Difference between revisions of "1350: Lorenz"

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(→‎Dreams: Also hairy waking during launch)
(→‎Walking)
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***This image can also appear while she walks alone. See below.
 
***This image can also appear while she walks alone. See below.
 
|-
 
|-
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!Alone - Knit Cap Girl<br>[[Image:lorenz - walk 5.png]]<br>[[Image:lorenz - walk 6.png]]<br>[[Image:lorenz - walk 8.png]]<br>[[Image:lorenz - walk 1.png]]<br>[[Image:lorenz - walk 2.png]]<br>[[Image:lorenz - walk 3.png]]<br>[[Image:lorenz - walk 4.png]]<br>[[Image:lorenz - walk 9.png]]<br>[[Image:lorenz - bird gift.png]]<br>[[Image:lorenz - bird money.png]]<br>[[Image:lorenz - thinking.png]]
+
!Alone - Knit Cap Girl<br>[[Image:lorenz - walk 5.png]]<br>[[Image:lorenz - walk 8.png]]<br>[[Image:lorenz - walk 1.png]]<br>[[Image:lorenz - walk 2.png]]<br>[[Image:lorenz - walk 3.png]]<br>[[Image:lorenz - walk 4.png]]<br>[[Image:lorenz - walk 9.png]]<br>[[Image:lorenz - bird gift.png]]<br>[[Image:lorenz - bird money.png]]<br>[[Image:lorenz - thinking.png]]
 
|
 
|
 
*Knit Cap Girl walks alone.  
 
*Knit Cap Girl walks alone.  
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***There also exist an image with a zoom in of her head showing she is thinking.  
 
***There also exist an image with a zoom in of her head showing she is thinking.  
 
***See this [http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:b9575048-bb47-11e3-804b-002590d77bdd example] where she is walking alone and then the thinking image comes at the very end.
 
***See this [http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:b9575048-bb47-11e3-804b-002590d77bdd example] where she is walking alone and then the thinking image comes at the very end.
−
***This image also sometimes used while walking with Hairy see above.
+
***This image has mainly been used while she is walking with Hairy, see above.
−
**At some point a bird passes over her carrying a parcel. It then returns - now with a money note in its beak.  
+
**At some point a bird passes over her carrying a parcel. It then returns - now with a money note in its beak.  
−
***The picture of the bird with parcel can be seen in this [http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:b94af780-bb47-11e3-804b-002590d77bdd example] and this [http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:79bfc3d8-baa3-11e3-8017-002590d77bdd example] at the very end.
+
***See this [http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:d09d6e40-bbd3-11e3-802e-002590d77bdd example].
−
***The picture of the bird with money can be seen in this [http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:b94d8be4-bb47-11e3-804b-002590d77bdd example] and this [http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:7b3383ae-baa2-11e3-8012-002590d77bdd example] at the very end.
 
−
***Both examples are from the same story lines and the different pictures comes from two different choices the same place in the story.
 
−
***It this doesn't seem like both pictures can be found in the same story, which though would have made sense.
 
 
****This could be a reference to Amazon's plans for using drones to deliver packages. Something referred to later, for instance in [[1523: Microdrones]].  
 
****This could be a reference to Amazon's plans for using drones to deliver packages. Something referred to later, for instance in [[1523: Microdrones]].  
−
***That example also have several of the other "walk alone" images for Knit Cap Girl.
+
***In most other cases only one of the bird pictures are shown like in these examples:
−
****The silhouette image with hands out, and the four first images below the three with silhouette.  
+
****The picture of the bird with parcel can be seen in this [http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:b94af780-bb47-11e3-804b-002590d77bdd example] and this [http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:79bfc3d8-baa3-11e3-8017-002590d77bdd example] at the very end.
 +
****The picture of the bird with money can be seen in this [http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:b94d8be4-bb47-11e3-804b-002590d77bdd example] and this [http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:7b3383ae-baa2-11e3-8012-002590d77bdd example] at the very end.
 +
****In this [http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:50d05aa2-baa1-11e3-800d-002590d77bdd example] the story continues after the bird with the parcel.
 +
****In this [http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:7448daea-ba97-11e3-8007-002590d77bdd example] the bird with the parcel comes twice.
 +
****In this [http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:4e6dc4d8-bb01-11e3-8003-002590d77bdd example] the bird with the parcel is shown twice in a row.
 +
****In this [http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:7fc6e57a-baeb-11e3-8002-002590d77bdd example] the bird with the money is shown twice in a row.
 +
**The above examples also have several of the other "walk alone" images for Knit Cap Girl.
 +
***The silhouette image with hands out, and the four first images below the three with silhouette.  
 
****The one where she is standing without saying anything, may only be seen in the [[#Boomerang|boomerang theme]]? That image will thus (so far) not be shown here.
 
****The one where she is standing without saying anything, may only be seen in the [[#Boomerang|boomerang theme]]? That image will thus (so far) not be shown here.
 
***See this [http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:ea25460c-baf3-11e3-8001-002590d77bdd example] with the last walking image as the second last.
 
***See this [http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:ea25460c-baf3-11e3-8001-002590d77bdd example] with the last walking image as the second last.
 
***See this [http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:b9575048-bb47-11e3-804b-002590d77bdd example] with the walking in silhouette without speaking.
 
***See this [http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:b9575048-bb47-11e3-804b-002590d77bdd example] with the walking in silhouette without speaking.
−
****There '''still misses''' an example with the silhouette images where Knit Cap Girl speaks without having the hands up.
 
 
|-
 
|-
−
!Alone - Hairy<br>[[Image:lorenz - meanwhile.png]]<br>[[Image:lorenz - walk 7.png]]<br>[[Image:lorenz - walk 10.png]]<br>[[Image:lorenz - thinking 2.png]]
+
!Alone - Hairy<br>[[Image:lorenz - meanwhile.png]]<br>[[Image:lorenz - walk 7.png]]<br>[[Image:lorenz - walk 10.png]]<br>[[Image:lorenz - thinking 2.png]]<br>[[Image:lorenz - walk 6.png]]
 
|
 
|
 
*Hairy is seen walking alone.  
 
*Hairy is seen walking alone.  
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***See this [http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:aee5abf0-bb29-11e3-8004-002590d77bdd example] with all four images from this section.
 
***See this [http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:aee5abf0-bb29-11e3-8004-002590d77bdd example] with all four images from this section.
 
***It seems that this image only appear before Hairy's alone walk?
 
***It seems that this image only appear before Hairy's alone walk?
 +
****There '''still misses''' an example with the silhouette images where Hairy speaks.
 
|}
 
|}
  

Revision as of 15:12, 2 April 2016

Lorenz
Every choice, no matter how small, begins a new story
Title text: Every choice, no matter how small, begins a new story

NOTE: The above is the first panel of an interactive comic.
To actually experience the interactive content you need to go to this comic on xkcd (click on the date above the comic, which, as always, takes you to the xkcd comic)
For a collection of images that appear in this comic, see 1350: Lorenz/Images. These will also be described below under themes.
Also note that the order of the options are random. And by adding that there is a fifth option - and only four can be shown - this means there are 5*4*3*2 = 120 different permutations of the way the options can be arranged only in this first image. So the above image will only appear with these four options in this order in less than 1% of the cases! Of course when you choose an option it is indifferent what the order of the other options was.

Explanation

This is an interactive and dynamic comic with the first picture shown on top of this page, with a possible combination of text options to choose from (see above). The picture is always the same but the order of the four sentences is chosen randomly. The result of all the interactions by the readers led to the generation of crowd-sourced content. In honor of April Fools' Day, the comic was posted a day earlier than normal (on Tuesday instead of Wednesday).

The title 'Lorenz' is referring to Edward Norton Lorenz who, among other subjects, was famous for Chaos theory and the Butterfly effect.

The title text is a reference to how the story line of this comic will be chaotic by nature, since it includes all of the user submitted dialogue and updates over time based on statistics of user clicks. In this manner, it is a reference to the butterfly effect, a phrase coined by Edward Lorenz to describe how a small initial change can lead to wide variations in outcome in a chaotic system.

This comic is an example of a Choose Your Own Adventure story as mentioned in the title text.

Some of the idea of this comic is used again in the next year's April Fools' comic 1506: xkcloud where user input also generated a very complex comic and the concept of "permalink" was used again.

Functionality and bugs

The reader is initially presented with only one panel where Knit Cap Girl is sitting in front of her computer. The reader is given multiple choices concerning what exactly Knit Cap Girl is thinking. Upon choosing any option - the chosen text will appear where her gray speech bubble was (and this will then disappear), and then a second panel appears to the right, to give continuity to the story. Each new panel may have a new set of options or just the button "Continue" to see the next panel without making any choice in particular. Eventually, one may reach a dead end in which the story is interrupted and reader is presented with a text box to suggest how it should continue. Some of the suggestions given should eventually become available as new options.

Knit Cap Girl

Knit Cap Girl is a completely new character wearing a knit cap. It was at first debated if this was a girl or a boy, but since Knit Cap Girl seems to be together with Hairy that was reason enough to call her a girl. She has some similarities to Megan with a Knit Cap but since Megan never before has been shown with a knit cap or been together as a pair with Hairy it would be strange if this should represent Megan. (Hairy has some bad reputation in trying to fool girls to fall for him. Perhaps he has finally found out how to be with a woman; although they seem to fight in this comic some times.)

  • Other comics with knit caps:
    • A person looking very similar, even starting in the same position in front of a laptop, can be seen in 1112: Think Logically.
    • Randall's wife is depicted with a knit cap in 1141: Two Years, one she uses due to chemotherapy treatments causing her to loose her hair. Since it is clear that Knit Cap Girl has hair, she do not wear the cap for that reason.
    • A guy with knit cap can be seen on a boat in 1110: Click and Drag.
    • One of the user pictures for the April fools' comic the year after, 1506: xkcloud, also looked like Knit Cap Girl.
    • Apart from that the only other comic with knit caps is 1321: Cold, but here it is two Cueballs that wears them.

Number of options

Normally, there is a total of 4 options to make: a/b/c/d. Their order changes constantly. Sometimes, there are 3 or fewer options, with the text box to suggest an alternative option. Sometimes, a given panel actually has 5 or more available options, although even in this case only 4 options appear at a time. Refreshing the comic changes randomly which of the available options are visible and which are hidden. As of late April 2014, the existence of 5 options seems to occur only in a few rare cases, including the first panel itself. There are no longer any panels that seem to have six options.

Easy navigation

Instead of clicking with the mouse you can move more quickly through the panels using the keyboard:

  • Up/Down - navigate options
  • Enter/Right/Spacebar - choose option after navigating with Up/Down
  • Left - go back one panel
  • a/b/c/d - choose any option directly

New panels

It appeared that new panels were generated by Randall in near real time as user suggestions to dialog were submitted around the release of the comic.

The dialog options could be based on click-through rates and hence will change over time based on which choices are clicked most using A/B measurement techniques. This will mean that the most popular choices for dialog lines will prevail as the statistics build up. In some cases, dialog line options do not depend on the continuity of the storyline followed, suggesting that some parts of the story are planned. For example, several of the story lines involve one of the two main characters waking up and for instance telling the other character, "I had the strangest dream…" or even reliving the dream. This may be due to common submissions across story lines. Of course there is the other option that Randall has used the first week of April to look though some input and choose himself. These possibilities are not mutually exclusive. Some of the options that were there very early were in quite poor English. Later the same idea was still there but in a more refined sentence. However, after the first week or two, no new panels seemed to appear, which suggests that some were drawn to match the story's progression.

Permalink

A "permalink" is a portmanteau, of "permanent-link". Each panel has a "permalink" button which generates a unique URL for all the choices made by the reader — so a reader can save the chosen choices to compare them to other ways going through the selections. The permalink do only save the chosen options, not the order or the visible options in the image where the permalink is recorded. So it is not possible to save a copy where the options are in the same order as they are in the 1/120 version shown at the top. Also if you go back in the story from a permalink, you can risk, when passing back through a panel with five options, that the option you just got back from, is no longer available, as it is the option randomly not shown this time.

Suggest a line

Some times it is possible to add your own suggestions in a panel where there are still other choices. But if not before, then the story will always reach a "final" panel (dead-end) where the reader only has the option left to "suggest a line..." By doing so and pressing enter this text is then shown in the speech bubble. But these suggestions can't be saved as there are no permalink button after this. The reader has to do a screen shot by himself - if he wishes to save his own witty remark. As a few weeks had progressed there were probably so few new suggestions that Randall stopped changing the comic. A few images have been found month (or even more than a year) after the release, but there has been no reason to believe that Randall continued to make new panels after the first few weeks of April. But maybe he returns and do one once in a while. For certain the options and text continue to evolve.

Bugs

Since this interactive comic relies on many servers in the background to provide the response to the reader's actions, there are some problems reported here:

  • Cookies and Javascript are required to see this page properly. Without cookies, the next panel will not render; attempting to load the page in the UNIXKCD terminal or loading the page without Javascript will just get you the previous comic.
  • In the first week after the comic was released, if a response led to a panel where two characters speak at the same time, it was impossible to proceed past the first speech bubble. This was subsequently fixed.

As a consequence of these bugs many readers had trouble understanding how this interactive comic worked.

Themes

  • Preferably there should be permalink that shows all the possible images below.
    • But sadly this is not the case, as many images are no longer accessible by "playing" the comic game.
    • Only if someone saved a permalink in the beginning of the comics "life" will it be possible to see examples of all images in a story line.
      • If you do have some of these old permalinks saved, please fill in for any missing images here below.

The beginning

Computer problems

Blowtorch

Ocean

Political debate

Leaving the building

Walking

Arguing

Rocket launch

Space

Kerbal Space Program

Dinosaur

Boomerang

Pokémon

Dreams

Waking up

Salesman

Transcript

[This transcript only transcribes what can be seen in the picture shown at the top of the explanation here.]
[The comic starts with two panels. In the top panel we see Knit Cap Girl sitting at a desk in front of her laptop typing. There is a speech line up to a gray but empty speech bubble.]
[The second panel below has the same gray background as the empty speech bubble above. Here is presented four options to what Knit Cap Girl could be saying. They are marked a, b, c and d written in small white rectangles next to the text. There is a small arrow at the top pointing to the first panel:]
a Let's see if BSD is any easier to install nowadays.
b Oh. Hey. There's some kind of political thing going on.
c Hurry! We're in talks with Facebook.
d Refresh... No new email... Refresh... No new tweets... Refresh...
[Once the reader chooses one of the options the text will appear in the speech bubble where the gray area is replaced with the usual white background. The lower gray panel disappears. Now the comic really begins.]
[A new panel is shown after the selection, again with one to four options to choose from in the new gray panel below. This will continue until it comes to an end where the reader finally only has the choice to suggest the next line.]
[The order of the up to four options are random, and changes every time you begin again (or even go back to a previous frame). This means that the a-d in the transcript is not the same next time. In some few panels there are even more than four options. To see the fifth you have to reload, then you may find this fifth option next time. The first panel is one of those with five options.]
[The fifth not shown above is: These stupid tiles... I'll just play one more game.]
[In the first days of the comic when it developed quickly, new options appeared only to later disappear. Gravity. Lots of it. is one of those lost options from the first panel. At one time there was also by mistake two versions of one of the other five mentioned above. But this was later deleted. Below in the trivia there are permalinks to all the different starting options, including the now lost gravity story.]
[Although it may be impossible to finish? ... it has been tried to make a complete interactive transcript.]

Trivia

  • In one panel Hairy is drawn in bed without his hair - see the Waking up pictures.
  • The most common pictures are "Not very effective", Throwing, Waiting, Leaving the House.
  • The rarest pictures are The Little Prince, The beach, An exponential chart. (As of late April there are several pictures from the complete list, that no longer seem to be available - so they are not only rare, but extinct in the comic if no one has a permalink to a comic where they appear).
  • The all time longest comics by panel - top three.
    • Please only include clearly different storylines:
    1. 77 panels - Space/dinosaur double dream, boomerang, and exploding rocket.
    2. 49 panels - Tiles, double hole dream, boomerang
    3. 41 panels - Politics, hole dream, boomerang.
    • There may be no upper boundary!
    • But this is then the list of the longest comics with most panels as found so far.
    • If you beat a record please post the permalink here.
    • Please note themes included in comic.
    • Please move beaten records down and delete the fourth.
  • Longest by themes - click to expand:

Include only more than one if the story is clearly different from from the record.

  1. Multiple dreams:
    1. 77 panels - Two dreams one by each charachter, after space and dinosaur attack.
    2. 36 panels - Hole dream, blowtorch laptop, rocket take-off dream.
    3. 35 panels - Two times the same dream with big hole by the same charachter (shovel/blowtorch and then boomerang).
    4. 28 panels - One dream with hole that returns to starting point - does the dream continue?
    5. 26 panels - Two different dreams by the same character after hole and rocket.
    6. 22 panels - Two different dreams by the same character after hole and dinosaur attack.
    7. 21 panels - Two times the same dream with big hole - once be each character
    8. ? - More than two dreams
  2. Boomerang:
    1. 77 panels - double dream etc.
    2. 39 panels - Starting with politic debate in a dream.
    3. 35 panels - Political debate within a dream, then Hairy gets smacked in the face by the boomerang.
    4. 34 panels - As the 39 panel, but here both the girl and the Hairy gets the boomerang in the face!
    5. 30 panels - Rocket, dream, Boomerang hits her in the face. She then puts it down and then picks it up again
  3. Space:
    1. 77 panels - double dream etc.
    2. 30 panels - reaching the Little Prince:
  4. Dinosaur:
    1. 77 panels - double dream etc.
  5. Political debate:
    1. 39 panels - but also dream and boomerang.
    2. 35 panels - Political debate within a dream, then Hairy gets smacked in the face by the boomerang.
    3. 31 panels - politicians fighing and explosive bananas - including the meanwhile image
  6. Blowtorch:
    1. 36 panels - Hole dream, blowtorch laptop, rocket take-off dream.
    2. 26 panels - blowtorch and moving past Pokémon twice
    3. 25 panels - dream of hole and then blowtorch
  7. Pokémon:
    1. 26 panels - blowtorch and moving past Pokémon twice
    2. 24 panels - really long fight
    3. 22 panels - moving past Pokémon.
    4. 24 panels - long fight, Pokemon uses 3 moves and Megan pokes it.
    5. 22 panels - short fight, then Pikachu talks
  8. Sharks
    1. 13 panels - reaching beach
  9. Salesman
    1. 12 panels - Hairy meets White Hat (there must be some longer with the salesman at least one reaching the chart).


  • Longest by starting point - click to expand:

Only the longest:

  1. These stupid tiles... I'll just play one more game: 77 panels
  2. Oh. Hey. There's some kind of political thing going on: 39 panels
  3. Let's see if BSD is any easier to install nowadays: 28 panels
  4. Refresh... No new email... Refresh... No new tweets... Refresh...: 24 panels
  5. Hurry! We're in talks with Facebook: 13 panels
  6. Gravity. Lots of it: 12 panels



comment.png add a comment! ⋅ comment.png add a topic (use sparingly)! ⋅ Icons-mini-action refresh blue.gif refresh comments!

Discussion

During the first few weeks there were so much talk on this page, that it became too long. The solution was to remove the page from the explanation. But now almost no one makes any comment anymore. To help with this I will try to collapse all the original talk - last entry (mine) is already a month old. It will always be possible to see all the old comments by pressing the expand button to the far right. So feel free to comment below again - then someone might notice that there has been written something new again! Kynde (talk) 22:32, 19 June 2014 (UTC)

Click to expand:

I've had the story loop back to the first frame, so it wouldn't surprise me if this could go on infinitely if it had the available dialogue options.

This is going to be a hell of a thing. Good luck... H (talk) 15:39, 1 April 2014 (UTC)

I think this is one of those times when the custom field might come in handy. Duplicating Randall's code seems like it might be difficult, and it might just be easier to link to the original page. Probably. Davidy²²[talk] 15:47, 1 April 2014 (UTC)b
I think it should just show a screenshot of the initial image and options 173.245.50.61 02:49, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

There's always new story lines, even when you think you've read them all, new ones appear to replace them. I don't think it'll ever be possible to record them all. 108.162.212.192 15:55, 1 April 2014 (UTC)

The text changes, but there are recurring themes with the panels. The rocket, the big hole, the little hole, Dinosaurcomics, pokemon, waking up, stranded swimming.........H (talk) 18:03, 1 April 2014 (UTC)

When I go to XKCD, all I see is the comic from Monday... weird. --Jeff (talk) 16:45, 1 April 2014 (UTC)

Same here... and a lot of space below it. Z (talk) 17:43, 1 April 2014 (UTC)
I think that happens when you have refreshed the page too many time -- kind of an anti spam for user submissions. I simply create an anonymous browser window and I got back to the real page once xkcd was not able to track me as a returning user. Spongebog (talk) 17:59, 1 April 2014 (UTC)

Currently there appears to be a bug. Instead of the evolving, crowd-sourced comic, I just see an off-center copy of the previous comic, 1349: Shouldn't Be Hard. Screenshot here. UPDATE: it appears to be a bug in the XSRF-blocking code. Chrome console shows me the error "XMLHttpRequest cannot load http://c1.xkcd.com/graph/1/. The 'Access-Control-Allow-Origin' header has a value 'http://xkcd.com' that is not equal to the supplied origin. Origin 'http://www.xkcd.com' is therefore not allowed access." FURTHER UPDATE: you can work around this bug by going to http://xkcd.com instead of http://www.xkcd.com! It also doesn't work if you have HTTPS Everywhere enabled. 108.162.216.38 16:46, 1 April 2014 (UTC)

    • I can confirm this bug in Firefox. Weirdly, the work-around functioned one time for me, but now going to "xkcd.com" rather than "www.xkcd.com" just gives me a copy of 1349 as well. 199.27.130.180 17:40, 1 April 2014 (UTC)
The workaround didn't work for me, I still got monday's comic on either URL. (Chromium 36.0.1919.0 (260611), Mac OS 10.9.2) Z (talk) 17:45, 1 April 2014 (UTC)
Same here. Used IE and Firefox. Removed the "www." and haven't. (Never used https:// at all.) Tried InPrivate (and FF equivalent) browsers. Gone into the code and can't even fudge it manually from <div id="comic"><img src="http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/shouldnt_be_hard.png" title="Every choice, no matter how small, begins a new story." alt="Lorenz" /> <script type="text/javascript">Bernardo.comic({el: $('#comic')}) </script></div>, and the rest, manually. (Indeed, that shows why I get 1349's "shouldn't be hard" image, by default.) Pity. 141.101.89.224 02:25, 2 April 2014 (UTC)
    • I only get a blank page with on the bottom a link to the comic 1349. Both on 2 firefoxes (different systems) and a chromium. so however wonderfull it might be, the delivery is less then stellar. 173.245.53.145 15:54, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

This comic introduced(?) a font of its own of Randalls comic type. I don't know if it has been sitting there for long, but I just noticed it: http://xkcd.com/fonts/xkcd-Regular.eot -- phiarc 108.162.219.12 17:20, 1 April 2014 (UTC)

Is it the same as was used in Externalities? H (talk) 18:00, 1 April 2014 (UTC)

Does everyone have these options in some order for the first tile?

  • Refresh... No New Email... Refresh .. No New Tweets... Refresh...
  • These Stupid Tiles... I'll Just Play One More Game
  • Oh. Hey. There's Some Kind Of Politicial Thing Going On.
  • Let's See If BSD Is Any Easier to Install Nowadays

--Jeff (talk) 17:54, 1 April 2014 (UTC)

http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:0cd52ed0-bb15-11e3-8004-002590d77bdd There's a frame with Chinese in it! 141.101.99.118 18:06, 26 April 2015 (UTC)

If so, we can begin to build a map of at least the first set of options before the crowd-sourced ones. --Jeff (talk) 17:56, 1 April 2014 (UTC)
Yes, though the second-tier options have changed H (talk) 18:00, 1 April 2014 (UTC)
The first level options may be constant (Im seeing the same as Jeff), but I suspect that the following options is based on some sort of ckick though statitics / machine learning -- which means that the will continue to change until Randall closes off the 'voting' -- if 1193: Externalities is anything to go by that should be within the next 24-48 hours, at which point automating the collection of story lines may be possible. Spongebog (talk) 18:11, 1 April 2014 (UTC)
I'm going to transcript some of what I get at least through the first few levels and then we can start with a list of options for those who don't want to go through them all. --Jeff (talk) 18:37, 1 April 2014 (UTC)
I have no idea how one would do this, but it would be cool to render the transcript as a tree of some sort; having one vertical list will be hard to follow for more than a few decisions. 199.27.130.180 00:14, 2 April 2014 (UTC)
New initial option! I just got "Hurry! We're in talks with Facebook." In place of the "refresh" option. http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:2b330d48-bb01-11e3-8003-002590d77bdd --108.162.242.8 23:15, 3 April 2014 (UTC)

Ohh, this comic is buggy and the link here at the top gives just the page from Monday, showing errors on debuggers. But removing the WWW from URL helps. Further more I can't see that the result of the choices is dynamic. So let's prove this. --Dgbrt (talk) 19:33, 1 April 2014 (UTC)

Have a look at http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/2/2b/lorenz_combination1.png and http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/9/9a/lorenz_combination2.png and you can see the option orders are changing -- this is a typical artifact of A/B testing where randomization of options is needed to avoid selection bias. I have futher observed "your car is on fire" instead of the "dinosaur" option, hence not only the orders are channging but the content as well -- maybe somebody else can capture this. Spongebog (talk) 22:08, 1 April 2014 (UTC)

How are new dialogue suggestions approved? Are they random, by popular vote (unlikely, not very many people would suggest the same thing), or is Randall approving them one by one? Z (talk) 20:26, 1 April 2014 (UTC)

They may not need to be explicitly approved at all -- one of the beutiful things about click though measures is that the public votes for what is good by clicking -- this is also a factor in search ranking by your favorite search engine where statistics are driving the entire show -- in a search engine some input to the statistical process comes from the web pages, but other comes from what people are actually clicking Spongebog (talk) 22:14, 1 April 2014 (UTC)

What is this a screenshot of? It's zoomed out so far. http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:5b5bd04e-b9d6-11e3-8008-002590d77bdd Haithere (talk) 20:39, 1 April 2014 (UTC)

you mean this : http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/a1-2014/Rl92nFEWd9huvXABNkHKHg.png ? Spongebog (talk) 22:20, 1 April 2014 (UTC)
It appears to be a screen shot from a flight simulator program of some sort, however im not able to tell which, and since it is most likely an 'in-game' screen short we will never find out unless somebody else is playing this precises flight simulator program Spongebog (talk) 22:37, 1 April 2014 (UTC)
I am not certain, but I strongly suspect that is Kerbal Space Program 108.162.242.111 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
it really is Kerbal Space Program, or KSP for short 108.162.219.65 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
found this image from KSP http://i.imgur.com/UofvQ.png Spongebog (talk) 09:07, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

A transcript is going to be futile. It appears as though the comic may go on indefinitely (I've definitely had some branches continue extending until I've seen frames that were present in other branches). I suspect what's happening here is that... options are "suggested", and those suggestions are displayed at random to people. The ones with the most clickthroughs begin to appear more often, until eventually the top 4 are "locked in" and no more suggestions can be made. Very creative! But I'm not convinced that Randall is making frames in near-real-time, nor am I even convinced he's part of the approval process at all. I suspect it's all automated. 108.162.215.28 00:29, 2 April 2014 (UTC)


It seems it is possible to have the same option appear twice in the first panel. http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:be7a3304-b685-11e3-8001-94de80a03a29 --173.245.54.48 10:27, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

They are not the same options -- the text differes where one option has "I'll" with a captal I and the other option is 'i'll' with a lowercase I -- I guess some prankster submitted a very similar text and somehow that got included. The branching also differs for the two options. Spongebog (talk) 17:12, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

Is it still supposed to work or was it turned off? All I see is Monday comics ... and no errors in firebug console. Oh, wait, there is javascript error: Timestamp: 04/02/14 12:56:21 Error: TypeError: this.$lastPanel is null Source File: http://xkcd.com/1350/bernardo.min.js Line: 2 -- Hkmaly (talk) 11:03, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

It still works for me -- try to clear your cookies or use an anonymous window or go to xkcd.com (no www no https) or some of the other helpful suggestions on this page to overcome some of the buggy nature of this page. Spongebog (talk) 17:12, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

tl;dr, but I applaud Randall's creativity. Added to the Colossal time sinks category. – tbc (talk) 13:15, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

Has it restarted? It used to work just fine on my browser but now only the first panel is available, after clicking an option it said my suggestion has been submitted. Great when it works though, thanks Randal. Jet_proppeled_elephant108.162.219.35 14:53, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

It feels like there are a bunch of "dead-end panels", that we never really get past. One example the "bright background" strip, in which we only see the shadows of the two characters. Nobody seems to care what happens after those. 108.162.245.8 18:59, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

I found a Dinosaur Comics reference, permalink: http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:3d243960-b9b6-11e3-8001-002590d77bdd Has this been found before? 173.245.55.73 20:08, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

I don't have time to do it myself, but most of the space images from this path are not in the images page. http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:6490cc4a-b9f0-11e3-8009-002590d77bdd Zweisteine (talk) 23:33, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

Ok, I'm gonna add those. Daniel Carrero (talk) 23:38, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

Great! And now I found another: Pikachu uses Ethylene Dichloride. http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:6f59d766-ba95-11e3-8001-002590d77bdd I'll add it to the but about pikachu in the comic, but the pictures are up to someone else.Zweisteine (talk) 23:47, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

Slightly different space path, in which the rocket expodes: http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:dd99ea0e-ba04-11e3-8017-002590d77bdd Zweisteine (talk) 23:59, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

Good. I've finished adding all images that you mentioned. Also, the two last images of the slightly different space path were not in the images page, now I added them too. Daniel Carrero (talk) 00:14, 3 April 2014 (UTC)

Pikachu died! Radicality failed -> Pikachu in shock! http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:5c565bf2-ba05-11e3-8017-002590d77bdd --eternia 7:33, 3 April 2014 (UTC)

Pikachu uses Graph Theory. How is that not effective?! http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:52f2389c-baaf-11e3-801f-002590d77bdd --eternia 7:47, 3 April 2014 (UTC)
Pikachu uses Ant Colony. Uwah... http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:2b707ed6-ba97-11e3-8006-002590d77bdd --eternia 8:02, 3 April 2014 (UTC)
1 shark instead of 3. http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:9ba111ee-ba96-11e3-8004-002590d77bdd --eternia 8:14, 3 April 2014 (UTC)
0 sharks. http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:e0e4d984-baaf-11e3-8026-002590d77bdd --eternia 8:17, 3 April 2014 (UTC)
I'm gonna add those too. Daniel Carrero (talk) 12:41, 3 April 2014 (UTC)

Are there any panels that have two speech bubbles that are not dead ends? It seems that there are never any options for the second bubble, and sometimes the first bubble has options that would fit in the second bubble after the other options for the first bubble. Maybe submissions for the second bubble accidentally end up in the first instead? Another bug? Zweisteine (talk) 23:56, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

There's a change for us still-bugged people (well, me at least). The "show previous comic" part is gone. It shows a blank area (instead of Comic 1349 and a blank area of the same size) and the page-source shows that the <img src="http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/shouldnt_be_hard.png" title="Every choice, no matter how small, begins a new story." alt="Lorenz" /> part has now been excised from the page. That's on Javascript-enabled, cookie-enabled Firefox and IE browsers, and every valid URL configuration one can think of (including shift-refreshing to force redownloading, just in case it was page-cache issues as well). I'll update the Bugs section of the explanation page with a summary of that, if you don't mind. 141.101.88.211 01:48, 4 April 2014 (UTC)


We need some place to discuss certain issues. I give it a shot below Kynde (talk) 21:10, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

Transcipt discussion
Design
  • What about four transcripts - one for each of the four first original choices?
  • Should these transcripts be on a separate page? It becomes tedious to scroll to the discussion page...Kynde (talk) 21:13, 2 April 2014 (UTC)
  • Could we use the hide option so you only see the options from the first panel. Then you unhide to see the next panel etc. This would be a little like the comic and would make it much easier to read and it would not be such a long page! Kynde (talk) 10:35, 3 April 2014 (UTC)
    I'm working on the hide option. Daniel Carrero (talk) 15:14, 3 April 2014 (UTC)
    I now implemented the hide option. It looks good! in my opinion. It should be easy to edit. It would be too much work to convert the whole thing to the collapsible version so, sorry but I just removed the whole thing and started from the very beginning. This[1] is the link to the old version, in case anyone wants to help converting it to the collapsible version. Daniel Carrero (talk) 16:46, 3 April 2014 (UTC)
I did the same for trivia with a separate page for the old version that can be expanded if anyone wishes. And all the work is not lost. I have linked to it from trivia but it is here: 1350: Lorenz/Transcript. Kynde (talk) 22:19, 4 April 2014 (UTC)
  • How will the transcript work for when two characters speak? Those cases do exist; they're not all bugged. For example, in the "OpenBSD Branch", "Why not haiku?" and "Let's go exploring!" have further responses. --199.27.128.63 06:31, 5 April 2014 (UTC)
Characters
  • Where does the name Dave come from for the hairy guy who comes in after the first panel? I can see it once in the transcript - but it is said by White hat the sales guy. I'm not sure it is his name and the chatagory for hairy is assigned to the comic! Kynde (talk) 21:16, 2 April 2014 (UTC)
  • Hat guy? Is it a hat? Is there not a better English word for the type of "hat" worn by the main character from the first panel? It is not a hat like white or black hat! Kynde (talk) 21:18, 2 April 2014 (UTC)
    • I named him Hat Guy originally to make things easier. Feel free to change the name, I guess :) Knit Cap Guy, maybe? If a change is warranted, a simple search-and-replace should do it. Also, I'm not sure it's a guy or a girl... But the previous text was also treating him as male to begin with, anyway. Daniel Carrero (talk) 21:36, 2 April 2014 (UTC)
  • Is the right politician = Cueball?
  • Who is the left? Kynde (talk) 21:23, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

Isn't is likely that the characters only have names given to them by us readers in our suggestions? They don't necessarily have constant names. Zweisteine (talk) 23:33, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

Exactly my point. I think we should stick with hairy guy and maybe Knit Cap Guy! Kynde (talk) 10:28, 3 April 2014 (UTC)

I see you already changed Hat Guy to Knit Cap Guy and Dave to Hairy. Knit Cap Guy is a nice name. Originally, I would disagree with you and insist we should stick to Dave because that's what the character is called in one storyline of the strip itself, but I see he is also called Frank in other timeline. Since he has multiple names, using just Hairy is better in my opinion, too. Daniel Carrero (talk) 12:40, 3 April 2014 (UTC)

Knit Cap Guy is probably a Girl. Just sayin'. 173.245.52.28 12:22, 3 April 2014 (UTC)

Probably! Originally I thought it was Megan with a knit cap on. Daniel Carrero (talk) 12:40, 3 April 2014 (UTC)
It IS a girl! http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:1e4325a2-baaf-11e3-801f-002590d77bdd 173.245.48.66 21:44, 3 April 2014 (UTC)
Well I think you are correct - that it is a girl. However you can NEVER use text in the comic to decide - because it is user created - I could have written the same line with guy instead of girl! Anyway - could someone change Knit Cap Guy to Knit Cap Girl? Kynde (talk) 10:04, 4 April 2014 (UTC)
Can see it has been done - great Kynde (talk) 08:32, 6 April 2014 (UTC)
I've found a story where he/she is male! Thus contradicting the story above, where he/she is female, and proving that we really can't use text to determine the sex. Here we have "Beanie Man". http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:b6fcd098-ba98-11e3-8008-002590d77bdd
(But... She looks female-ish enough to me, so I personally feel inclined to keep Knit Cap Girl in the article. Also, for laziness if nothing else. Feel free to disagree with me on that.) Daniel Carrero (talk) 11:07, 8 April 2014 (UTC)
Also, sometimes she is called Lorenz. http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:bcc77a5c-ba23-11e3-801b-002590d77bdd Daniel Carrero (talk) 11:40, 8 April 2014 (UTC)
I always mentally called the guy 'Hikaru' because the guy's hat reminded me of the Nice Hat that Hikaru Azuma wore a lot in With the Light. Greyson (talk) 03:55, 5 April 2014 (UTC)
Other
  • Seems like the permalink at the top of the transcript does not work for me anymore - then they will be useless! Else they are the best way to quote different lines of the comic. Kynde (talk) 21:31, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

Oh, now they work again. ;) Kynde (talk) 10:31, 3 April 2014 (UTC)

The permalinks has stopped working for me Spongebog (talk) 20:45, 5 April 2014 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure that the initial four options presented to the reader are now fixed and do not change. "These stupid tiles..." and "Gravity. Lots of it." are no longer available options. (Correct me if I'm wrong, but I've played the comic many times over the past couple of days and I've never received those two options). Should the transcript be edited to reflect that? Enchantedsleeper (talk) 21:53, 6 April 2014 (UTC)

Chategories not yet included

Should they be?

  • I have seen the word Raptor mentioned - so should velociraptor be a chategory? Kynde (talk) 21:21, 2 April 2014 (UTC)
  • Cueball? I.e. the politician on the right? Kynde (talk) 21:28, 2 April 2014 (UTC)
  • I understand that many categories has been deleted as all text references can be user generated. But when there is a drawing with a dinosaur then this categories should be included etc. Kynde (talk) 19:14, 4 April 2014 (UTC)
  • I would like to discuss the number of categories. If anything is in thks comics pictures then it should be included as a category. So dinos and Pokémon for sure as well as character's and collor. So I include some again - please do not delete. If you need to find where Pokémon has been referenced this commic should come in the list! Kynde (talk) 19:03, 8 April 2014 (UTC)
Images

I created 1350: Lorenz/Images with all the images I could find in the comic. I'm not sure if I should have left them in the main page 1350: Lorenz, but feel free to decide what to do with them. Also, I tried using the tag <gallery>, but I couldn't make it work, so I used a lot of divs. Daniel Carrero (talk) 23:23, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

Great idea - just what I hoped someone would and could do. Thanks ;) Is it easy to add new images to the page if they show up? Kynde (talk) 10:32, 3 April 2014 (UTC)
You're welcome! :) It's pretty easy... I explained in the images page how exactly you would save a new image if they show up. Daniel Carrero (talk) 13:52, 3 April 2014 (UTC)
Can see there keep appearing new images from the text above. Kynde (talk) 10:39, 3 April 2014 (UTC)
New shark images here: http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:30f53d98-bbb3-11e3-801c-002590d77bdd 108.162.221.65 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
I have updated the page and made a talk page there to add comments like the above. Have already found d 3 new images cannot add them with this tablet Kynde (talk) 22:19, 4 April 2014 (UTC)

Thanks for this work, but nobody knows if this is complete. --Dgbrt (talk) 19:49, 3 April 2014 (UTC)

Many-worlds interpretation

The title text "Every choice, no matter how small, begins a new story" might as well be a hint to Hugh Everett III 's "Many-worlds interpretation" of quantum theory. 108.162.219.74 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Except that the title is Lorenz a direct reference to the guy with the butterfly effect... Kynde (talk) 10:37, 3 April 2014 (UTC)
Can't it be both? The Butterfly Effect can be seen as one consequence of the Many-Worlds interpretation. A choice as simple as whether (or where) a butterfly flaps its wings can send our entire universe down a different timeline, in which a hurricane occurs. 108.162.216.49 19:46, 3 April 2014 (UTC)


Most, maybe all pictures do correspond to an existing comic here

I'm calling on you to not destroy a first simple explain, even the transcript. But nearly every picture belongs to a former comic — this has to be explained at the Themes section. We have some dinosaurs, but there is much more. Please help on this issue. --Dgbrt (talk) 21:56, 4 April 2014 (UTC)

After I understood what you mean I agree. All pictures collected should be explained in the themes section and preferably with a line to a story that includes the picture. There are so many I can't find. Some may never be available again... ? Kynde (talk) 18:59, 8 April 2014 (UTC)
What are you referring to? Has anyone deleted something important? Hope it wasn't me? Kynde (talk) 22:19, 4 April 2014 (UTC)
Well I can see it was me. We obviously disagree with what could be a trivia item and with which categories should be included even obvious ones. There has before been mention of missing pieces of hats etc and when there is one in hundreds of images with an error then it could make a fun trivia item in my opinion! I will stop editing and let you decide what to do with this comic? Kynde (talk) 22:30, 4 April 2014 (UTC)
You totally misunderstand me. I'm asking for an explain to every picture because it should belong to a former comic.
Further more I'm just trying to keep the explain as simple as possible; individual error experiences should not be posted at the explain. I did remove that content in order to keep it simple as possible to an ordinary reader.
Please improve the picture explains, but also please keep that explain simple as possible to readers are not interested on all that crap done by Randall.
--Dgbrt (talk) 22:38, 4 April 2014 (UTC)
Great and thanks for this explain and sorry I was grumpy in my reply before. Do you mean there should be an explanation for every single picture? Maybe this should be moved to a separate page like the list of images - they take up lots of space in the explain page - or they could be hided like the new transcript? Kynde (talk) 08:32, 6 April 2014 (UTC)
Have begun the full image explanation...Kynde (talk) 23:03, 6 April 2014 (UTC)
Visual tree / map?

How hard would it be to come up with a tree graphing out the different choices? The nodes could be panels and the lines could represent text choices. Has anyone tried it? --108.162.221.34 23:40, 4 April 2014 (UTC)

I added hide/show functionality to the transcript. It's easier to read and navigate now. Daniel Carrero (talk) 15:59, 5 April 2014 (UTC)
Great - this was also what I had in mind :-) Kynde (talk) 08:32, 6 April 2014 (UTC)
Not so great it has been deleted... Again! I have inserted a link to the last page before Dgbrt deleted all 25000 signs. Considering the enormous work done to create this transcript I think we should let it be at least awailable as a trivia link. I cannot create the page from my tablet, but would rather have a lorenz transcript page than an old version like now. Maybe on this page again? 1350: Lorenz/Transcript. Kynde (talk) 23:03, 6 April 2014 (UTC)
I restored the old version in 1350: Lorenz/Transcript. (Also, I used divs this time rather than templates.) Daniel Carrero (talk) 05:00, 7 April 2014 (UTC)
I got my suggestion as part of the main story!

I noticed in the "references to video games" section that "Actually it's the final castle - grab your fire flower!" was one of the options. I suggested that! 108.162.212.27 17:07, 5 April 2014 (UTC)

Are we sure the title is not related to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorenz_gauge_condition ?

For example, in Italy, the Lorenz Gauge Condition is dubbed "The Lorenz's choice". 108.162.212.218 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Should there be an interactive comic category?

It is kind of covered by the dynamic category, but between click and drag and this, as well as possible future comics, might it need to be its own seperate new category? Athang (talk) 23:00, 5 April 2014 (UTC)

The "stupid tiles" option has vanished from panel 1. 199.27.130.222 00:14, 6 April 2014 (UTC)

Is that for good or just for you? How many times did you reload and did you try different browsers? It should always be awailable via a saved permalink, like you findin the transcript. Kynde (talk) 08:32, 6 April 2014 (UTC)
This probably happens at the same time for all users, considering that I read 199.27.130.222's message immediately after he/she sent it and at that point the "stupid tiles" option had vanished for me as well, but this was clearly temporary since it's back now.
I only tested on Firefox. Daniel Carrero (talk) 04:08, 7 April 2014 (UTC)
I still get this option?? 199.27.130.216 22:38, 8 April 2014 (UTC)
Records in most panels

I have started a collection of records. I just entered what I could find to give an example. I was sure that my pheble attempts soon would be helped sore by someone who had saved the good ones... And already this is happening. Please continue to improve the records and also add more themes if I left them out Kynde (talk) 17:00, 7 April 2014 (UTC)

Gravity lots of it?

I have never seen this option. Could someone post a permalink to such a story - could be as a record. Kynde (talk) 20:58, 7 April 2014 (UTC)

Some cool stuff i found, don't know if anyone wants to add these to the main page

Pikachu: http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:80858d8c-ba22-11e3-801a-002590d77bdd

Giant pit: http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:ea9342a0-bc02-11e3-8034-002590d77bdd

Goodbye, BSD: http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:bae4c63c-ba31-11e3-8034-002590d77bdd

Reddit and rockets: http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:602c39a8-ba92-11e3-8006-002590d77bdd

More BSD Pikachu: http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:f5760770-baae-11e3-801f-002590d77bdd

Bird-powered car: http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:cc4467b2-baf3-11e3-8001-002590d77bdd

This happens a lot: http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:b69f6096-b9f0-11e3-8009-002590d77bdd

Dinos: http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:679012b0-bb4f-11e3-805b-002590d77bdd

These stupid lines: http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:360411c2-baa2-11e3-8012-002590d77bdd

Pretty long: http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:7d40621c-bae7-11e3-8002-002590d77bdd

199.27.130.216 22:37, 8 April 2014 (UTC)

Thanks for your findings. This has to be added to the explain, your titles on this are GREAT! Maybe you — or someone else — does have a nice idea how to publish all this permalinks in a proper way.--Dgbrt (talk) 23:39, 8 April 2014 (UTC)
More (mostly dream recursion):

Lord of the rings: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:40a1ac80-ba06-11e3-8017-002590d77bdd

Another moat: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:eee0d4c6-baea-11e3-8002-002590d77bdd

Looping back: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:d7970042-bae5-11e3-8001-002590d77bdd

Looping back 2: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:3f654048-badd-11e3-8001-002590d77bdd

Never seen it loop this many times: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:20698602-bbb1-11e3-801c-002590d77bdd

Even more looping: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:75e8f03e-baaf-11e3-801f-002590d77bdd

Looping to a rocket: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:3aa7da8e-bae7-11e3-8002-002590d77bdd

Dream recursion: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:5e94d028-bb7d-11e3-8012-002590d77bdd

Where did the Pikachu come from?: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:97c42da2-bb01-11e3-8004-002590d77bdd

Ethylene dichloride: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:93312202-ba4f-11e3-8037-002590d77bdd

More rockets: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:34f7f602-ba3b-11e3-8035-002590d77bdd

Even more rockets: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:8440e346-bb16-11e3-8004-002590d77bdd

More recursion: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:20698602-bbb1-11e3-801c-002590d77bdd

Blowtorch: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:c40db5fc-baf9-11e3-8001-002590d77bdd

Another blowtorch: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:97cbd552-bb01-11e3-8004-002590d77bdd

Most different stories i've seen in one: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:60d11a70-bb16-11e3-8004-002590d77bdd

199.27.130.216 21:33, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

More:

More pikachu: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:feaa5d4e-bbd2-11e3-802c-002590d77bdd

Long pikachu fight: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:d87d8344-bafb-11e3-8001-002590d77bdd

Plantains: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:22d57484-bb28-11e3-8004-002590d77bdd

Many pikachus: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:d04aabf0-b9fe-11e3-8016-002590d77bdd

Much pikachu: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:f203d1c6-ba22-11e3-801a-002590d77bdd

Such pikachu: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:a5485722-ba26-11e3-8020-002590d77bdd

Very pikachu: http://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:81c9e8c8-ba1d-11e3-8018-002590d77bdd 199.27.130.216 22:49, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

I haven't seen them all - but have you checked the records at the bottom of the explain page - those you call pretty long does not seem to get close to the 77 picture record... Are there any new pictures not featured in the picture page linked to from the top of the explain? Else this does not seem so interesting to me... ;-) Kynde (talk) 14:55, 10 April 2014 (UTC)
Ah so there were interesting stuff around. And I can see that at least one of them has already been added as a Pokémon record. Great - cool if you wrote how many panels - or if there where new pictures - it would be easier to look through them. The double dream I had been looking for, thanks I will add it to the record page under dreams Kynde (talk) 14:59, 10 April 2014 (UTC)
Seen them all and added several to the record for themes trivia. Thanks - but please more info~(length, themes) if you still care to share Kynde (talk) 15:36, 10 April 2014 (UTC)
Finishing the explanation

I have just done a huge job putting all the images from the list in under the themes sections. I hope others can take over and find permalinks that include all the images that are not yet on references in the links I have inserted. Also there are some of the first options that seeem to not exist anymore (Gravity lots of it) and also there was the error with the same line twice. I found it one day, but then there where no new images if you chose it. I did not save the permalink and now it seems like it is all gone. Good work guys and girls - I have a holiday comming up with no much computer time... Kynde (talk) 02:51, 12 April 2014 (UTC)

Greasemonkey Script

I've just mad a script to visit random stories, and record the corresponding transcripts. It's available here: https://github.com/edfel/Lorenz/ . I hope someone can find it useful! Edfel. 108.162.254.163 14:24, 18 April 2014 (UTC)

Dump

One idea: Maybe someone could create a script to automatically navigate Lorenz and create a dump of all the results, to fill 1350: Lorenz/Transcript. I know more-or-less how that would work in "pseudocode" so I could help but I'm not going to do it (writing actual code, testing, debugging, accounting for each individual frame, etc) any time soon. Daniel Carrero (talk) 07:47, 29 April 2014 (UTC)

Go home, Saturn, you're drunk.

Quintuple Saturn POWER! http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:9adca534-b9b0-11e3-8004-002590d77bdd 173.245.54.10 01:44, 5 May 2014 (UTC)

What-If XKCD

http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:b1210692-bae5-11e3-8001-002590d77bdd Recognize this one? 173.245.54.10 02:09, 5 May 2014 (UTC)

Why are the punctuation marks clipping?

I don't know what's going on, but a comma looks just like a period in the comic. The letters E, F, and I also display strangely. What's going on?199.27.128.96 01:58, 6 May 2014 (UTC)

Lorenz down time

Today there was no access to Lorenz. Tried both Firefox, Chrome and internet explorer. Just mentioning it here, if this is a permanent problem - so people can see how long it has been down. Kynde (talk) 18:43, 15 May 2014 (UTC)

Well it was already up again now. Kynde (talk) 11:42, 16 May 2014 (UTC)



After inserting the collapsing talk page - the old can be seen just by clicking the expand button. But if you wish to write anything new, then do it here below at the very bottom of the talk page so it may be seen. I have this comment - after a few weeks I believe nothing new happened in this comic. I think it is now fixed. Of course this is very hard to prove. But I have completed some branches of the interactive transcript. So let me know if you can find any new options I have missed (I could have missed if there were more than four options in a panel - but not at the dead-ends! I have also just made major revisions of the explanation and it's layout - based on my observations. Kynde (talk) 22:48, 19 June 2014 (UTC)


I just found a panel where it gets past the person on the comet, only one panel though... http://xkcd.com/1350/#p:25743f70-baee-11e3-8001-002590d77bdd 108.162.254.69 19:24, 15 July 2014 (UTC)

Great. Have added the image to the list of images and to the theme above. Keep any new images coming here.--Kynde (talk) 14:24, 30 March 2016 (UTC)

It's interesting the chess player in 1112 ("Think logically") resembles the knit cap girl. It's weird that Megan (or Randall's wife) after chemotherapy also wears a cap (1141, "Two years"). Is there any possible connections between them (or simply a coincidence)?108.162.215.108 04:24, 29 July 2014 (UTC)

I have added links to three other comics using knit caps, including the two you mentioned. Thanks. --Kynde (talk) 14:24, 30 March 2016 (UTC)

I noticed that the image url noted on xkcd.com is the same as the one for #1349 - Shouldn't Be Hard. Not sure if it is caused by the interactivity disallowing an image upload, or an error on Randall's part (I'd imagine working through this comic's issues was pretty distracting). 15:37, 24 April 2015 (UTC)

I believe this was fixed. At least it seems to look correct now. --Kynde (talk) 14:24, 30 March 2016 (UTC)

God damn I hate boomerangs now. 172.68.65.240 03:49, 22 November 2017 (UTC)Bob

Hey guys, are we still missing the ocean comics? because I found one that links there. https://www.xkcd.com/1350/#p:3df213b4-ba4f-11e3-8037-002590d77bdd . not far after though. 173.245.48.129 02:41, 6 August 2018 (UTC)

I found a (possibly) bug where the comic doesn't load and there's just a comic-sized blank space. 19:48, 3 January 2019 (UTC) -- Cheese12 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

As of this week I found out that Lorenz seems to have stopped working on xkcd... This makes all the permalink invalid. ;-( --Kynde (talk) 20:03, 8 September 2019 (UTC)

I also found that people have been writing new entries from the top which meant I did not see Cheese12 comment that this was so all the way back in January 2019. I have rearranged the three comments on top to the right post order here at the bottom and added a signature for Cheese12 and a day for the edit for reference to how long it has been broken. Also removed a (now broken) permalink that was left over when a user posted something and then deleted it again. It was stick beneath my previous comment. --Kynde (talk) 20:12, 8 September 2019 (UTC)
Looked on the webarchive and the latest version of the comic there is from July 2019. 2019-07-19. It seems correct there with the first picture with options... Of course it is no use trying to move on, either because it is a web archive or because Lorentz doesn't work anymore on xkcd. But it seems like it should not have displayed that image if it had been a recent version of the comic, as there are no image on the page now. If this is true, then it should not have been down all the time since January as Cheese12 wrote above... But I have no idea how the web archive works for such a complicated comic page? --Kynde (talk) 20:22, 8 September 2019 (UTC)
I suspect this is related to the XKCD forums being taken down. Umwelt, Externalities, Landing, and xkcloud are also down. Tbodt (talk) 19:19, 14 September 2019 (UTC)

I think it's working again. Crazymachinefan (talk) 04:44, 29 January 2020 (UTC)

I just found a bunch of new things that can occur including a new image. Here are the permalinks: https://xkcd.com/1350/#p:b0bcef14-baf3-11e3-8001-002590d77bdd --Knit Cap Girl rather than Hairy wakes up after the KSP rocket launch image; https://xkcd.com/1350/#p:8e2a0d7a-baf2-11e3-8001-002590d77bdd --permalink for Hairy silhouette image; https://xkcd.com/1350/#p:8a36f73e-baaf-11e3-801f-002590d77bdd --permalink for Hairy getting to a sale without lying in bed; https://xkcd.com/1350/#p:d4cd36d8-ba95-11e3-8001-002590d77bdd NEW IMAGE-- Hairy in silhouette not talking. EDIT: Here's something *fascinating*... this panel can have either one or two responses depending on what's chosen for the first. Here's the permalink - https://xkcd.com/1350/#p:b2dde69c-b9c0-11e3-8007-002590d77bdd 162.158.107.29 20:23, 22 October 2020 (UTC)Anonymous Waste of Time

I found a weird thing. https://xkcd.com/1350/#p:73113e0c-b9f6-11e3-8011-002590d77bdd If you select 15615 the comic freezes. The text doesn't appear, no new panels appear. PkmnQ (talk) 05:27, 12 February 2021 (UTC)

I tried it on another device, and again it froze when I selected 15615. Can someone else try to recreate it? PkmnQ (talk) 05:47, 17 February 2021 (UTC)
yeah it's the same for me too --Anonymous Waste of Time
I looked at the console, and an error pops up, so there's at least a tiny clue to why it happens. PkmnQ (talk) 08:00, 1 March 2021 (UTC)
   Uncaught TypeError: e.replace is not a function
       at Odlaw._comicText (bernardo.min.js:2)
       at Odlaw._makeText (bernardo.min.js:2)
       at Odlaw.chooseOption (bernardo.min.js:2)
       at n (bernardo.min.js:2)
       at HTMLLIElement.<anonymous> (bernardo.min.js:2)
       at HTMLUListElement.dispatch (VM44 b66ed7.js:3)
       at HTMLUListElement.r.handle (VM44 b66ed7.js:3)
My best guess is that 15615 is being interpreted as a number instead of a string. However, when I type in 5 as a new option it works correctly. It might be from some old input bug that was changed later on. PkmnQ (talk) 08:05, 1 March 2021 (UTC)

Cleaning up

Why was the (general) grammar of this comic so bad? I am putting in hours into this comic to fix this (and what I was originally doing, which was changing all instances of 'Knit Cap Girl' to 'Knit Cap' and changing 'she/her/hers' to 'he/him/his'). I'm about 2/3 done. Beanie talk 14:14, 1st July 2021 (UTC)

Finished :D Beanie talk 22:42, 18 November 2021 (UTC)
Took a while because I changed schools and I can't get onto explainxkcd on the new website (and also I'm lazy). Beanie talk 22:44, 18 November 2021 (UTC)

Not sure if this is known, but there's a path where Theft is super effective and the first move. Not sure how to hyperlink on phone, though. It's tiles, 4096, pastel color, middle class ennui, wonder why it's socially acceptable.172.70.178.33 21:43, 20 April 2022 (UTC)

I think I found the shortest possible path. https://xkcd.com/1350/#p:0b364d02-bb65-11e3-800e-002590d77bdd IJustWantToEditStuff (talk) 19:48, 2 September 2022 (UTC)

the political path is not there anymore. i think the BSD path replaced it? 108.162.245.183 (talk) 18:30, 17 November 2023‎ (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Here's a 24-panel Pokémon-theme:

https://xkcd.com/1350/#p:a894b980-baf2-11e3-8001-002590d77bdd

ErRor 6o6 (talk) 16:20, 29 April 2024

found a pretty long variation on the old longest one. might be longer, or mabye same length? https://xkcd.com/1350/#p:ffa26ce0-bade-11e3-8001-94de80a03a29 172.70.178.135 (talk) 23:09, 26 September 2024 (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

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