1572: xkcd Survey - Revision history

209.206.8.34 at 08:50, 19 January 2026

2026-01-19T08:50:34Z

Caralice: fix formatting

2025-03-22T07:49:19Z

fix formatting

FaviFake at 17:53, 13 March 2025

2025-03-13T17:53:36Z

FaviFake: /* Explanation */

2025-03-09T12:29:51Z

‎Explanation

FaviFake at 12:25, 9 March 2025

2025-03-09T12:25:34Z

FaviFake: /* The Survey */

2025-03-09T12:25:14Z

‎The Survey

FaviFake: /* The Survey */

2025-03-09T12:25:09Z

‎The Survey

FaviFake: /* The Survey */

2025-03-09T12:24:09Z

‎The Survey

Show changes

DAOFS: /* Explanation */

2025-01-15T16:41:28Z

‎Explanation

CalibansCreations: /* Explanation */

2024-10-17T13:58:35Z

‎Explanation

@@ Line 6: / Line 6: @@
 | titletext = The xkcd Survey: Big Data for a Big Planet
 }}
-The comic is a link to [http://goo.gl/forms/B5RaBeZ6nw The xkcd survey] on Google, which is now closed.
+*The comic is a link to [http://goo.gl/forms/B5RaBeZ6nw The xkcd survey] on Google, which is closed.
 ==Explanation==
 As the comic image states, it links to a survey created with [https://www.google.com/forms/about/ Google Forms], containing a series of questions. The questions range from mundane typical survey questions such as “Do you have any food allergies?”, to rather strange, such as “Fill this text box with random letters by randomly mashing keys on your leopard.” (See [[1530: Keyboard Mash]] and [[1031: s/keyboard/leopard/]]).
-The stated goal of the survey is to “create an interesting and unusual data set for people to play with”. A strange data set is a ripe opportunity for a sampling of readers. It's also supposed to be “a search for weird correlations” – presumably the goal is to be able to say things like “people who have been skydiving are (more/less) likely than average to dislike cilantro”. (See also [[882: Significant]] about finding presumably spurious correlations between unrelated data.)
+The stated goal of the survey is to “create an interesting and unusual data set for people to play with”. A strange data set is a ripe opportunity for a sampling of readers. It's also supposed to be “a search for weird correlations” – presumably the goal is to be able to say things like “people who have been skydiving are (more/less) likely than average to dislike cilantro”. (See also [[882: Significant]] about finding presumably-spurious correlations between unrelated data.)
 {{w|Image_map#Client-side_image_map|HTML image maps}} is a technique for marking up areas of an image on a web page, such that each area can be a link without the whole image being a link. [[Randall]] could have used this type of image map to make only the “Click here to take the survey” button be a link, and none of the rest of the image. But he cannot get the hang of it (or knowing his skills, does not wish to take the time to learn it). Not getting the hang of HTML image maps was also referenced on the banner for his [[Header text#2014-07-23_-_what_if.3F_book_tour|book tour]] for the first ''[[What If? (book)|What If?]]'' book. See the link for other instances where he mentions this problem in the [[Header text|header text]].
@@ Line 17: / Line 20: @@
 The title text is a joke off of {{w|Big Data}}, which is a name for analysis of a set of data that includes a huge amount of information. He also says "for a big planet" because the Earth is big.{{Citation needed}}
-The survey is now closed, and the questions were replaced by the text:
+The survey is closed, and the questions replaced with the text: "The xkcd survey is now closed. Thank you for all your answers! Response data is being collected and will be posted soon." As of January 2025, the same caption is still there, with no indication of exactly how soon the data is intended to be posted. (Apparently, Randall crashed google forms, so the data is taking a long time to be retrieved [https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/40mhve/what_ever_happened_to_the_survey_we_took/ (see this reddit thread)] - much like his breaking of [http://what-if.xkcd.com/imgs/a/62/balloon_wolfram.png Wolfram Alpha]] while answering a reader's question on ''[[what if? (blog)|what if?]]'')
-:The xkcd survey is now closed. Thank you for all your answers! Response data is being collected and will be posted soon.
-To this day, the data has never been released, and there is no indication of when the data is intended to be made public.[https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/40mhve/what_ever_happened_to_the_survey_we_took/ According to a Reddit user], Randall crashed Google Forms, so the data took much longer to be retrieved. This is similar to his breaking of [http://what-if.xkcd.com/imgs/a/62/balloon_wolfram.png Wolfram Alpha] while answering a reader's question on his  ''[[what if? (blog)|what if?]]'' blog.
+The survey started with the following statement:
-==The survey==
+<nowiki>This is an anonymous survey. After it's done, a database of everyone's responses will be posted.
-{{TOC}}A recreation of the survey can be found [https://goo.gl/forms/CtAILwjyJAYsmqbO2 here on Google]. The recreation's raw data can be [https://goo.gl/5A77ZX found in this spreadsheet]. Note that the order of the possible answers (the list of possibilities) was random and thus changed every time the page was reloaded. The survey started with the following statement:
+There's no specific reason for any of the questions. The goal is to create an interesting and unusual data set for people to play with. This is obviously not going to be a real random sample of people, but in the interest of getting cooler data, if you're sharing this with friends, try sending it to some people who wouldn't normally see this kind of thing!
-:<nowiki>This is an anonymous survey. After it's done, a database of everyone's responses will be posted.
+WARNING: This survey is anonymous, but your answers WILL BE MADE PUBLIC. Depending what you write, it's possible that someone may be able to identify you by looking at your responses. None of these questions should ask about anything too private, but don't write anything that you don't want people to see. If you're not comfortable answering a question, just skip it.</nowiki>
-:WARNING<nowiki>: This survey is anonymous, but your answers WILL BE MADE PUBLIC. Depending what you write, it's possible that someone may be able to identify you by looking at your responses. None of these questions should ask about anything too private, but don't write anything that you don't want people to see. If you're not comfortable answering a question, just skip it.</nowiki>
+Note that the order of the possible answers (the list of possibilities) was random and thus changed every time the page was reloaded.
 ===Plane===

@@ Line 20: / Line 20: @@
 :The xkcd survey is now closed. Thank you for all your answers! Response data is being collected and will be posted soon.
-To this day, the data has never been released, and there is no indication of when the data is intended to be made public.[https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/40mhve/what_ever_happened_to_the_survey_we_took/ According to a Reddit user], Randall crashed Google Forms, so the data took much longer to be retrieved. This is similar to his breaking of [http://what-if.xkcd.com/imgs/a/62/balloon_wolfram.png Wolfram Alpha] while answering a reader's question on his  ''[[what if? (blog)|what if?]] blog.
+To this day, the data has never been released, and there is no indication of when the data is intended to be made public.[https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/40mhve/what_ever_happened_to_the_survey_we_took/ According to a Reddit user], Randall crashed Google Forms, so the data took much longer to be retrieved. This is similar to his breaking of [http://what-if.xkcd.com/imgs/a/62/balloon_wolfram.png Wolfram Alpha] while answering a reader's question on his  ''[[what if? (blog)|what if?]]'' blog.
 ==The survey==

@@ Line 6: / Line 6: @@
 | titletext = The xkcd Survey: Big Data for a Big Planet
 }}
-The comic is a link to [http://goo.gl/forms/B5RaBeZ6nw The xkcd survey] on Google, which is closed.
+The comic is a link to [http://goo.gl/forms/B5RaBeZ6nw The xkcd survey] on Google, which is now closed.
 ==Explanation==
@@ Line 23: / Line 23: @@
 ==The survey==
-A recreation of the survey can be found [https://goo.gl/forms/CtAILwjyJAYsmqbO2 here on Google]. The recreation's raw data can be [https://goo.gl/5A77ZX found in this spreadsheet]. Note that the order of the possible answers (the list of possibilities) was random and thus changed every time the page was reloaded. The survey started with the following statement:
+{{TOC}}A recreation of the survey can be found [https://goo.gl/forms/CtAILwjyJAYsmqbO2 here on Google]. The recreation's raw data can be [https://goo.gl/5A77ZX found in this spreadsheet]. Note that the order of the possible answers (the list of possibilities) was random and thus changed every time the page was reloaded. The survey started with the following statement:
 :<nowiki>This is an anonymous survey. After it's done, a database of everyone's responses will be posted.

@@ Line 11: / Line 11: @@
 As the comic image states, it links to a survey created with [https://www.google.com/forms/about/ Google Forms], containing a series of questions. The questions range from mundane typical survey questions such as “Do you have any food allergies?”, to rather strange, such as “Fill this text box with random letters by randomly mashing keys on your leopard.” (See [[1530: Keyboard Mash]] and [[1031: s/keyboard/leopard/]]).
-The stated goal of the survey is to “create an interesting and unusual data set for people to play with”. A strange data set is a ripe opportunity for a sampling of readers. It's also supposed to be “a search for weird correlations” – presumably the goal is to be able to say things like “people who have been skydiving are (more/less) likely than average to dislike cilantro”. (See also [[882: Significant]] about finding presumably-spurious correlations between unrelated data.)
+The stated goal of the survey is to “create an interesting and unusual data set for people to play with”. A strange data set is a ripe opportunity for a sampling of readers. It's also supposed to be “a search for weird correlations” – presumably the goal is to be able to say things like “people who have been skydiving are (more/less) likely than average to dislike cilantro”. (See also [[882: Significant]] about finding presumably spurious correlations between unrelated data.)
 {{w|Image_map#Client-side_image_map|HTML image maps}} is a technique for marking up areas of an image on a web page, such that each area can be a link without the whole image being a link. [[Randall]] could have used this type of image map to make only the “Click here to take the survey” button be a link, and none of the rest of the image. But he cannot get the hang of it (or knowing his skills, does not wish to take the time to learn it). Not getting the hang of HTML image maps was also referenced on the banner for his [[Header text#2014-07-23_-_what_if.3F_book_tour|book tour]] for the first ''[[What If? (book)|What If?]]'' book. See the link for other instances where he mentions this problem in the [[Header text|header text]].
@@ Line 19: / Line 17: @@
 The title text is a joke off of {{w|Big Data}}, which is a name for analysis of a set of data that includes a huge amount of information. He also says "for a big planet" because the Earth is big.{{Citation needed}}
-The survey is closed, and the questions replaced with the text: "The xkcd survey is now closed. Thank you for all your answers! Response data is being collected and will be posted soon." As of January 2025, the same caption is still there, with no indication of exactly how soon the data is intended to be posted. (Apparently, Randall crashed google forms, so the data is taking a long time to be retrieved [https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/40mhve/what_ever_happened_to_the_survey_we_took/ (see this reddit thread)] - much like his breaking of [http://what-if.xkcd.com/imgs/a/62/balloon_wolfram.png Wolfram Alpha]] while answering a reader's question on ''[[what if? (blog)|what if?]]'')
+The survey is now closed, and the questions were replaced by the text:
 ==The survey==

@@ Line 6: / Line 6: @@
 | titletext = The xkcd Survey: Big Data for a Big Planet
 }}
-*The comic is a link to [http://goo.gl/forms/B5RaBeZ6nw The xkcd survey] on Google, which is closed.
+The comic is a link to [http://goo.gl/forms/B5RaBeZ6nw The xkcd survey] on Google, which is closed.
 ==Explanation==
@@ Line 21: / Line 21: @@
 The survey is closed, and the questions replaced with the text: "The xkcd survey is now closed. Thank you for all your answers! Response data is being collected and will be posted soon." As of January 2025, the same caption is still there, with no indication of exactly how soon the data is intended to be posted. (Apparently, Randall crashed google forms, so the data is taking a long time to be retrieved [https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/40mhve/what_ever_happened_to_the_survey_we_took/ (see this reddit thread)] - much like his breaking of [http://what-if.xkcd.com/imgs/a/62/balloon_wolfram.png Wolfram Alpha]] while answering a reader's question on ''[[what if? (blog)|what if?]]'')
-==The Survey==
+==The survey==
 A recreation of the survey can be found [https://goo.gl/forms/CtAILwjyJAYsmqbO2 here on Google]. The recreation's raw data can be [https://goo.gl/5A77ZX found in this spreadsheet]. Note that the order of the possible answers (the list of possibilities) was random and thus changed every time the page was reloaded. The survey started with the following statement:

← Older revision		Revision as of 12:25, 9 March 2025
Line 28:		Line 28:

	:WARNING<nowiki>: This survey is anonymous, but your answers WILL BE MADE PUBLIC. Depending what you write, it's possible that someone may be able to identify you by looking at your responses. None of these questions should ask about anything too private, but don't write anything that you don't want people to see. If you're not comfortable answering a question, just skip it.</nowiki>		:WARNING<nowiki>: This survey is anonymous, but your answers WILL BE MADE PUBLIC. Depending what you write, it's possible that someone may be able to identify you by looking at your responses. None of these questions should ask about anything too private, but don't write anything that you don't want people to see. If you're not comfortable answering a question, just skip it.</nowiki>
−

	===Plane===		===Plane===

@@ Line 19: / Line 19: @@
 The title text is a joke off of {{w|Big Data}}, which is a name for analysis of a set of data that includes a huge amount of information. He also says "for a big planet" because the Earth is big.{{Citation needed}}
-The survey is closed, and the questions replaced with the text: "The xkcd survey is now closed. Thank you for all your answers! Response data is being collected and will be posted soon." As of August 2022, the same caption is still there, with no indication of exactly how soon the data is intended to be posted. (Apparently, Randall crashed google forms, so the data is taking a long time to be retrieved [https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/40mhve/what_ever_happened_to_the_survey_we_took/ (see this reddit thread)] - much like his breaking of [http://what-if.xkcd.com/imgs/a/62/balloon_wolfram.png Wolfram Alpha]] while answering a reader's question on ''[[what if? (blog)|what if?]]'')
+The survey is closed, and the questions replaced with the text: "The xkcd survey is now closed. Thank you for all your answers! Response data is being collected and will be posted soon." As of October 2024, the same caption is still there, with no indication of exactly how soon the data is intended to be posted. (Apparently, Randall crashed google forms, so the data is taking a long time to be retrieved [https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/40mhve/what_ever_happened_to_the_survey_we_took/ (see this reddit thread)] - much like his breaking of [http://what-if.xkcd.com/imgs/a/62/balloon_wolfram.png Wolfram Alpha]] while answering a reader's question on ''[[what if? (blog)|what if?]]'')
 ==The Survey==