My thoughts on Reddit's r/place

Published: 2022-04-03

On April 1st 2022, Reddit officially enabled r/place, after announcing its return for a while so communities can prepare.

What is r/place?

So, r/place is a gigantic canvas (its size doubled at some point in time) where every Reddit user can place a single pixel every 5 minutes (or every 20 minutes if they don't have a verified email).

The concept, as it was brought by Reddit and understood by me, seems rather good and entertaining: people can group together and collaborate to create bigger things.

Reddit, r/place

The state of r/place

People on r/place do group together, such as the Linux community:

Reddit, r/place (around X 50, Y 700) (archive, in case it gets destroyed)

But there is a major issue: grief. If it is just people taking decision to grief on their own, it wouldn't be as much of an issue; but people with big influence (most notably streamers on Twitch) seem to target specific communities (for example the brony community — see my reaction later) and ask their "fans" to grief (or "void", "black out") specific pieces of art built by the community.

Reddit, r/place (around X 1650, Y 250); featuring MLP artwork, totally finished (archive)

The same MLP artwork (at the same place), totally "voided" after a streamer asked his fans to do so (archive)

And sadly, it seems the related platforms (Reddit and Twitch) are not able to react fast enough to this kind of targetted hate (which could be considered bullying).

The only thing you can do as a faithful Reddit (or Twitch) user is:

• report the streamer(s) on Twitch, don't forget to explain them what is going on (and link to r/place, and give the specific coordinates; optionally link to my archive)

• help rebuild the "voided" artwork, potentially using bots (since these "void" actions are often also done by bots)

My reaction towards this hate

Some of you probably know I hate fighting. But what I hate the most is seeing hate against things I like; I'm talking about pure destruction here, actions of barbary, nothing constructive. We are civilized creatures, and we should act as so.

This kind of behavior demotivated me to contribute to r/place, even though the concept semt (and still seems, to a more limited extent) interesting and entertaining.

My reaction after seeing an MLP artwork is being "voided", this artwork was not rebuilt afterwards because the canvas extended and bronies could build somewhere else. This streamer is one of the streamers who has bad intentions towards r/place and some communities here.

I have faith in the brony fandom; with the power of friendship we must resist and make some room for Equestria on r/place, hoof to heart!

I am releasing this blog article as fast as I can so more people can see it before r/place ends. If you want to share your opinion (perhaps a different one) about r/place with me, feel free to reach out to me.

Sources

Yes, since we are talking about something that has mostly nothing to do with me, I think a little list of sources may be pleased here:

• Twitch streamer asking his fans to target specific artworks: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1444749573

• Twitch streamer asking his fans to "black out" what the brony fandom is trying to create: https://clips.twitch.tv/TolerantColdTaroSuperVinlin-AnlHxo6In2HFFoAv

• Additional: Twitch streamer trying to make communities go against each other and fight: https://clips.twitch.tv/OilyFurtiveOxShazBotstix-TjgHJe-Y_fsJCuOL

• State of r/place when the MLP artwork was voided after a streamer asked for that (April 3rd, 9.08.56 UTC): https://placearchive.minteck.org/2022-04-03-09-08-56

• State of r/place when the MLP artwork was considered complete (April 3rd, 12.16.19 UTC): https://placearchive.minteck.org/2022-04-03-12-16-19

As you can see, to preserve a bit of r/place's sense of collaboration, a friend and I created a website that archives r/place's state as often as possible.