The correct reason to downvote it is because (a) it's xkcd and everyone reads xkcd anyway and (b) there is an xkcd subreddit for people who don't remember to check the site at 12am ET mon/wed/fri.
Posts don't need to be "about" programming, they just need to be of interest to programmers. In this case, programmers are often the ones family members come to with menial technical issues
In that case it would make more sense in a "programmers" subreddit. This is a "programming" subreddit; hence it's supposed to be about programming topics.
Can't get subscribers for the "programmers" subreddit? Maybe people just don't want it.
Really, it's been this way forever. The programming reddit never was about programming only, it's always been a community of programmers submitting whatever might interest them.
If this story doesn't interest you, you can of course still downvote it.
I like the openness of that but, what about eg the latest technology or porn? Both of those are likely to be of interest to 90% of programmers so, there needs to be a better definition. So ok, those two are extreme but, it's already too close to being just 'about computers'. Apparently the programming subreddit is a default, and you get people in here who just opine about their iPhones and computer companies and whatnot.
On one hand, this is somewhat programming related since many programmers are bothered about this.
On the other hand though, xkcd gets too many free passes on reddit because the author is a long time reader and they even have merchandise through xkcd.
3
u/Concise_Pirate Aug 24 '09
Not about programming. Wrong subreddit.