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Reddit’s April Fools’ experiment

arstechnica.com

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Re: Reddit’s April Fools’ experiment

#41

Post by camtarn »

Raphmedia wrote: post #16

I love those kind of "get together and improvise" experiments. The last time I had felt such a sense of wonder and community was the first few days of Pokemon Go when everyone was in the street trying to figure it out. There's an untapped concept behind all of those. Content that is ephemeral but brings a lot of people together...

I guess that's what a lot of Alternate Reality Games try and tap into - the shared joy of figuring out something interesting and strange, sometimes with ties to the real world. I remember reading about the I Love Bees ARG, with its GPS coordinates for payphones (which turned out to be a promo for Halo 2!) and wishing I'd been able to be a part of it:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Love_Bees

Re: Reddit’s April Fools’ experiment

#42

Post by TheAdamAndChe »

someguy101010 wrote: post #37
beefhash wrote: post #5

It's worth nothing that the admins did actively ban users trying to make swastikas. /b/ tried and found that out the hard way. Reddit's content policy[1] was still applicable and was very much enforced. [1] https://www.reddit.com/help/contentpolicy/

I was surprised at the lack of swastikas, curse words, and nsfw content on the canvas, but that may say more about me than anything else.

There was some NSFW stuff early on. There was a communist flag on the left side, under which was the statement "bash the fash." He-Man had a rainbow in his mouth like he was giving it a blowjob for the longest time, and all the nsfw stuff suddenly disappeared at the end. I highly suspect that moderators and bots took over by the end and made it come together, and I bet it was a PR move to amplify a sense of community.

Re: Reddit’s April Fools’ experiment

#43

Post by revscat »

chipperyman573 wrote: post #22
Buttons840 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You need to explain yourself better. You seem to be opposed to Nazism, but in favor of their symbol. Why?

The Nazis stole the symbol from a religion (I believe Hinduism, may be wrong).

Buddhism.

Re: Reddit’s April Fools’ experiment

#44

Post by grkvlt »

monksy wrote: post #10
beefhash wrote: post #5

It's worth nothing that the admins did actively ban users trying to make swastikas. /b/ tried and found that out the hard way. Reddit's content policy[1] was still applicable and was very much enforced. [1] https://www.reddit.com/help/contentpolicy/

If it's anything it would be the moderators of r/Place. The admin's job is more of administration level (sitewide), and it's more of picking up where the mod privileges end. There are subs where swastikas are allowed.

I wonder, are these subs blocked for users from e.g. Germany and Austria, where the swastika is still banned?

Re: Reddit’s April Fools’ experiment

#45

Post by Yen »

rmccoy6435 wrote: post #6

I think this was a pretty neat experiment. For the first 24 hours everything was chaos, then it settled down in the middle as communities formed, then at the end it was just annoying as every subreddit was trying to take over real-estate, and far too many people were taking it way too seriously. It got annoying going to certain subreddits that I subscribe to for content started getting flooded with "Man the decks, we…

> The other thing this author tried to make this about was politics.

I think there is something to be said about politics, here, but it's not about specific countries, ideologies, or personalities - it's about the nature of how we do politics.

In order for anything interesting of scale to get created, it required multiple users cooperating. In some cases, this means convincing them to abandon the project they want the most, in favor of the group project.

Also, as an art project grows, it necessarily ran in to border conflicts with its neighbors. How these conflicts were handled - whether through overwhelming force, negotiation over borders, compromise, or other means, says a lot about how people deal with conflicts in general.

i.e., the fact that the board ended with so many intact artworks, with intact borders, is notable.

Re: Reddit’s April Fools’ experiment

#46

Post by kuusisto »

cjslep wrote: post #12

This experiment reminds me of an old website where visitors only had so much paint (and it would slowly regenerate over time), and would paint portions of a common canvas. I can't remember the name of the site, but I think it was active in the mid 2000's. Of course, at times 4chan would invade, but I think it was mostly eastern europeans present (as once again flags were the big thing to paint everywhere).

Drawball

Re: Reddit’s April Fools’ experiment

#47

Post by najati83 »

someguy101010 wrote: post #37
beefhash wrote: post #5

It's worth nothing that the admins did actively ban users trying to make swastikas. /b/ tried and found that out the hard way. Reddit's content policy[1] was still applicable and was very much enforced. [1] https://www.reddit.com/help/contentpolicy/

I was surprised at the lack of swastikas, curse words, and nsfw content on the canvas, but that may say more about me than anything else.

Yes, me too. Admins were fine with a hammer and a sickle and an LGBT flag, though. We all have biases, after all. ;P

Re: Reddit’s April Fools’ experiment

#48

Post by cyphar »

darkstar999 wrote: post #31
Fizzer wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where does your link say that swastikas are not allowed? Does a swastika "encourage or incite violence"? I'm curious since I don't ban swastikas on my site, although some of my users ask me to.

It's more about reddit being able to sell ads than anything else. I'd say it falls under: > Threatens, harasses, or bullies or encourages others to do so

While some users might feel that way, I'm not sure how an image (which is a collection of pixels on a screen that has many different historical interpretations) would threaten, harass or bully someone. Or incite it.

Of course, these days ad networks are hyper-sensitive about this topic, so from an advertising perspective it does make sense.

Re: Reddit’s April Fools’ experiment

#49

Post by eatitraw »

rmccoy6435 wrote: post #6

I think this was a pretty neat experiment. For the first 24 hours everything was chaos, then it settled down in the middle as communities formed, then at the end it was just annoying as every subreddit was trying to take over real-estate, and far too many people were taking it way too seriously. It got annoying going to certain subreddits that I subscribe to for content started getting flooded with "Man the decks, we…

> I don't think there is anything actually political on the final /r/place piece other than country flags.

There are various flags of different anarchist movements, very long trans* flag, LGBT flags here and there. IMO, all these count as "actually political".

Re: Reddit’s April Fools’ experiment

#50

Post by ggggtez »

brink wrote: post #15
rmccoy6435 wrote: post #6

I think this was a pretty neat experiment. For the first 24 hours everything was chaos, then it settled down in the middle as communities formed, then at the end it was just annoying as every subreddit was trying to take over real-estate, and far too many people were taking it way too seriously. It got annoying going to certain subreddits that I subscribe to for content started getting flooded with "Man the decks, we…

> It got annoying going to certain subreddits that I subscribe to for content started getting flooded with "Man the decks, we need to defend this!". To be fair, it is arguable that it deserved attention, as the final picture is now a part of internet history.

I don't think that argument is easy to defend, considering how big the internet is and that this is just a copy of existing ideas that have been done before.
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