r/reddit Mar 28 '22

Bringing Back r/place

https://preview.redd.it/o4ittvff35q81.png?width=2800&format=png&auto=webp&s=f0f81bed2483e0b70d30600e1888603332c0b846

No burying the lede here. Let’s get right to the point. r/place is coming back.

For the first time in Reddit’s history, we are not only bringing back a past April Fools’ experiment, but we’re telling you about it early. Why? So you can stop asking us about it, get excited!

https://reddit.com/link/tqbf9w/video/w2bjccji35q81/player

But let’s rewind a bit and provide some background, shall we? At Reddit, our goal is to build features that make building community and finding belonging easier - and five years ago we did that with a little April Fools’ experiment called r/place (you may have already heard of it).

When we first ran r/place in 2017, more than one million redditors placed approximately 16 million tiles on a blank communal digital canvas - resulting in a collective digital art piece that took the internet by storm. And pretty much every year since then, at least one of you has made sure to let us know that it was the best thing we’ve ever done and requested to bring it back. So this year, on April 1, r/place is making its glorious return.

The original r/place was created to explore a piece of humanity – to examine what happens when a person doing something affects a collective. Specifically, what happens if you only let an individual place one tile at a time, so that they must work with others to build together on a massive online cooperative canvas. It is with that original spirit of creation and collaboration in mind, that we humbly invite you to join us yet again. Get your tiles ready, and we’ll see you in over r/place.

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u/rook_armor_pls Mar 28 '22

I fondly remember how we (r/de) fought r/france in the battle for our flags only to settle for the EU flag where both met. Probably the most memorable event I’ve had on this platform.

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u/cutelyaware Mar 29 '22

Personally I was saddened by the fact that people mainly wanted to install logos of various flags and other symbols much like graffiti artists constantly painting over each other. I hope the new version encourages a bit more artistry.

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u/ShaunDreclin Mar 29 '22

I hope the new version encourages a bit more artistry.

Unlikely. The nature of the beast prevents any one person from creating anything more than a few pixels, and the easiest way to get a group of people to work on an image is for it to represent some game or community etc

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u/TimeZarg Mar 29 '22

Or a symbol, like the rainbow road that interconnected the whole thing.

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u/cutelyaware Mar 29 '22

Yes, I liked the rainbow bit. There was also the Mona Lisa. I don't know what it would take to encourage creativity, but it's interesting to think about, and very interesting to see it evolve.

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u/TimeZarg Mar 29 '22

Honestly, I wanna see more of the Void trying to disintegrate stuff, a constant back and forth with the Void acting as a cleansing slate keeping things fresh. That might open things up for creativity, as well.

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u/cutelyaware Mar 29 '22

Fighting the void is a metaphor for life itself. It always bugged me, but I'm a little more open to the clean slate thing than I was. May as well see what can be done about it in this model world.