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Place
Logo of the original 2017 experiment (top);
Logo of the 2022 experiment (bottom)
OwnerReddit
URLnew.reddit.com/r/place
RegistrationReddit account required
UsersOver 3 million
LaunchedOriginal launch: April 1, 2017; 7 years ago (2017-04-01).
Rebooted: April 1, 2022; 2 years ago (2022-04-01).
Current statusOngoing

Place is a collaborative project and social experiment hosted on the social networking site Reddit that began on April Fools' Day 2017 and was revived again after 5 years on April Fools' Day 2022. The experiment involves an online canvas located at a subreddit called r/place, which registered users could edit by changing the color of a single pixel from a 16-color palette. After each pixel was placed, a timer prevented the user from placing any pixels for a period of time varying from 5 to 20 minutes.[1][2]

The 2017 experiment was ended by Reddit administrators about 72 hours after its creation, on April 3, 2017. Over 1 million users edited the canvas, placing a total of approximately 16 million tiles, and, at the time the experiment was ended, over 90,000 users were actively viewing or editing. The experiment was commended for its representation of the culture of Reddit’s online communities, and of Internet culture as a whole.

On March 28, 2022, Reddit announced a reboot of Place, beginning on April 1, 2022. It is currently ongoing and is planned to last for four days.[3]

Experiment

The swatches available during the 2017 experiment.
The swatches available during the 2022 experiment.

The experiment was based in a subreddit called /r/place, in which registered users could place a single colored pixel (or "tile") on an empty canvas of one million (1000x1000) pixel squares, and wait a certain amount of time before placing another.[4] In 2017 the waiting time varied from 5 to 20 minutes throughout the experiment, and the user could choose their pixel’s color from a palette of sixteen colors.[5]

2017

The early hours of the experiment were characterized by random pixel placement and chaotic attempts at image creation.[5] Among the first distinct sections of the canvas to emerge were a corner of entirely blue pixels (named "Blue Corner") and an homage to Pokémon.[6] As the canvas developed, some established subreddit communities, such as those for video games, sports teams and individual countries, coordinated user efforts to claim and decorate particular sections.[5][7]

A lattice of alternating light green and green pixels separated by the black background.
The "green lattice" seen in both the original 2017 and revived 2022 experiments.

Other sections of the canvas were developed by communities and coordination efforts created specifically for the event. Several works of pixel art sprouted from the collaboration of these communities, varying from fictional characters and internet memes to patriotic flags, LGBT flags, and recreations of famous pieces of artwork such as the Mona Lisa[8] and The Starry Night.[9][10][11] Several "cults" also formed to create and maintain various emblematic features such as a black void, green lattice, the aforementioned blue corner and a multi-colored "rainbow road".[12] At the time of the experiment’s end on April 3, 2017, over 90,000 users were viewing and editing the canvas,[4] and over one million users had placed a total of approximately 16 million tiles.[5]

2022

On March 28, 2022, a reboot of Place was announced. It began on April 1, 2022, and is currently ongoing. It is planned to last for four days.[13] In response to the project's popularity, Reddit expanded the canvas and color palette on days 2 and 3.[14]

Reception

2017

Place was commended for its colorful representation of the Reddit online community. The A.V. Club called it "a benign, colorful way for Redditors to do what they do best: argue among each other about the things that they love".[15] Gizmodo labeled it as a "testament to the internet's ability to collaborate".[16] A number of commentators described the experiment as a broader representation of Internet culture.[17] Some also commented on the apparent relationship between the makeup of the final canvas and the individual communities within Reddit, which exist independently but cooperate as part of a larger community.[15] Newsweek called it "the internet's best experiment yet",[5] and a writer at Ars Technica suggested that the cooperative spirit of Place represented a model for fighting extremism in internet communities.[18] The experiment did receive some criticism for the lack of protection from bot usage and the automated placing of pixels.[19]

2022

Place was brought back on April 1, 2022, and is currently ongoing.[20][21]

See also

References

  1. ^ "How We Built r/Place". Upvoted. Archived from the original on 17 April 2017. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
  2. ^ Rappaz, Jérémie (2018). "Latent Structure in Collaboration: The Case of Reddit r/place". International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media. arXiv:1804.05962. Archived from the original on 2 July 2020. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
  3. ^ Lyons, Kim (28 March 2022). "Reddit is bringing back r/Place, its April Fools' Day art experiment". The Verge. Retrieved 30 March 2022.
  4. ^ a b Weinberger, Matt (4 April 2017). "Over 1 million Reddit users waged a virtual war to create this bizarre work of art with 16 million pixels". Business Insider Australia. Archived from the original on 4 April 2017. Retrieved 4 April 2017.
  5. ^ a b c d e Cuthbertson, Anthony (11 April 2017). "From Van Gogh to a marriage proposal, Reddit Place was the internet's best experiment yet". Newsweek. Archived from the original on 13 April 2017. Retrieved 13 April 2017.
  6. ^ Weinberger, Matt. "Reddit's new 'Place' is forcing millions of users to work together to make something great". Business Insider. Archived from the original on 4 April 2017. Retrieved 10 April 2020.
  7. ^ Tindale, James (4 April 2017). "Reddit Place: April Fool's experiment reveals how the internet sees Australia". The Australian. Retrieved 4 April 2017.
  8. ^ Litherland, Kristina T. (29 March 2022). "Instruction vs. emergence on r/place: Understanding the growth and control of evolving artifacts in mass collaboration". Computers in Human Behavior, Vol. 122, Sept. 2021, art. 106845. Archived from the original on 29 March 2022. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
  9. ^ "Eagles, Flyers represented in final version of Reddit's 'Place' social experiment". PhillyVoice. 3 April 2017. Archived from the original on 4 April 2017. Retrieved 4 April 2017.
  10. ^ Oxford, Nadia. "Here's the Best Game Fan Art from Reddit's r/place Canvas". USgamer. Archived from the original on 4 April 2017. Retrieved 4 April 2017.
  11. ^ Voon, Claire (12 April 2017). "More Than a Million Strangers Collaborate, Pixel by Pixel, on a Digital Canvas". Hyperallergic. Archived from the original on 14 June 2020. Retrieved 10 April 2020.
  12. ^ Hathaway, Jay (3 April 2017). "A new phenomenon is taking over Reddit—here's what you should know about it". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on 11 August 2020. Retrieved 10 April 2020.
  13. ^ "Bringing Back r/place". Reddit. Retrieved 1 April 2022.
  14. ^ Lorenz, Taylor (4 April 2022). "Internet communities are battling over pixels". The Washington Post. Retrieved 4 April 2022.
  15. ^ a b Purdom, Clayton (3 April 2017). "Reddit gave its users something to fight over besides anime and cucks". A.V. Club. Archived from the original on 3 April 2017. Retrieved 4 April 2017.
  16. ^ Serrels, Mark. "Place Was The Internet, In All Its Glory". Gizmodo. Archived from the original on 4 April 2017. Retrieved 4 April 2017.
  17. ^ Rhode, Jason. "Redditors Collaborate to Create the Iconic Picture of Our Time". pastemagazine.com. Archived from the original on 4 April 2017. Retrieved 4 April 2017.
  18. ^ Machkovech, Sam. "Did Reddit's April Fool's gag solve the issue of online hate speech?". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on 4 April 2017. Retrieved 4 April 2017.
  19. ^ "Reddit's April Fools' Joke Spawned a Surprisingly Awesome Social Experiment". Nerdist. 4 April 2017. Archived from the original on 6 April 2017. Retrieved 5 April 2017.
  20. ^ Lyons, Kim (28 March 2022). "Reddit is bringing back r/Place, its April Fools' Day art experiment". The Verge. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  21. ^ "Reddit relaunches its April Fools artwork that anyone can add to". The Independent. 1 April 2022. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
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