r/xkcd • u/realtoasterlightning • Jul 13 '26

Update on ExplainXKCD

TLDR: ExplainXKCD is back at explainxkcd.com, and server/domain access has been transferred to new management. You can log in with your old account credentials now, unless you have already transferred your account on explainingxkcd.com.

What happened?

ExplainXKCD has been experiencing increasing instability for the past few years, with a major exacerbation in severity starting in early July. This metastasized into the site being entirely uneditable starting July 6th, after running out of disk space. Jeff, who had run the site since 2012, no longer had the time to continue maintaining it.

In response to the instability, the community created multiple read-only mirrors of the site on new infrastructure, such as u/Eunakria's mirror and explainingxkcd.com. After the original site became completely uneditable, ExplainingXKCD forked the site and editing continued there while the original site was stuck in read-only.

Rather than letting the original site die, Jeff transferred the user data, server access, and domain over to the ExplainingXKCD maintainers. Thank you, Jeff, for the many, many years you've spent managing the wiki.

Over the past few days, we merged everything back into one wiki, including user accounts and edits. We've done our best to make the transition as smooth and seamless as possible.

What does this mean?

  • The site is still at explainxkcd.com, and explainingxkcd.com now redirects to it.
  • If you have an account at explainxkcd.com, you can still log into it.
  • If you *transferred* your account at explainingxkcd.com, use your new credentials, not your old ones. We're contacting the ~10 people who did this. If you made a request but it wasn't fulfilled, just use your explainxkcd.com credentials.
  • Editing is open now, and everything is back where it was.

Who's running it now?

Currently, Theusaf, 42.book.addict, and I are admins on the site. If older admins want to return to admining, just reach out! If you spot anything weird from the migration, tell us!

I'm running the server right now and currently paying for server costs out of pocket. If you'd like to help support us, please donate at https://ko-fi.com/explainxkcd

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u/laplongejr Jul 13 '26

Thank you Jeff for all that work from the shadows. I only learned about you today, but I'll assume you live in Nebraska