Talk:Randall Munroe

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[edit] Randall Munroe

Anyone know where Randall went to college? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.177.212.37 (talk) 20:23, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

any one CARE where randall munroe went to college? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.251.234.239 (talk) 05:22, 18 January 2008 (UTC)


The about page on xkcd.com indicates CNU, which through a quick interweb search reveals Christopher Newport University in Newport News, VA. Bill Kramme 07:47, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

He did indeed go to CNU, graduating in May '06. If I recall correctly he was a physics major. I can get a friend of mine or Mr. Munroe himself to verify that. AvesCorax 17:46, 11 December 2006 (UTC)

I don't think we need to confirm it with him personally since his website (arguably the most authoritative source) shows it, but I did anyway, so Christopher Newport University it is. Bill Kramme 04:21, 14 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Work

"Job:

My about page mentions that I work for NASA — I’m technically a contractor working repeated contracts for them. However, they recently ran out of money to rehire me for another contract, so I’m done there for now. This isn’t really bad, because it came right as the t-shirt orders were becoming so strong that I really needed the time off to handle them. Combine that with answering the huge amount of email I get through the site, drawing the actual comics, and assorted other things, and I really don’t have the time to work a full-time job at the same time that I do this comic/store. So, for the moment I’m now a full-time webcomic artist/t-shirt designer. I don’t know how to thank you enough for all the support."

So he did not "leave" NASA. Changing now. KevinPuj 21:49, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

It was a little complicated. That particular line of contracts was expiring, but were other potential contracts floating around on other projects that probably would have picked me up. I decided not to follow up on them and told everyone I was leaving. Anyway, this is all first-person original research just to clear up the talk here. Someday I'll clarify the story somewhere reference-able, but it's not really important. --Xkcd 01:48, 19 March 2007 (UTC)xkcd

Haha, someone just linked me here, pointing out that my working at NASA (as seen on my 'about' page on my site) was removed for being "patently made-up information". Ouch. Though, to be fair, the folks at NASA were also skeptical when I said I was going off to do a webcomic full time. --Xkcd 01:42, 19 March 2007 (UTC)xkcd

[edit] Merge?

Would it maybe make sense to merge XKCD with Munroe or Munroe with XKCD? Munroe seems to be mainly notable in that context and doesn't meet WP:BIO aside from the XKCD related stuff. JoshuaZ 01:55, 17 May 2007 (UTC)

Nope. He's only 22. I'm sure he'll continue to be a notable individual aside from his contributions to the world via XKCD. Besides, having personal information (such as where he went to college) about Munroe on the XKCD article would be silly, and since I actually just came to this page to find that tidbit of information, I'd say it's notable enough to merit inclusion in wikipedia. --Hurtstotouchfire 04:08, 10 July 2007 (UTC)
More alsoer, I'd say he does meet WP:BIO, via "Has a large fan base or a significant 'cult' following." and there's no reason that "the xkcd stuff" should be disregarded in considering Munroe's notability. --Hurtstotouchfire 04:13, 10 July 2007 (UTC)
I'm not sure that you can say that it's he who has a large fan base, it's rather the xkcd brand that does. It's also not Wikipedia's job to predict who will be notable in the future. Fatalis talk 08:14, 10 July 2007 (UTC)
"it's rather the xkcd brand that does" -- clearly, but I think there are plenty of very popular comics whose authors don't necessarily have widespread name-recognition. In any case, I think that his invitation to speak at MIT and the reception he received reveals a large fan base. See details on the talk.
"It's also not Wikipedia's job to predict who will be notable in the future." Certainly. And I didn't actually mean to imply that it was. I had just read the article on Munroe for the first time and was still reeling in the knowledge that he's younger than I am. Very surreal. He has a very well-followed comic, and a web forum with over 14,000 registered users discussing every comic he posts. It's startling really. At 22. Anyway, clearly I think he's notable, and clearly you have a few points to argue against what I said, but is anyone still seriously considering merging this article into xkcd? Because I don't want to get into a debate on the finer points on notability. It gets ugly. --Hurtstotouchfire 17:45, 10 July 2007 (UTC)
If he were to write a comic strip outside of xkcd, it's more than likely that his fan base will be interested. If this happens, though, it would be weird see it mentioned in the xkcd article but it should definitely be mentioned in a description of Munroe. The articles could be merged right now but I don't see any need for it. --Antonio.sierra 02:14, 16 September 2007 (UTC)
I think that a man who, at 22, can summon almost a thousand people to get together at a random set of GPS coordinates and a time, some of them traveling literally from the other side of the planet, simply by drawing the numbers into a comic that asserting that nothing will happen there, is worth having an article. The college talks also seem relevant, and (having been at one) not all that related to XKCD itself save for shared subject matter - and I suspect that he may have gotten more people to his talk than Mandelbrot. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.92.72.6 (talk) 20:27, 30 October 2007 (UTC)
In spite of the fact that he gives talks about other things than the xkcd brand, he would have no recognition if not for the xkcd brand, and most of his recognition is pigeonholed into that fame. I feel that he does not likely meet the basic criteria for WP:BIO. I base this on the fact that I do not believe there is a lot of reliable secondary sources about him that are not in the context of him being author of the xkcd brand. Feel free to prove me wrong on this note. Marsman57 (talk) 13:48, 16 January 2008 (UTC)
He is also notable for solving (and publishing the solution to) the Ghost (game). --mott
Although he got his fame through xkCd he is keeping it through many means; levitating squirrels, running electric scooters against miniature horses, endorsing Barack Obama. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 131.191.72.130 (talk) 23:37, 27 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Wet Riffs

Should there be a mention of wetriffs.com? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 139.184.30.135 (talk) 11:19, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

Why'd you revert my entry. I'm sitting here watching him talk at UIUC. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 130.126.146.17 (talk) 01:50, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

I was fairly sure Wetriffs was created a month /after/ the comic came out... as stated on wetriffs.com? Making the edit. 124.189.230.208 (talk) 04:40, 30 March 2008 (UTC)

Month after drawn != month after published. Tar7arus (talk) 17:33, 21 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] University of Illinois Talk

You can watch the video of him at UIUC here: http://www.acm.uiuc.edu/conference/2007/videos http://www.acm.uiuc.edu/conference/2007/speakers#RandallMunroe 130.126.218.28 02:50, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Prod from Overcharm

I've dropped a note on Overcharm's talk page inquiring why they thought it fit to propose deletion of this page; clearly I disagree. Some discussion has already taken place on the Merge? thread, but I don't think it was quite aimed in the same direction. As Scott Adams would put it: "go".  ;-) --Baylink 21:51, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

The nature of proposed deletion means that if you disagree, you can take it off right now. No discussion necessary (although you might want to). See WP:PROD for more information.--YbborTalk 22:08, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Rewrite?

This article is in major need of a rewrite. The biggest problem is that more than half the article is dedicated to his talks. There should be sections for 'Early life and education', 'XKCD and other projects', and 'Internet popularity'. Some of the non-notable trivia should be removed too. MahangaTalk 03:02, 14 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Ball Pit

I'm sure someone's going to come around and change this text, but I just want to say 'It should be noted that Munroe has recently built a ball pit in his own living room.' was the funniest thing I've ever read on wikipedia. Thank you to whoever put that in. dimo414 (talk) 20:33, 20 December 2007 (UTC)

Should it be noted? Really? Okay. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.236.188.141 (talk) 06:44, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Photo

The first photo isn't very good, he doesn't really look like that. Anyone have alternates or how about swapping the two? +Hexagon1 (t) 03:17, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

I saw him this last weekend and was going to get a picture but neglected to do so. <shameless plug> I have an interview with him that will be up on Wikinews shortly</shameless plug>. If I asked him he might be willing to upload another picture, although this one does look pretty close to what he looked like when I saw him at Vericon. JoshuaZ (talk) 03:20, 2 February 2008 (UTC)
OK, let's leave it upto him, if he wants a new pic or if someone finds the time to take one we/he can stick it up there. +Hexagon1 (t) 06:03, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Removing the talks

I think the Talks section should be removed. They don't really seem that notable on their own. We don't list every talk that other people have, why do so here? --Jedravent (talk) 22:28, 21 February 2008 (UTC)

Since nobody has opposed me, I have removed them. --Jedravent (talk) 22:32, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] "BestRace"

Someone keeps adding information about "BestRace" here. Google turns up nothing, so I must assume this is merely vandalism to make the subject look racist. --Jedravent (talk) 21:24, 13 March 2008 (UTC)

Incidentally, after I removed some vandalism, someone impersonated me with a comment defaming the article's subject. It happened a few days ago, but I'm posting this here to make sure it doesn't happen again.

[edit] Issues

This article or section has multiple issues.

As does the subject, I assure you. --Xkcd (talk) 06:14, 3 May 2008 (UTC)xkcd

Hahah, oh Randy; I almost love the discussion page more than the actual page just for your comments. -James, --67.172.223.89 (talk) 08:26, 26 May 2008 (UTC)