Signs Point To XKCD's Time Ending 226
CaptSlaq writes "According to the current imagery, it looks like Randal Munroe has finished the story he was telling with the Time series. The long running series that has spanned over 3000 images and spawned multiple methods of viewing and comment appears to have come to an end."
Re:Misleading summary (Score:3, Insightful)
I know I'll be strung up for saying this, but XKCD is like The Onion. A thing that exists, which I don't ever remember exists until those couple times per year when someone randomly sends me a link and says "did you see this yet?" and I go look at it and think "huh... yep, that's The Onion/XKCD". It's kind of too cutesy for its own good. I usually kind of feel like I'm watching the comic-strip equivalent of seeing a young couple being overly cutesy and cuddly in public.
That isn't to say I don't think it's any good . . . it just falls into the category of one of those things it seems like geeks spill way too much jizz over.
The concept of a geek card (Score:5, Insightful)
it just falls into the category of one of those things it seems like geeks spill way too much jizz over.
Like when people say "turn in your geek card" when someone fails to get an inside joke related to an uncited quotation from some science fiction movie like Blade Runner or WarGames.
Re:The concept of a geek card (Score:4, Insightful)
There is a geek cargo cult out there, and it's populated with people that desperately wished they finished that astro physics degree or didn't drop out of DeVry. They believe that by adorning themselves with tokens and fetishes of geekdom, that they will become smarter or work hard by osmosis. This typically happens later in life as an attempt to masquerade their way through technical interviews. I honestly don't care all that much about Dilithium crystals because the real world operates on fossil fuels and electricity, but that doesn't stop these charlatans from wishing it did.
Re:Darmok and Jihad at Viagra (Score:5, Insightful)
Has anyone noticed it is impossible to be "current" anymore, geekly or otherwise? There are too many information streams.
Damn you internet! Damn you all to hell!
Re:XKCD "experimental comics" (Score:5, Insightful)
Okay, and the author has expressed any of that... where, exactly?
All he did was make a comic. Other people turned it into a thing, and that somehow makes him a diva?
Re:XKCD "experimental comics" (Score:5, Insightful)
... and Tolstoy wrote fiction books. The medium has changed, the audience has changed, but it's still art, and I think it's quite insightful for the most part. Look at the number of times it's referenced here on SlashDot. Randall has vision, a good understanding of math and science and a great sense of humour. Personally, I wish a lot more people were like him, rather than bitter critics.
Apropriate Babylon 5 quote: (Score:4, Insightful)
Londo Molari: "My shoes are too tight, but it doesn 't matter, because I have forgotten how to dance."
Re:Well good (Score:5, Insightful)
What the chirp is wrong with people? (Score:5, Insightful)
It's a comic, guys. I don't read Cathy, but I don't feel obliged to mustard all over Cathy Guisewite because her comic doesn't amuse me. Why do people dump so hard on xkcd and Randall Munroe? If you don't like the comic, don't read it, and don't read Slashdot articles about it—and shut the chirp up and let the rest of us enjoy it in peace.
I found it fun. That's all. It was fun. It was original, and intriguing, and a little challenging, and a nice change of mood when I got home from work (or when I needed a break at work).
And it was something I don't believe any webcomic had ever done before. When I submitted the original Slashdot story about "Time", I thought that aspect might interest people. Instead, the story got the same sort of molpy-chirping geek-elitist hate posts that this one is gathering.
For the record: "Time" was followed by college students and septuagenarians (I'm in my 50s, and xkcd regularly makes me laugh). Musicians, math teachers, writers, and astronomers contributed to the forum thread. The last figure we saw was that over 2 million words of original material had been posted to the thread. We weren't doing it for geek cred; we were doing it because we enjoyed ourselves.
Grow up a little, guys, OK?
Re:What the chirp is wrong with people? (Score:5, Insightful)
Exactly!
Sure, not every XKCD comic is brilliant, but plenty are funny, appealing to a tough demographic for subject material.
I think his various infographics are fantastic (money, radiation) and a handful of info comics are similarly amazing (gravity wells, ocean depths, movie plots). His "What If?" series is also extremely interesting.
Sites that feed off the "XKCD is overrated" vibe come across as pathetic calls for attention from people too lame and stupid to produce their own work. Basically some members of the geek community have this bizarre calling to drop their pants and publicly poop all over whatever they think is overrated. The fact is their sum total contribution to the world is being a shit stain on the fabric of the web.
Re:There's a Wiki and a replay site (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Misleading summary (Score:5, Insightful)
Everything stopped being funny YEARS ago
Welcome to being old.
Actually, as someone who turned 50 in May, I find many things/people getting funnier/stupider as I get older. Probably as I gain perspective and realize how ridiculous and unimportant most things really are, especially in contrast to how serious and important people think those things are. Losing my wife of 20 years to brain cancer in 2006 (just 7 weeks after diagnosis) probably helps with that perspective -- Remember Sue... [tumblr.com]
All life's little problems are just a distraction from the one big problem - that there's no fucking point to anything. (Just my 2 cents.)
Re:What the chirp is wrong with people? (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't feel obliged to mustard all over Cathy Guisewite because her comic doesn't amuse me. Why do people dump so hard on xkcd and Randall Munroe?
My guess? Cathy Guisewite isn't a pretentious ass that panders to the bottom 1% of self-described "rationalists".
The constant flow of links on forums like this along with the wasteful printouts that find their way inexplicably to my desk makes xkcd difficult to ignore. Cathy, in contrast, is happily confined to the back of the local paper and rarely (if ever) brought to my attention.
I'll admit that I used to be a regular xkcd reader. I checked out this article as "Time" seemed like it could be interesting. I was wrong. It's the same nonsense that I and others outgrew years ago.
Re:XKCD "experimental comics" (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:What the chirp is wrong with people? (Score:4, Insightful)
I'll admit that I used to be a regular xkcd reader. I checked out this article as "Time" seemed like it could be interesting. I was wrong. It's the same nonsense that I and others outgrew years ago.
People's interests change over time. They get bored with some things and move on. But trolls like to use the word "outgrew" to try to offend current fans, and particularly immature people view these sorts of continuous, inevitable shifts in interests over time as signs of increasing maturity on their own part, not so much to offend anyone, but as a way of making themselves feel superior. Often then aren't smart enough to realize that's what they're doing.
(Yes, in case it wasn't obvious, the irony is intentional...)