User talk:Kynde

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
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Hi, please do not remove the Cueball references here. He is a standard character. The category Category:Comics featuring Cueball gives just an overview about all comics showing this stick figure. And just one is him, not defined by Randall but by us. --Dgbrt (talk) 21:10, 8 May 2014 (UTC)

But who should define who Cueball is? You? I could see him as both here. And somebody did. You have just corrected back so that the Cueball in the explain is switched to the other charachter in the transcript. At least one of these should then be changed to match the other. It is thus also clear that people have different views of what Cueball stands for. Is he the one trolling, or is he the one who knows which movie Blade Runner is? Kynde (talk) 07:35, 10 May 2014 (UTC)
By the way - I did not remove the reference to the chategory - but only in the text as described above. Kynde (talk) 07:38, 10 May 2014 (UTC)

Also, a minor concern, but please be more sparing in your use of "minor" tags on edits. Addition of 1200 characters (e.g. . . m Talk:1496: Art Project‎; 20:04 . . (+1,240)‎ . . ‎Kynde, or . . m 1497: New Products‎; 19:12 . . (-419)‎ . . ‎Kynde →‎Explanation: It does not fit into category four! See new test. I also deleted a lot of text, that already was written below, and was basically the same as the one stille) is NOT minor. Djbrasier (talk) 21:22, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

When adding a new comment to the talk page I newer see this as a major change. This i a discussion not a change to the explanation!. I do not believe it was a big change removing the text you wrote, when all of it basically was written below. Try and read your version, and see that it was more or less double. Also I had already once removed the reference to the fourth category. If the guy has signed up he have no problems with this company. Also it is mentioned that the fourth category is not a company he is afraid off, but just someone they do not like. --Kynde (talk) 21:42, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

Thank you

I like what you did at 1402: Harpoons. Thank you. 173.245.54.153

You're welcome - I did it based on your comment Kynde (talk) 03:41, 2 August 2014 (UTC)

980: Money

Hey, you've done an amazing job on the money comic's transcript, but the explanation page is still marked as incomplete. Is there actually anything left to be done on it? Thanks! Davak72 (talk) 03:04, 3 April 2015 (UTC)

Thanks allot. I have replied on the Money page where you repeated the above. I can even remember the number although it was some time since I did the transcript. --Kynde (talk) 09:44, 3 April 2015 (UTC)

Merge Cueball & Rob

You seem to have changed some comics in which formerly more than one cueball appeared to make it such that none were called cueball (e.g. Orb Hammer). But many persist, see transcripts in: http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/1405:_Meteor http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/192:_Working_for_Google http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/525:_I_Know_You%27re_Listening http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/187:_The_Familiar http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/79:_Iambic_Pentameter http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/65:_Banter

We should probably seek broader consensus before rewriting all these transcripts. There seems to me to be a general trend to name one "Cueball" and call the others "Friend" or somesuch in these cases and I'm concerned that you seem to want to singlehandedly rewrite all that convention. Djbrasier (talk) 21:07, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

It is typically the first who writes the transcript who decides who of the Cueballs (or Megans) he feel represents the real Cueball. However, there is no real behavior of Cueball. So who should decide. I could also change these transcripts so it becomes the other character who becomes Cueball, because I think the first transcripter did it wrong. This was exactly what happened with the two Megan-like comics. First it was Megan and Danish. Then unidentified girl and Megan. Then Megan and unidentified girl, then two Megan like girls with short and long hair and finally you reverted it to my first ide: Unidentified girl and Megan. So thanks for showing me these six double Cueball comics. I will change asap. And as I answered your comment on 1496: Art Project Rob is already listed as part of the category for Comics featuring Cueball: http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Category:Comics_featuring_Rob and this is listed as the first entry when going to the page for Category:Comics featuring Cueball: http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Category:Comics_featuring_Cueball Thus he should not be merged--Kynde (talk) 21:21, 11 March 2015 (UTC)
Can you please add this discussion here [1]. I have refrained from making these sort of substantial changes and want to seek a broader consensus. Please use the community forum to seek such consensus before making major unilateral changes like that. Djbrasier (talk) 21:24, 11 March 2015 (UTC)
Done with interests --Kynde (talk) 22:02, 11 March 2015 (UTC)
there are dozens of multiple-Cueball comments. Please don't change them to "man 1", "man 2" until we can reach a braoder consensus. I will not be changing them to "Rob" without consensus. This is not something to be done all at once and making that many changes will prompt me to request that an admin freeze your account. Djbrasier (talk) 21:27, 11 March 2015 (UTC)
I was about to write this before your comment no. two. So this was a reply to your previous comment: "I can post it there, but these changes has been underway a long time for almost a year. But it is hard to find these comics as I do not go through them just to find incidences. How long have you been active in xkcd. I can see your page has been created today, but maybe you were active long before that?"--Kynde (talk) 21:42, 11 March 2015 (UTC)
This is a comment to your next comment: "It is very hard to threaten someone like that already. I have been making these changes before, and by the way never to man 1 or man 2. I have been one of the top contributers for more than a year. I hope this is not just because I reverted one of your contributions to Mondays comic? --Kynde (talk21:42, 11 March 2015 (UTC)
I didn't want to threaten. I think consistent style is important, and general style I see is in multi-Cueball comics, one is ID'd as Cueball and others are "Friend", etc. Anyone unilaterally changing an established style should seek consensus first.
Additionally, I think your undo on my edit actually improved the explanation.
Finally, if you know how to solicit more opinions on the matter at hand, please let me know (or do it). Thanks! Djbrasier (talk) 23:53, 11 March 2015 (UTC)
Thanks on the edit appraisal. As I wrote on the talk page, yours was also much better phrased the second time. I do not know how to get anyone to go read your comment except by giving them the message like you did with me. Or putting a link to it from the talk page of the double Megan comic, and maybe on some of the double Cueball comics too. I did not understand the "solicit more opinions" at first (why I wrote that last part in my comment below "how many will read"). So you do realize, I can see now, that not many will. By the way I'm Danish... That is, I'm neither a mean girl or a pastry cake, but from Denmark. And although I'm, really good at English for everyday use, it is not by far a language I can understand everything. But suddenly I got your message.--Kynde (talk) 20:10, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

My only point is we need to wait until consensus is reached before undoing years of precedent in Cueball naming. Djbrasier (talk) 22:38, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

Well as I have made fairly clear there is no consensus. Because it is up to the first one who writes the transcript to decide who is the friend. And this often leads to discussion or changes forth and back (like we just saw with two Megans) since people have different opinion on how Cueball should behave, since they do not know that Cueball can behave anyway Randall needs him to. Often he reflects Randall's intelligence, but just as often he is a prick behaving horribly towards girls etc. So if there are two, one good and one bad, you cannot say the good one is Cueball. And how many do you think reads your post? --Kynde (talk) 19:43, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

I have had a look at the comics you have listed. Here are my comments:

  • 1405:_Meteor
    • Here I would have changed - since it is believed that Cueball often represents Randall's version of himself - especially when it is his hobby. Of course it is then Randall who is pedantic, and thus Cueball. So I would change the Cueball reference. So here we could have a stupid editing war, instead of writing something else.
  • 525:_I_Know_You're_Listening
    • Here there is only one Cueball speaking. And the other is listening in. So here I would no object so much. Maybe I would mention that the other looks like Cueball.
  • 192:_Working_for_Google
    • Here I would have changed - since I would think that Cueball should have the most interesting story, and also that this Cueball is Randall as it is known that Randall has an interest in Google and has also been cheated by their aptitude test (so much that he did the famous 356: Nerd Sniping). So also here I would change the Cueball reference. So again stupid editing war, instead of writing something else.
  • 187:_The_Familiar
    • Here I would have changed - since I would thing that Cueball should be the one always interested in computers. Not the other way. I know there are other comics where he enjoys nature. But Also a lot where he enjoys computers out of hand and math etc. So again I would have changed the Cueball reference. So again stupid editing war, instead of writing something else.
  • 79:_Iambic_Pentameter
    • Here I agree with the Cueball = Randall - it's Randall my hobby and thus the one with the Hobby is Cueball. But I would still prefer they are not named. some might argue against me on the hobby, saying the Cueball with the hobby is "Randall" so the other Cueball is "Cueball". Thus once more editing war. But I would not start it. But still probably mention that the Cueball with a hobby is Randall.
  • 65:_Banter
    • What can I say. The first is called Cueball the other is not. They have the same amount of text, and they are obviously both gay and missing out. I would definitely loose the Cueball reference here.

That is my ten cents about these six examples. Maybe we should create a category called multiple Cueballs. --Kynde (talk) 20:02, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

Note that I have not changed any of these... yet. But maybe I should revert those three I think is plain wrong, so the Cueball and friend is changed. Then we can see if anyone changes back? ;-) --Kynde (talk) 20:02, 12 March 2015 (UTC)
I advise waiting. If you want to enact 4, go for it, but then put in the discussion a link to our discussion for all the changes you make so hopefully someone besides you and me goes to that page and weighs in.

To answer your question, I've read xkcd for years (I started reading regularly around the time there were ~500 total comics), lurked on explainxkcd and made anonymous minor edits for most of that time. I set up an account in July 2013, when I began making more regular edits.

I recognize that the issue has a large amount of inertia. My point is precisely that there are 9 "Rob" comics and countless Cueball. But, as I stated on the page, there is ample evidence that the same character (Black Hat's friend/roommate, Megan's boyfriend) is named Rob. I haven't done a count, but I suspect that "Megan" is named in the comic fewer than 9 times, but characters of her appearance are all called "Megan".

Yes, multiple Megans triggered the idea that's been brewing in my mind since someone (not me) made an anonymous comment on a relatively recent Rob comic [1168: tar]. Since I read that it's been sitting in my mind, but I haven't wanted to make an issue. However, the asymmetry between Megan/Cutie and Rob/Cueball grates for me and I want to urge the community here to evaluate critically whether it is the right thing or an inappropriate historical artifact. Years ago, [Cutie] was abolished (redirects now to [Megan]), I think it's objectively appropriate to make a symmetrical arrangement for Rob/Cueball (hence my options 2 & 3 in the public discussion thread).

For now, if you want to go changing all those comics go ahead. I won't argue or revert, but I request that you put the following (or something close to it) in the discussion of all the comics you change "I've removed the name 'Cueball' from this and several other comics that have multiple Cueball's in them as per my position on the issue currently under discussion at http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/explain_xkcd:Community_portal/Proposals#Merge_Cueball_.26_Rob if you support this change or disagree with it, please weigh in on that discussion thread."

Thank you and I look forward to hearing from more users. Djbrasier (talk) 00:04, 13 March 2015 (UTC)

Dear Djbrasier
(By the way my name is Kynde - that is both my nick and my middle name).
Thanks for this very open talk. I like you much better now ;-)
If I do change any of these I will do as you ask. It is not like I have forever to do these changes, although I for sure use too much time already on explain... I think I will add the category:Comics with multiple Cueballs. What do you think of the name if I do (and if I do then maybe also make one with Category:Comics where Megan is named Megan. Please tell me you can think of a better name for that one ;-) I only know of the three now mentioned on Megans page.
As you can see om my page, I have only used explain xkcd since late 2013. So you have been member longer than me by some months. I did not read xkcd before that - became fascinated with the What if section on xkcd and when I finished with those I turned to the comic. But found that I failed to understand quite a few, and thus searched and found this page. I have read them as they come out since then, and then also began reading from no. 1. But since I always look in this page for the explanation and like to contribute I only progress very slowly. Recently I have reached 540: Base System where I have made several improvements additions and corrections. And that is as far as I have reached reading straight fro no. 1. But I have of course used the cross referencing and thus read many in between that and those from October 2013.
Regards Kynde --Kynde (talk) 08:02, 13 March 2015 (UTC)
Happy to have the discussion and to get to wiki-know you. I definitely see your points. I added a few comments and links to our public discussion in the hopes that, over time, it will attract more users to the community portal discussion. I suspect it will take some months for enough users to weigh in that we have a reasonable consensus. I think that if you remove "Cueball" from some of the comics you mentioned above and put a link to the portal page in the discussion block of those comments, that will prompt community input.
Cheers,
DJ Djbrasier (talk) 13:40, 13 March 2015 (UTC)

I also added incomplete tags to a few comics in which I think a strong argument can be made that "Cueball" is really Rob, despite his name not showing up (Boombox & Cover-up) Djbrasier (talk) 13:49, 13 March 2015 (UTC)

Well I disagree again. See the talk pages. But then it is out for discussion.--Kynde (talk) 13:19, 15 March 2015 (UTC)

I have changed several of the Multiple Cueballs comics as you said was OK with you. See the new caregory. --Kynde (talk) 09:41, 16 March 2015 (UTC)

xkcloud permalink usernames

You said "The user name and user picture stay the same though.", An Anon had mentioned that 3c34fb48-1a07-51d2-a81d-5257a3681024 had the name "Lauren Ibsen Dolores Amit" and changed to "Margaret5", then by the time I looked at it, it had "Virginia2006". It still has "Virginia2006" now, but since it has changed twice I wouldn't assume it is now permanent. Due to this, I haven't been saving the usernames. Could you confirm that you see Virginia2006? Perhaps it's different for each user. -452 (talk) 21:09, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

Yes I did see Virginia2006. I think it may change some times, but then suddenly it could become stable? The permalink used on the main page of the explain, was mine. I noted it was Mark Zuckerberg. But this has changed. But now I think it is stuck on: Destiny1983 and always with the skating "Megan". Can you confirm this: http://xkcd.com/1506/#post/50b47c70-3a7c-504d-bcc0-60597338e999 . Cool that you have collected all these images. Can we put the link under the permalink section. As you can see I'm trying to completely revise the page so it is easier to find the explain and then only see the detail if you are interested. Hope you like these changes --Kynde (talk) 21:27, 6 April 2015 (UTC)
Yeah, I see Destiny1983 on that one too. I like the changes, they make everything much clearer. -452 (talk) 21:30, 6 April 2015 (UTC)
Thanks. I was trying to make it easier to write some extra info on your permalink page, and deleted most of them. Luckily they are not deleted permanently. But the page is so big I have trouble loading it. I try to repair my mistake, but else please do so for me, and sorry in advance. --Kynde (talk) 21:45, 6 April 2015 (UTC)
NP, &action=history is a life-saver. I was going to suggest using &action=edit&section=0, but I see you've already added a description heading. It also lags pretty badly for me so I expect I'll have to stop at 10000, and I'm already up to 8444 since my last edit to the page. -452 (talk) 22:20, 6 April 2015 (UTC)
Yes I think I fixed it but I had to split it in three uploads. How many different pictures do you think there are. I guess some off them are the same? (And same for text). Maybe the last part can be seen by sorting the table. But does the image also have the same name when used more than once? --Kynde (talk) 22:33, 6 April 2015 (UTC)
Well, I know of 1419 unique images so far. Yes, both images and text are reused for different permalinks, some come up a lot more frequently than others. If you click the heading, you can sort by either image or text, which will group them together. It's kind of interesting to see different captions for the same image. If you mean the same username, I haven't checked. I also haven't checked whether the same pair of image and text ever appear together as different permalinks, I'll check that eventually, later, right now... nope. I imagine the prompt never even suggests a caption which is already associated with an image. -452 (talk) 23:27, 6 April 2015 (UTC)
I hit the 2mb page limit at 10217 permalinks, out of the 15000+ I have found, so I've reduced the table to only show each image and text once. As in, either the image or text once, so there will be a couple of duplicate images and text. So what I said previously about sorting to see different captions for the same image no longer applies, but the page will be more manageable this way. -452 (talk) 13:53, 7 April 2015 (UTC)
So you think that it will not be possible for anyone to add the same image to the same caption, because this caption will never again come up with this image or the other way around? I can see yo have removed the ? where they where something else like turtles... Nice. What about all the links below? Are they just the other 10.000 links not associated with a new image or caption, just a different combination? If so maybe this should be made clear. You could make a new section heading for them. Would it be possible to list them in any other way, or is this to save space? Alternatively you could make a new subpage with extra permalinks for further study. We of course both know that no one will ever read these again ;-) But nice work anyway. --Kynde (talk) 14:17, 7 April 2015 (UTC)
So far, I've never found the same image and same caption, but I'll keep checking, as I'm still storing all of the information, just not posting the full list to the wiki now. The other links at the bottom are all 15000+ permalinks I've found, good point about making that more clear. It might also be a good idea to list them on another separate page to save space, but they're not for further study, as I have all the images and captions associated with them, there just isn't room to display all of the information, because it would currently take 3mb+. Regarding the symbols, I was previously pasting my javascript output into my text editor to format them, but now I have my script format them for me, so the symbols are preserved. - and it's also a lot easier for me. -452 (talk) 14:29, 7 April 2015 (UTC)
Well, I've hit the 2 megabyte limit again, so it looks like we'll have to put the table on one page and the list of links on another. Any suggestions for the page titles? -452 (talk) 15:25, 23 April 2015 (UTC)
You are crazy :-) My suggestion is that you create a new page called Table of Permalink (with the explanation at the top the same, but now linking to the old page, and vice versa for the old page to the new). Then let the list of permalink stay on the old page. And move the table to the new page. Finally, look at what pages direct to the old page, and redirect them to the new, only leaving link to the old page from the new one. The table is most important. The problem with your table is that it is too big for anyone to load... Maybe there should even be another page in between. Which is called - a selection of permalink. And then with link to the full table and links, with a fair warning about huge amount of data (Big data.). My explorer just went down trying to load the page (or maybe I'm just too impatient?) --Kynde (talk) 11:36, 24 April 2015 (UTC) (Ah, now it is finished loading...)
Thanks. I haven't tried it in internet explorer, but the table loads okay with Chrome on my laptop I bought 7 years ago. Now that the pages are split, it might load faster for you. -452 (talk) 18:58, 24 April 2015 (UTC)

Hoverboard Transcript

Sorry to ask about such a minor thing, just curious about why the man on the raised plateau can't be a woman. Elsewhere in the comic Darth Vader is seen explaining Steven Universe to someone. 108.162.221.43 13:46, 3 December 2015 (UTC)

Hi - it cold be. But to me it looks like a family. But to be honest I had not expected anyone to change it, and did not notice before I had copy pasted some text in from the document I write the transcript in. But hopefully at some time this family (or whatever) becomes part of the effort to explain the entire comic. My guess is that someone will know who it is - that they are from some TV series or movie. In that case it will become clear if it is (as I assumed) a family with mom and dad and two children or if it is a lesbian couple or something entirely different... --Kynde (talk) 20:02, 3 December 2015 (UTC)
The family resembles the main characters of Steven Universe, a cartoon(the characters being three women and a child) The explanation page also lists them as such(Steven Universe and the Crystal Gems - (x: 551664, y: -567383). 173.245.55.64 21:03, 3 December 2015 (UTC)
Perfect thanks. Then is makes sense with the Vader reference. Is it the boy who is Steven? And is the low girl also a grown woman? I will look it up but thanks for answering. --Kynde (talk) 22:07, 3 December 2015 (UTC)
Fixed the transcript. Some of the link I put in, is not supposed to be there, but may be moved once they are explained in the main article.--Kynde (talk) 22:20, 3 December 2015 (UTC)

Hair Bun "Girl"

Hi Kynde, I noticed you created the character page for "Hair Bun Girl". This naming convention is inconsistent with most of the other characters named here, e.g. Cueball, Ponytail, Hairy, et al. Beret Guy is a potential counterexample, but the words "guy" and "man" don't have the same relationship as "girl" and "woman". Partly for consistency, and partly for simple feminism, I'd like to open a conversation about changing the character's name please. Jkshapiro (talk) 04:08, 4 February 2016 (UTC)

I think it is exactly the same as guy vs. girl. Hair Bun Woman is just too cumbersome. But if you can find a name like Ponytail that fits then by all means. Hairbun just doesn't do it for me. But I do not have any specific feelings for this name, I just found that she was used too often to not have a character page. So I will not take offence against you trying to find a better name through a conversation. Contraty to for instance Megan, which once was Cuetie (sexistick I think), it will not be so hard to change Hair Bun Girl's name to something else, but still she has just reached comic no. 20 so it is not easy to find all the references. Are you ready to do that job if you do get a new name for her? Because else it is just semantics --Kynde (talk) 15:20, 4 February 2016 (UTC)
Thanks, appreciate it. Yes I am ready to do the job. What would you recommend for next steps? Should I raise the issue at http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/explain_xkcd:Community_portal/Coordination? Jkshapiro (talk) 04:06, 7 February 2016 (UTC)
Your welcome, and good luck. Try to see this post regarding the naming convention of Cueball and Megan which much to my joy did not end up in altering anything, but they were "old" names, Hair Bun Girl is new. You could post you suggestion there. And maybe make a note at the top of Hair Bun Girl's page? (You can write Notice as a template just like the incomplete. Check out this old version of Cueball page history). Now that I think about it Hairbun is probably as good a name as Ponytail. So I would think that would be a decent proposal for a change. --Kynde (talk) 09:08, 7 February 2016 (UTC)
Okay, process started. Thank you for the good wishes and guidance. Jkshapiro (talk) 04:31, 9 February 2016 (UTC)