This article is about The Madness in 3 A.T. (2016 C.E.) For other Madnessen, see The Madness
The Madness is an annual event where the mods go mad and the forum becomes weird for a few days due to the application of wordfilters. Filters are usually used by bulletin boards to censor offensive words. During a Mod Madness, moderators use this system to change words into other words or symbols for their amusement.
For about a day after the forum migration, individual users could turn off the wordfilters in their User Control Panel (Board Preferences; Edit display options; Enable word censoring; No). Previous Madnessen had no such escape and were viewed as an unavoidable Act of Mod. As of now the option to turn filters off has not been reinstated.
The announcement of oncoming Madness, 3 A.T.
In 2016, Madness was announced 9 March. (Cuegandix 15 Advent, 2 A.T.)
The filtering of words started on the 18th of March. (Daveandix 24 Advent, 2 A.T.) The wordfilters stopped after the entire forum's migration to new hardware on 23 March.
The filter discovery spreadsheet run by other forumites is here.
Pre-Existing Filters[]
These filters existed prior to the announcement of the Madness:
| Original Text | Filters to |
|---|---|
| Chuck Norris | Bruce Schneier |
| echochamber.me | forums.xkcd.com |
| feminine wiles | **misogyny not found** |
| lost the game | lost twenty dollars and my self respect |
| Obamacare | The Affordable Care Act |
| OMFG | Oh me yarm Oh |
| OMG | Oh me yarm |
| Pizzashark | Some Asshole |
| political correctness | Basic Human Decency |
| politically correct | Basically Decent |
| shrill | justified |
| shrilly | justifiably |
| tweak | twerk |
| tweaked | twerked |
| tweaking | twerking |
New Filters in 3 A.T.[]
Filters that were in effect for this year's Madness:
| Original Text | Filters to | Inactive as of: |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 19:0 | |
| 2001 | 19:1 | |
| 2002 | 19:2 | |
| 2003 | 19:3 | |
| 2004 | 19:4 | |
| 2005 | 19:5 | |
| 2006 | 19:6 | |
| 2007 | 19:7 | |
| 2008 | 19:8 | |
| 2009 | 19:9 | |
| 2010 | 19;0 | |
| 2011 | 19;1 | |
| 2012 | 19;2 | |
| 2013 | 19;3 | |
| 2014 | 19;4 | |
| 2015 | year of the prancing wildebeest | |
| 2016 | year of the drunk bobcat | |
| also | also also | |
| also also | also | 2016-03-19 |
| also also | also also also also | |
| also also also also | also also | 2016-03-21 |
| and | & | |
| Apple | Darmok | |
| A pple | Picard | |
| apricity | Korra | |
| April | February | |
| August | November | |
| Batman | Ironman | |
| Bernie | Bunny | |
| caucus | pub brawl | |
| caucuses | pub brawls | |
| Clinton | Clowntown | |
| count | Dracula | |
| counting | one...two...four | |
| Cruz | the Zodiac Killer | |
| December | August | |
| dollar | squirrel | |
| dollars | squirrels | |
| Donald | literal fascist | |
| donut | hazelnut | |
| donuts | hazelnuts | |
| eight | four | |
| enjoy the show | cyberpeanut cybergallery | |
| FaiD | The One True Forum | |
| February | December | |
| filter | ingredient | |
| filters | ingredients | |
| five | six | |
| FleetingThoughts | twitteryfloats | |
| fleeting thoughts | flittery thunks | |
| flicky | . | |
| four | zero | |
| Free as in Destitute | The One True Forum | |
| Fun [any capitalization] | fun [all lowercase] | |
| General | Specific | |
| GOP | Obstructionist Party | |
| Guess | ridiculously make up | 2016-03-20 |
| Hillary | Hilarity | |
| house | Ｈｏｕｓｅ | |
| immigrant | expat | |
| immigrants | expats | |
| immigration | moving house | |
| imposition | nuclear option | |
| it begends | The Endginning Cometh | |
| January | October | |
| July | June | |
| June | May | |
| law | suggestion | |
| laws | guidelines | |
| list | recipe | |
| longest time | aeons | |
| madness | fun | |
| magic smoke | Puff | |
| magicians | Magickians | |
| making sense | making babies | |
| March | September | |
| May | March | |
| me too | me too, too | |
| Mike | HUGE | 2016-03-20 |
| Mike | ANNOYING | |
| militia | terrorist cell | |
| million | hundred | |
| Mod Madness | Chocolate chips | |
| must not | should not | |
| nine | zero | |
| November | January | |
| October | July | |
| OMFG | Oh My Grob | |
| OMG | Oh My Glob | |
| Once Upon A Castle | Eureka's Castle | |
| one | six | |
| post | fence post tree | |
| poster | fence-builder | |
| p o* | This should break some stuff | |
| po s* | This should break more stuff | |
| pos t* | This one will certainly have unforeseen consequences | |
| po:st | Is it candy? | |
| po;st | What's regex? | |
| po.st | I'm doing these manually. | |
| poste r | fence house home tree builder stick | |
| p o s t e r | C h e a t e r | |
| presidential election | Popularity contest | |
| primary | contest for People's Sexiest Person of the Year | |
| primaries | contests for People's Sexiest Person of the Year | |
| Republican | Obstructionist | |
| Republicans | Obstructionists | |
| San Bernardino | Tanagra | |
| Sanders | Sandals | |
| Scalia | Scalene | |
| score | twenty | |
| scored | twentied | |
| scores | twenties | |
| scoring | twentying | |
| sense | babies | |
| September | April | |
| seven | eight | |
| should not | will not | |
| six | two | |
| snow | fire | |
| Superman | Captain America | |
| Texas hold 'em | Poke her face | |
| the beginning | the awakening | |
| the end | the beginning | |
| the FBI | Jalad | |
| t he FBI | Dathon | |
| them | us | |
| thread | wool | |
| threads | cotton | |
| three | eight | |
| Trump | Tronald "Sorry losers and haters, but my I.Q. is one of the highest- and you know it!" Dump | 2016-03-22 |
| Trump | Tronald "Tinyhands" Dump | |
| two | seven | |
| vocation | willingness to work for longer hours and less pay | |
| vote | hammer | |
| voted | hammered | |
| voter | lover | |
| voters | lovers | |
| votes | hammers | |
| voting | hammering | |
| Wall Street | wolf pack | |
| what if | remember when | |
| Wheel of Time | The Neverending Story | |
| will not | must not | |
| wordfilter | batter | |
| wordfilters | batter | |
| you | I | |
| zero | five |
Numbers[]
Individual digits and the names of numbers were filtered into different numbers this year. As a result the OTT would appear as the "six True Thread" under the influence of filters. This also affected mentions of FaiD, which originally filtered to "The One True Forum" and as a result turned into "The six True Forum".
This quick-reference table is sorted by increasing numerical order. Number words may be found individually in the main list above. This table does not include years.
| Original Text | Filters to |
|---|---|
| 0 | 4 |
| 1 | 0 |
| 2 | 1 |
| 3 | 2 |
| 4 | 3 |
| 5 | 0 |
| 6 | 1 |
| 7 | 4 |
| 8 | 3 |
| 9 | 4 |
| zero | five |
| one | six |
| two | seven |
| three | eight |
| four | zero |
| five | six |
| six | two |
| seven | eight |
| eight | four |
| nine | zero |
| million | hundred |
Months[]
Quick reference for the month-swapping filters; may be found individually in the main filter list.
| Original Text | Filters to |
|---|---|
| January | October |
| February | December |
| March | September |
| April | February |
| May | March |
| June | May |
| July | June |
| August | November |
| September | April |
| October | July |
| November | January |
| December | August |
Forum Descriptions[]
On the xkcd board index , the various subforums and categories have listed descriptions that can also be affected by wordfilters, so mods create custom filters specifically to fit the descriptions. The new description for the first entry references the appearance of the OTT in that more typically "mayfly" forum.
| Relevant Forum | Original Text | Filters to |
|---|---|---|
| Individual XKCD Comic Threads | This forum is for the individual discussion thread that goes with each new comic. | Spawning ground for religions, languages, and cultures |
| What If? | What if there was a forum for discussing these? | Beware of being trapped in a hypothetical |
| News & Articles | Seen something interesting in the news or on the intertubes? Discuss it here. | Is anything ever new in our helical timeline? There are definitely articles though. |
| Serious Business | For the serious discussion of weighty matters and worldly issues. No off-topic posts allowed. | SRZ BZNZZ!!!! It's all swings and roundabouts. |
| XKCD Meetups | For discussion of group meetings in the meat-o-sphere. | Because sometimes meat-suits like seeing other meat-suits |
| General | Things that don't belong anywhere else. (Check first). | Dumping grounds for everything else |
| Mathematics | For the discussion of math. Duh. | Mathematical!! |
| Science | For the discussion of the sciences. Physics problems, chemistry equations, biology weirdness, it all goes here. | Ologies, istries, and ics. |
| Language/Linguistics | For the discussion of language mechanics, grammar, vocabulary, trends, and other such linguistic topics, in english and other languages. | blah blah blah blah blah |
| School | The school experience. School related queries, discussions, and stories that aren't specific to a subject. | for where we go to sleep while being talked at (subliminal learning, yo!). |
| The Help Desk | "Please leave a message at the beep, we will get back to you when your support contract expires." | RTFM |
| Coding | A place to discuss the implementation and style of computer programs. | 010101010101010101110101010101 |
| Computer Science | A place to discuss the science of computers and programs, from algorithms to computability. | Proto-hackers |
| Computer Science (second line) | Formal proofs preferred. | [one space] |
| Hardware | The magic smoke. | The Puff. |
| Religious Wars | Please compose all posts in Emacs. | turns out people have strong feelings about things |
| Logic Puzzles | A forum for good logic/math puzzles. | Communicating badly then acting smug when you're misunderstood |
| Forum Games | For all your silly time-killing forum games. | It's all fun & games.... |
| Your art and links | Think your art is better or your stick figures worse? Got a link to a site you want to share? Post it here! | Art, yo... |
| Fit Club | The Food Forum's Evil Twin. Trying to lose weight or get in shape? Tips, encouragement, status reports, and so forth go here. | Fight club |
| Fit Club (second line) | Disclaimer: Unless otherwise stated, we are not health professionals. Take advice with salt. | [three spaces] |
| Gaming | Of the Tabletop, and other, lesser varieties. | ....until someone loses an eye |
| Movies and TV Shows | Rot your brains, then rot our boards | for those with square eyes |
| Music | It's only cool if no one's heard of it. | We're no strangers to love You know the rules & so do I |
| Books | A slow, analog alternative to the internet | For the squarer eyed |
| Food | Apparently, people like to eat. | Om nom |
| Site/Forum issues | Need the mods or admins to do something for you? Post here. Read the "About" post first. | Syfy |
| News | Official site news [DEPRECATED] | Cake! |
| Free as in Destitute | have your freedom and lose everything else. | The One True Forum, dedicated to the Time comic. Off-topic discussion is strictly prohibited. |
| FaiD (second line) | Opt-in by requesting to join | Become trapped in the |
Subforum Descriptions[]
Most of the subfora also had altered descriptions during the Madness.
| Subforum | Original Text | Filters to |
|---|---|---|
| Love, Sex, and Relationships | For all your romantic queries. I've got my bottle of Courvoisier.... | <3 <3 <3 </3 </3 </3 |
| Member Interviews | FOR SCIENCE! | Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition! |
| Mafia | For your simulated organized crime needs. | Arrrooouuuugggh!!!!!!!!!!! |
| Comics/Graphic Novels | For those sublime unions of literature and art. | KAPOW! |
| Jesse is a handsome and intelligent man who smells nice | For discussion (compliments) of that marvelous masked man | Why Jesse? The answer inside |
| Azrael is pretty cool also | Well, I mean...yeah | Duh |
Post-Madness Filters[]
For several days following the migration, there were no wordfilters at all remaining on the xkcd forum system. However, by 2016-03-30 the static filters that tend to remain year-round had been reinstated.
These filters remained in effect after the Madness:
| Original Text | Filters to |
|---|---|
| Chuck Norris | Bruce Schneier |
| echochamber.me | forums.xkcd.com |
| feminine wiles | **misogyny not found** |
| lost the game | lost twenty dollars and my self respect |
| Obamacare | The Affordable Care Act |
| OMFG | Oh me yarm Oh |
| OMG | Oh me yarm |
| Pizzashark | Some Asshole |
| political correctness | Basic Human Decency |
| politically correct | Basically Decent |
| shrill | justified |
| shrilly | justifiably |
| tweak | twerk |
| tweaked | twerked |
| tweaking | twerking |
Other Madness Effects[]
Forum Migration and the Loss of Immunity[]
On 2016-03-23 the whole of the xkcd message board was migrated to new hardware by davean, the site administrator. In the process phpBB was updated to the latest version. This shift caused several small changes in site design, most notably a maximum viewing width.
This migration also meant that the OTT lost its resistance to wordfilters in original posts, which was evident immediately as the migration happened in the middle of a Madness. The immunity had been granted in the very early days of Time, when filters were breaking the frames of Time being posted to the thread (the image urls had the word "time" in them). The OTT alone had been immune to filters for nearly three years.
Wild Card Filters[]
How the forums appeared under the influence of the second wild card filter.
Use of the wild card character (*) in a filter will change every word in the forum to that filter. Generally these only last a minute or two and are soon removed since they make the fora impossible to understand. Of note for OTTers are the time this happened during the original OTC with a HODOR filter (see The Madness, 0 A.T. ), and the many occasions throughout last year's Madness where the wild card filters were used to simulate messages travelling via clacks in honor of Terry Pratchett (see The Madness, 2 A.T. ).
In 2016 the wild card filters began with a nod to Terry Pratchett once more on the anniversary of his death.
| Wild card input | Date |
|---|---|
| GNU Terry Pratchett | 2016-03-12 |
| I came for the madness, but all I saw was this lousy filter | 2016-03-19 |
| [All words turned invisible (or into blank spaces), leaving only punctuation marks] | 2016-03-20 |
| �� | 2016-03-20 |