Talk:3227: Creation

did anyone else wait for the screensaver to hit the corner? 216.25.182.141 20:13, 1 April 2026 (UTC)

I can't work out what Modem mode is meant to do... on my machine it just freezes the whole page. 78.213.151.110 20:22, 1 April 2026 (UTC)

It plays the sound of an old-style phone modem, and scrolls the comic into view slowly. It's supposed to represent the early days when downloading an image would take a long time. Barmar (talk) 20:31, 1 April 2026 (UTC)

can confirm on android firefox it seems to render the page unresponsive to input - Vaedez (talk) 21:18, 1 April 2026 (UTC)

Same here on Desktop Firefox - under "Modem mode", the whole page freezes up and the browser prompts me to close it ("this page is slowing down Firefox", or words to that effect). I wonder if it's a Firefox thing - odd if so, because I imagine Randall of all people would test on browsers other than Chrom* - or some weird side-effect of my ad/popup/script/cookie-blockers. A shame because all the other modes seem to work - "Greyscale mode" is far too subtle, and I'm ashamed to admit I missed the change from "math" to "maths"! - but this is a great April Fools' comic. 50.45.232.78 22:56, 1 April 2026 (UTC)

Firefoxer here, and without any particular add-ons that might interact badly with it... It does (seem to) lock up and it does (sometimes... didn't on at least one occasion) prompt Firefox to ask if I want to stop the page. But if I wait long enough it 'wipes off' the last seen comic image, starts to 'scanline' it back (note: not actually accurate to the real days of modems, as you'd probably be loading up images in interlaced mode) and then starts to give a modem-shriek.

I wonder, without delving into the code used, if it's the method used to 'sleep' (could it be using busy-busy NOP-like code, rather than true sleep-interupts?), or just a slightly different asynchronous script-handling method that Firefox uses instead of other test-platforms. 81.179.199.253 23:46, 1 April 2026 (UTC)

I clicked darker mode and my screen is black and I cant undo it help

I assume you mean Darkest Mode, since there's no darker mode. The screen turns black but if you look carefully you can still see the grey of the menu and you can click on it. Also, the menu border continues to appear after you select the choice (at least it does on my Mac). P.S. Don't forget to sign your comment with 4 ~ characters. Barmar (talk) 20:31, 1 April 2026 (UTC)

Modem mode doesn’t work for me what does it do 2A06:5906:1412:4100:352D:1A2:184:5F3 20:29, 1 April 2026 (UTC)

Modem mode makes the comic slowly print from above 216.25.182.141 20:34, 1 April 2026 (UTC)

I see the mobile site m.xkcd.com was left out on this change😔 104.28.215.219 20:37, 1 April 2026 (UTC)

I read “Modern mode” instead of Modem mode and I spent a while making wild theories about what it could be referencing. But I’m also quite sleepy. 146.70.116.107 20:51, 1 April 2026 (UTC)

i also misread it as modern mode, it made everything lag for me, made it feel like a modern website 85.206.187.35 00:57, 2 April 2026 (UTC)

I deminified the code if anyone wants it. There are no hidden options or anything like right-click has, but it would be extremely easy to add modes to it. 2601:441:4B7E:7660:0:0:0:AC72 20:59, 1 April 2026 (UTC)

"Modem mode" works for me in Chromium, but not Firefox. Robobun (talk) 21:06, 1 April 2026 (UTC)

For me it's just slow on Firefox. It takes about 5 seconds to clear the comic and start scrolling it back in, and the static doesn't start until it's almost all showing. Barmar (talk) 21:11, 1 April 2026 (UTC)

applies across the whole website? i forsee a preservation effort in the near future to capture What This Was Like, when randall inevitably removes the menu and all its modes--there's no chance this is staying, is there? - Vaedez (talk) 21:24, 1 April 2026 (UTC)

It applies to older comics, but not other parts of the site. I'm also wondering if this might be just for April Fool's Day. Barmar (talk) 21:27, 1 April 2026 (UTC)

I know it's april the 1st, but could we keep the modes? Stainglass is fun when the background doesn't turn maroon (and makes the text hard to read). I also checked other pages of xkcd, the modes are on on the other comics.

Of course it's the April Fools'/Fools' comic. Nice to see it being on time, this year, and I too wonder how long it'll stay. Might it permanently stay on this comic page, perhaps even stay if you jump off of it, but comic 3228 (or the 'default' latest-comic page) will probably be back to normal on Friday. 81.179.199.253 22:14, 1 April 2026 (UTC)

Luckily, preservation is easy enough. I think you just need to save the main Javascript file (which contains the CSS, and generates the necessary DOM on the fly) and the one image asset. I think it should be easy enough to turn it into a UserScript if you turn the png into a data URI, or even a web extension if that's more your speed. Dratini0 (talk) 00:12, 2 April 2026 (UTC)

Finally we have the Boat Mode from the footer! B for brain (talk) (youtube channel wobsite (supposed to be a blag)) 21:33, 1 April 2026 (UTC)

Attention admins I think there's an "oops" in this line:

To experience the interactivity, visit the {{xkcd|{comicNum}|original comic}}!

64.201.132.210 21:43, 1 April 2026 (UTC)

Yeah, looks like this is a regression in this corner case. I should have a fix for it soon. —theusaf (talk) 23:41, 1 April 2026 (UTC)

Has the full footer always been there? "xkcd.com is best viewed with Netscape Navigator 4.0 or below on a Pentium 3±1 emulated in Javascript on an Apple IIGS at a screen resolution of 1024x1. Please enable your ad blockers, disable high-heat drying, and remove your device from Airplane Mode and set it to Boat Mode. For security reasons, please leave caps lock on while browsing." --Chance2travel (talk) 22:30, 1 April 2026 (UTC)

Yes, always has been. Learn more at the page for Footnote. 104.28.215.219 23:17, 1 April 2026 (UTC)

I think the Dorian Greyscale Mode takes 5 minutes to complete. I see this in the Javascript: body.mode-dorian-greyscale {\n transition: filter 300s ease-out; Pgn674 (talk) 22:36, 1 April 2026 (UTC)

Dorian Greyscale Mode seems like it ought to use only the white keys on a standard piano, and go DEGFCDBA, with adjacent notes differing in a single bit position. 2A02:8084:2862:4F80:65B7:327D:E614:342F 22:56, 1 April 2026 (UTC)

I'd love to know if the modem mode's audio file decodes to anything if you try to decode it as a v.92 stream or something similar. 2603:6011:4504:D100:3BD0:B617:9D7:1C80 23:24, 1 April 2026 (UTC)

Stained Glass Mode doesn't show title text? Might be a bug X (talk) 23:38, 1 April 2026 (UTC)

Not gonna lie, I got nerd-sniped hard here. I thought the noise in the modem mode might be real modem noises, and I tried to demodulate it. With Gnuradio, I got to the point of guessing that it's 4FSK at 2400 baud, with a center frequency of about 1700 Hz and a frequency deviation of about 300 Hz. I couldn't find the corresponding modem standard, so I started deminifying the source code that generates it. The good news is that I was correct. It's 4FSK, 2400 baud, center frequency 1710 Hz, frequency deviation 270 Hz. The bad news? The data is Math.random(). That feels bittersweet. I saw a puzzle where there was none. I want to post the relevant snippet of deminified code. Am I allowed to do that? Is the site itself also under CC-BY-NC, or just the comics? Dratini0 (talk) 23:58, 1 April 2026 (UTC)

Honestly, I'd love a real dark mode for xkcd.com. But one where the comic isn't inverted. Sometimes I prefer to read the comic here on explainxkcd.com since I have mediawiki settings for dark mode, but those don't invert the comic. (I don't think I can make mediawiki settings for space opera mode...) Orion205 (talk) 00:28, 2 April 2026 (UTC)

I spent way too long watching screensaver mode to see if it would do anything if the comic hit a corner. 170.142.177.145 00:31, 2 April 2026 (UTC)

I wonder if the choice of the actual text in the comic is a reference to the Apollo 8 Christmas broadcast of Genesis, due to the Artemis II launch today... or maybe I'm overthinking it and it's simply a joke about light and dark mode. 2601:241:8002:3E0:5CAD:3E02:93FF:FB00 01:05, 2 April 2026 (UTC)

Anyone test the other April fools comics? Commercialegg (talk) 01:14, 2 April 2026 (UTC)