this worth mentioning in the summary? 162.158.164.163 23:37, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

did your laptop blow up or the one in the comic? --172.71.114.7 10:52, 11 April 2025 (UTC)

Near the bottom of the current Transcript is the line, '[...something appeared then dissappeared...]'. I saw this too, and on the third time through the game, I did a screen recording. Two messages briefly appeared. [text and background in shades of red, all caps] "Error Sending Push Notifications" and [text in black, background grey, all caps] "OK, You Win. Setting Up Push Notifications. [2nd line] Just Remember, we tried to warn you." Nekoninda (talk)Nekoninda

My word is "battery", I'm sure there are also lots of people who chose "horse" or "staple". Correct? --172.69.68.91 14:27, 11 April 2025 (UTC)

Bird is the word, man.104.23.190.37 18:57, 11 April 2025 (UTC)

I was going to try "Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch", but accidentally submitted a blank word (it looks like others have too... well, the second part of my situation, I'm still not sure if the first bit even would have been accepted/enterable, never mind how many others would have tried it). 172.68.205.134 21:12, 11 April 2025 (UTC)

cat --me, hi (talk) 00:37, 12 April 2025 (UTC)

Mobile / Desktop behaviour depends on browser

I'm on Firefox for Android, and I got the signup behaviour described for the desktop version (no adfing to home screen; asks for Notification permission.) 172.71.95.57 08:17, 11 April 2025 (UTC)

I made a phone background using an image from this one! https://file.garden/ZXYYgWMYuz15fq8l/export202504102005490721.png JokinglyEvil (talk) 11:08, 11 April 2025 (UTC)

Picture list

Pictures are prefixed by https://xkcd.com/3074/marconi/static/??????.png, from the list :

• Misc : static/ead1d8.png static/59b30d.png static/388e5b.png
• Bkground : static/4ad340.png static/3b9830.png static/2c83c1.png static/9e4fd6.png static/9d658f.png static/83824a.png static/220211.png static/a0314e.png static/e2eca2.png static/d56a28.png static/20b757.png static/226279.png static/1f2fee.png static/0bfd44.png static/20be4a.png static/cb0653.png static/313380.png static/31a492.png static/11a4b5.png static/a592ca.png static/1450b1.png static/e0f706.png static/fa52d2.png static/69af58.png static/a7d30d.png static/3e33fd.png static/da85bd.png static/303e90.png static/6f48dd.png static/342f4d.png
• Messages: static/fc9dfd.png static/8d9c55.png static/aa973f.png static/923036.png static/9141a2.png static/5f9f66.png static/6af293.png static/935279.png static/b286f5.png static/67da67.png static/b9fc1b.png static/7abdee.png static/c2e227.png static/8bdac7.png static/7e02cf.png static/b07329.png static/c6de0e.png static/a464c9.png static/7f6e55.png static/a96735.png static/ff6357.png static/876854.png static/cb5124.png static/2235f1.png static/e01a73.png static/a75f92.png static/f41766.png static/456b99.png static/d3e6db.png static/da4d83.png static/f3de11.png static/867baf.png static/6b2d69.png static/2705b9.png static/bedb72.png static/f9b33d.png static/3e269d.png static/b034f4.png static/eea7ff.png static/e83fd7.png static/8ebf3f.png static/c6ac3d.png static/a9779a.png static/eddb3b.png

There is another list with the same pictures but twice as large (same order) :

"static/0890d4.png static/198d53.png static/bb9aa1.png static/4ad340.png static/cbe58c.png static/b5a217.png static/618dcc.png static/323351.png static/17d10b.png static/6c8053.png static/0690ec.png static/8576c0.png static/2b79e1.png static/a80810.png static/41143b.png static/8eeb55.png static/99bb67.png static/b84fdf.png static/f0de4f.png static/b0cec1.png static/a4158d.png static/dbc071.png static/c969b2.png static/f3b793.png static/0cd47d.png static/8a5b95.png static/2a2199.png static/63ed1d.png static/2a67b6.png static/7ec02f.png static/8e981d.png static/77a1d5.png static/e49d32.png static/fe60e1.png static/dd3fd2.png static/2b8643.png static/017e3a.png static/e46fe0.png static/6ad951.png static/ef2e76.png static/7d6018.png static/905794.png static/52870c.png static/a17724.png static/aa18ad.png static/1094f5.png static/39bffe.png static/8635c4.png static/d63451.png static/f2c3df.png static/5fa4ed.png static/00050e.png static/026b2f.png static/bcd4f8.png static/f777a4.png static/713981.png static/ed794b.png static/b3696b.png static/a2fc4c.png static/f468fd.png static/bc9195.png static/2ef6f1.png static/1682f4.png static/6a6479.png static/9dd25c.png static/a2e92d.png static/442a18.png static/2139a1.png static/5378fa.png static/8edfa4.png static/25c931.png static/91b6d9.png static/eb016f.png static/519d53.png static/554084.png static/301dc6.png static/4bfe91.png static/7b89ac.png" -- -- Biem (talk) 14:59, 11 April 2025 (UTC) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Hey Biem, could you perhaps use * to make your message into a list? Thanks. 42.book.addict^{Talk to me!} 15:08, 11 April 2025 (UTC)

I certainly could, but it would take page space with no added value... Biem (talk) 15:54, 11 April 2025 (UTC)

It would (in my humble opinion) make it more readable and easier to copy paste into a url. 42.book.addict^{Talk to me!} 22:01, 11 April 2025 (UTC)

I enabled notifications, and no more appeared. Maybe it just doesn't work with my browser? Cats keep appearing, but that's all. 162.158.212.132 16:39, 14 April 2025 (UTC)

Came back a while later and the chair was floating, so stuff is happening, but I don't know why it's not saying anything. I hope I don't just have browser notifications shut off completely... 162.158.137.163 20:54, 14 April 2025 (UTC)

I got multiple "At the tone, your favorite number will be 14", and I don't lnow what to do with that... Is 14 a reference? 172.68.234.180 (talk) 09:59, 24 April 2025 (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
        Add comment