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==Explanation==
 
==Explanation==
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This comic represents a news article that bemoans how sometimes lazy journalists will, instead of taking time to research the genuine public opinion on a certain issue, simply cherry pick comments as evidence to support their thesis. The irony is that the article is likely basing its own narrative of outrage among Internet users on random comments as well. For example, an [https://twitter.com/NateSilver538/status/1129773341894688769 anonymous Twitter account from Northern Ireland with 159 followers] got used as [https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/17/opinion/biden-2020-millennials.html an example in the first paragraph of a NY Times article] about how U.S. Millennials think.
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{{incomplete|Created by a AN OUTRAGED INTERNET USER. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
  
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The commenters create the narrative here, by pointing out how easy it is for commenters to push a point of view, and how little editorial control or fact checking there is in such a process.  The final commenter reveals that the article itself is cherry picking from a handful of random comments to support its arbitrary narrative of internet outrage, proving the real joke.
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This comic represents a news article that shows how easy it is to dominate the comment section of an article by creating shill comments to support any desired narrative of the community's opinion. The joke here is that this is precisely what has occurred for this article. The top five comments are assorted ways of affirming the article's text. However, the final commenter seems freaked out that a comment she wrote was in an article. It's possible that she is just an innocent victim of this who's legitimately scared, but it could also be that she is a shill for the opposite side that wasn't fast enough to post.
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The link in one of the comments is to [[1019: First Post]], which also refers to manipulating comments to change public opinion of a topic. It specifically mentions "creating an impression of peer consensus", a line which is near-quoted in the first comment included in this comic.
 
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Another comment mentions a {{w|NPR|National Public Radio}} ("NPR") decision to remove comments from their website [https://www.npr.org/sections/publiceditor/2016/08/17/489516952/npr-website-to-get-rid-of-comments?t=1559838474662 in 2016] because they represented only a tiny fraction of their readers. The statement released by NPR suggested they had decided to use social media channels to engage readers instead of using an on-site commenting system.
 
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The last of the comments may be from the user "Mary" who, in the NPR article, was explicitly cited to have said that the comments have been too violent. But it is unclear how this is possible given that this article claims to have been published after the comments having been turned off. This may also be a reference to [[1303: Profile Info]], as both of the characters would decrease the efficiency of the ad/article by being chosen as a quote.
 
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The title text refers to the ability to edit webpages using in-browser tools, like "Inspect Element." However, such changes are temporary and only on the machine used for viewing the web site; anyone else loading the page will not see them, and refreshing the page causes the changes to be replaced with the real content. This would mean that no other users would be able to see the comments, and news sources could not use them to influence public opinion.
 
  
 
==Transcript==
 
==Transcript==
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{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
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[Single panel comic depicting a screenshot of an Internet article, showing the article title, lines of wavy characters representing the article text, and several comments from readers of the article...]
  
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:[Single panel comic depicting a screenshot of an Internet article, showing the article title, lines of wavy characters representing the article text, and several comments from readers of the article with their profile pictures.]
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Backlash: Internet users are ''outraged'' over news stories using a handful of random comments to support arbitrary narratives!
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:Backlash: Internet users are ''outraged'' over news stories using a handful of random comments to support arbitrary narratives!
 
  
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:[Close-up of Megan:]
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:[Head of a girl with short hair:]
 
::I can't believe how easy it is to create an impression of peer consensus.
 
::I can't believe how easy it is to create an impression of peer consensus.
  
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:[Close-up of Hairy:]
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:[Head of a guy:]
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::This dynamic is so easily manipulated and it freaks me out. <u>xkcd.com/1019</u>
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::This dynamic is so easily manipulated and it freaks me out. xkcd.com/1019
  
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:[Full picture of Hairbun:]
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:[Full picture of a girl with hair bun:]
 
::Everytime I share something and a friend responds "Haha, did you see the top comments..." it just reminds me how influential these things are in shaping the impressions of even relatively internet-savvy readers.
 
::Everytime I share something and a friend responds "Haha, did you see the top comments..." it just reminds me how influential these things are in shaping the impressions of even relatively internet-savvy readers.
  
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:[Close-up of Cueball on a black background:]
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:[Head of a guy who looks like Cueball on a black background:]
 
::NPR got rid of comments in 2016 when they realized they all came from a handful of visitors posting hundreds of times a month.
 
::NPR got rid of comments in 2016 when they realized they all came from a handful of visitors posting hundreds of times a month.
  
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:[Full picture of two guys, Cueball and Hairy:]
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:[Full picture of two guys:]
 
::Eventually social norms will adapt to this stuff, but it needs to hurry up.
 
::Eventually social norms will adapt to this stuff, but it needs to hurry up.
  
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:[Close-up of Ponytail:]
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:[Head of a girl with ponytail:]
 
::I have nine followers and created my account last month; how am I being quoted in this news article??
 
::I have nine followers and created my account last month; how am I being quoted in this news article??
  

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