wrong on the internet

From IndieWeb


Wrong on the internet is the last phrase of XKCD #386, β€œDuty Calls”, a satirical comic expressing the difficulty of not arguing with someone making a mistaken statement on the internet, often on social media, however also on blogs or other independent websites.

386ing

386ing is the act of spending lots of time looking into how people are wrong on the internet and/or posting corrections on the internet accordingly, in reference to the behavior of the person shown in the β€œDuty Calls” comic.

Appears to have been originally coined on 2015-05-22 by Stephen Frug in a comment on AI Researchers On AI Risk wherein he accurately uses it to label the very behavior he is engaging in:

Which is why I’m spending my Friday night XKCD 386ing with you here in the comments. Which, frankly, I should probably stop.

Brainstorming

  • Does it count as 386ing if you are correcting YOURSELF on the internet? Tantek Γ‡elik 14:32, 9 October 2026 (PDT)

See Also