Jump to content

The Button (Reddit)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 124.190.24.102 (talk) at 15:07, 27 May 2015 (Add section - Related subreddits). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

For other uses, see Button (disambiguation).

The Button was intended by Reddit to be an April Fools' joke for 2015.[1] However, it became much more than that, garnering enthusiasm from users worldwide.[2] On the "thebutton" subreddit, visitors are greeted with the normal reddit subreddit style look but with a Molly-guarded button with a clock and timer next to it.[3] There is also a count of every independent user who has clicked the button at any time since the release.[4] The only accounts that can click the button are the ones made before the event started. The button can only be pressed once by each account holder.[5]

Since the creation of the subreddit, over 900,000 people have clicked it.[6] As of May 25, the timer is still going. Various websites, browser extensions, and mobile apps have been created for the sole purpose of tracking the live statistics of the button, and enabling the user to go directly to the subreddit when the timer drops below a certain threshold.[7]

Flairs

The user's flair will be set to a corresponding color depending on what the time on the timer was when it was clicked. The default is gray, which the user receives if they have not pressed the button. Purple is between 60s and 51s, blue is between 51s and 41s, green is between 41s and 31s, yellow is between 31s and 21s, orange is between 21s and 11s, and red is between 11s and 0s. Accounts that cannot click the button because they were created after the start of the event, receive a white flair. [8]

Numerous subreddits were set to reflect different groups which take different philosophical positions on the Button or simply group together users with the same color flair.

See also

References

  1. ^ Koerber, Brian (2 April 2015). "Reddit taunts users with a simple button for April Fools' Day". Mashable. Retrieved 7 April 2015. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  2. ^ "What Reddit's 'ridiculous' button tells us about mortality". BBC. 9 May 2015.
  3. ^ Hooton, Christopher (2 April 2015). "Whatever you do, don't click this button". The Independent. Retrieved 7 April 2015.
  4. ^ Whitwam, Ryan (2 April 2015). "Reddit's April Fools' joke is a mysterious button, and people are still pressing it". Geek.com. Retrieved 7 April 2015. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  5. ^ Wehner, Mike (2 April 2015). "A mysterious blue button is driving Reddit insane". The Daily Dot. Retrieved 7 April 2015. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  6. ^ Bleiberg, Joshua; West, Darrell (27 April 2015). "Have you pressed the button?". Brookings. Retrieved 7 April 2015. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  7. ^ Frauenfelder, Mark (5 April 2015). "Realtime chart of "the button" game on Reddit". Boing Boing. Retrieved 7 April 2015. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  8. ^ "Thebutton wiki". Reddit. Retrieved 4 May 2015.
  • Official website
  • Reddit blog entry
    Stub icon

    This World Wide Web–related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Button_(Reddit)&oldid=664282935"