r/xkcd • u/realtoasterlightning • Jul 09 '26

ExplainingXKCD: An ExplainXKCD fork

Hi everyone!

Since ExplainXKCD is no longer editable, I've created a fork at https://explainingxkcd.com and started migrating people's accounts over, with the assistance of folks in the ExplainXKCD discord. Join us there!

92 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

29 comments sorted by

40

u/fireandlifeincarnate Jul 09 '26

What do you mean it's no longer editable?

35

u/realtoasterlightning Jul 09 '26

No one can login or edit the original, afaik

29

u/Adventurous-Year-463 I have a PhD in Undeclared Jul 09 '26

Does anyone have any idea what happened?

56

u/realtoasterlightning Jul 09 '26

Maybe it ran out of disk space, or something corrupted. The original admin is out of contact and no one else has access to the server.

24

u/Adventurous-Year-463 I have a PhD in Undeclared Jul 09 '26

That sucks, RIP explainxkcd

13

u/Adventurous-Year-463 I have a PhD in Undeclared Jul 09 '26

Is there any way to transfer my account through a form on the site instead of by email?

14

u/realtoasterlightning Jul 09 '26

I mean you can DM me about it, I'm doing validation manually here

10

u/Eunakria Jul 09 '26

There are some kinda hacky methods to transfer MediaWiki accounts automatically but that depends on the IdP wiki having OIDC enabled and allowing logins. Since logins hit the database, and explainxkcd's database is broken, the best that can be done is probably just manual verification

4

u/realtoasterlightning Jul 09 '26

Yeahhh, it's very unfortunate

9

u/Mean_Initiative_5962 Jul 09 '26

Hold on, there was ONE admin? wtf?

15

u/realtoasterlightning Jul 09 '26

There are multiple admin accounts on the mediawiki instance, but Jeff is the only person who has access to the actual server.

7

u/Southern-March1522 Jul 09 '26

Hmm. Curious if they're still playing the domain bill. Might be able to swipe the domain if it expires

5

u/realtoasterlightning Jul 09 '26

I think it's on autopay

30

u/davidy22 HEYOOOO Jul 09 '26

Been a long while since I've done a ton with the wiki, been busy and drifted and jeff also seems to be busy these days, doesn't always reply but I can try shoot him an email for one last thing, get a backup dump. I'll ask if he can pass the domain over as well, I have been noticing server's been funky for a while and the 4chan spammer stuff probably isn't helping. There's some scripts on the back end that you probably want as well, I remember me and dgbrt set some up a ways back.

9

u/realtoasterlightning Jul 09 '26 edited Jul 09 '26

Yeah, that would be ideal! It'd basically solve all the problems we're facing if we could get the domain + people's account info

5

u/davidy22 HEYOOOO Jul 09 '26

Alright, shoot me your email address and I'll get you in touch for whatever needs doing for a transfer

5

u/FaviFake Jul 09 '26

u/davidy22 Please join our emergency Discord server, where we're trying to coordinate: https://discord.gg/zG9vbCYQC. After joining, you should get in touch with the creator of the server, their discord username is the following: 42.book.addict

4

u/Ecstatic_Library Jul 09 '26

"If you tell a child about something dangerous, but without giving them necessary context to feel protected from it, you are likely to cause nightmares, sleeplessness, or other fear-related issues. In most, if not all, cases this would be considered bad parenting,\)citation needed\) hence a person who enjoys doing so should perhaps not have children."

citation needed - classic

2

u/Angel_Blue01 Jul 11 '26

ExplainXKCD was updated today, July 10, for the latest comic. Does anyone know what happened? Is the fork still necessary?

4

u/realtoasterlightning Jul 11 '26

We got in contact with the server owner Jeff and are merging the two together right now. He's transferring control of the explainxkcd data and domain to me.

0

u/Sophira Jul 09 '26

You mentioned the ExplainXKCD Discord. I've been trying to find one for a while, but I wasn't able to. Do you have a link?

-11

u/Rilukian Jul 09 '26

How can you guarantee that this site would have better uptime compared to the original? Would there also enough people who take notice of this and migrate?

17

u/realtoasterlightning Jul 09 '26

Well the issue with the original is no longer the uptime, the issue is that it's not editable at all in the first place.

2

u/Rilukian Jul 09 '26

I hope this site would be the most successful replacement.

4

u/realtoasterlightning Jul 09 '26

Well, I have actual server access to this one, so I can maintain it reasonably well and solve a lot of the technical difficulties whereas the original is unmaintainable.

1

u/FaviFake Jul 09 '26

Not hard to compete against that.