since this started for me, i stopped reading my occasional webcomics, and began obsessively checking xkcd often multiple times a day i think of it like consolidation of my small network vices into one huge computerized vice dictator xkcd has been a little wonked itself, but not that badly, but the comic previous to last basically struck my faith in xkcd and randall (the author of the webcomic): https://xkcd.com/2699/ he's saying that discord and slack support user-run instances. meanwhile, he has this box unchecked for signal, and doesn't even include xmpp at all. it makes it look like somebody else is fabricating his comics or pressuring him, or i just have no idea. but of course honestly we are all behaving that way nowadays, and it's generally just mysterious and not clearly explained. [i experienced forceful amnesia around this following middle section referencing xkcd's history, and added it in later when i recovered. i understand it may be a bad idea to share this. anyway, here it is:] randall has a history of supporting open software and p2p systems. this very classic snippet comic shows this: https://xkcd.com/345/ he was discussing major core parts and figures of open systems. [i guess without more thoroughly engaging it and making points, that expression could come across as weak, and informatoin disruption could counter it with further action. likely the issue. on to the rest of my writing:] today's comic tries to contain more classic material: https://xkcd.com/2700/ i don't know if you've run into the issue it mentions, but i've used nul characters in my password, and ran into the many issues this causes. of course this was before the standardization of unicode, and i have since then learned to not do this. it's a classic thing but i dunno what to think after the comic preceding it. [here i wrote a little about the amnesia, and updated this line when i added the bracketed section regarding it, farther above] this leaves me with a confused dissociated comic-checking habit, and a distrust of this webcomic! i don't want to abandon xkcd, ie let it succumb to whatever influence produced the strange output at 2699, but maybe i'm skeptical that it's not trying to mind control me with precision or something, i dunno. i'm not sure! _but_ i often feel like i can _make_ comics like xkcd. nowadays, with mcboss, I am often full of nerdy jibes and jokes. wasn't the same in the past. it's something for me to think about. maybe, when i want to read an xkcd, i could instead make one myself?