Book is "Volume 0," first comic is xkcd.com/1/. Why?

[Zaxecivobuny]

I was really hoping there'd be an easter egg at xkcd.com/0/, but no such luck. If this question has been answered elsewhere, I missed it.

[eSOANEM]

Reason

[Zaxecivobuny]

Reason (with a link to comic 163. I can't link for some reason.)

A very apropos comic, but it doesn't exactly answer my question. Your answer is a "because that's the way Randall did it" instead of any kind of justification. If anything I would say that the book convention is to start with volume one or not to number the first book at all, and number subsequent volumes. Unless Randall is lampshading the very trope I am referring to. Is that the joke?

[farnsworth]

First, starting lists with 0 is a joke that comes from various programming languages starting array indexes at zero. This is why it's labeled "Volume 0." When he first set up the site he probably didn't think of making this joke, and if he changed it now, it would break all the links to his comics.

[thorgold]

First, starting lists with 0 is a joke that comes from various programming languages starting array indexes at zero. This is why it's labeled "Volume 0." When he first set up the site he probably didn't think of making this joke, and if he changed it now, it would break all the links to his comics.

That wouldn't stop him from going in and putting an easter egg at xkcd.com/0/ anyway. It's not like he'd have to shift every comic back one number, just put something special at /0/.

[The Scyphozoa]

Maybe he should. Make it some sort of grand introduction... drawn sloppily on graph paper so it looks like an authentically old drawing.

[farnsworth]

Or, maybe to mess with people, a 404 page?

Oh, wait...