Longtime fans of Reddit have something to look forward to this April Fool’s Day. After years of users asking for r/Place to return, Reddit has announced today that the interactive digital canvas will be returning April 1st.
r/Place: The Heart of Artistic Chaos
For those who may not remember, or for those that never experienced it, r/Place is a 1,000 x 1,000 communal pixel canvas. Those who log in to Reddit can place a tile or pixel color of their choice once every five minutes. The canvas updates in real time. Tapping or clicking on the canvas will place the object onto the field.
Redditors first experienced the absolute chaos of r/Place in 2017. More than 1 million users participated, placing 16 million tiles on a blank digital canvas.
Participating in Reddit’s April Fool’s Day festivities is easy. Starting April 1st at 6 AM PST, Redditors simply need to tap or click the new widget icon containing the letter ‘P.’ This will appear at the top of the home feed, and opening the community drawer within the app will also bring up the digital canvas.
Those who are logged into Reddit will be able to edit the canvas, being allowed to place one tile every five minutes. Those who are not logged in will be able to watch the canvas progress in real time but will not be able to contribute.
Traveling Back in Internet History
While Reddit is bringing back this popular community, this is not the first time a communal digital canvas has made waves. Veterans of surfing the internet may remember The Million Dollar Homepage. Developed in 2005 by Alex Tew, the site began as a way for to him to raise money for university.
Launched on August 26, the website consisted of a million pixels also arranged in a 1000 x 1000 grid. Pixels sold for a dollar in 10 x 10 blocks. Those that purchased a grid were able to place any image that they desired onto the canvas.
The website quickly became an internet phenomenon, with plenty of copy cats taking notice. In 2006, the final 1,000 pixels were put up for auction on eBay. With a winning bid of $38,100, the website brought in a total of $1,037,100 for Tew.
While The Million Dollar Homepage kept all tiles permanent, r/Place is different in that the canvas is constantly evolving. Half of the fun is watching users attempt to come together and build a giant image across the canvas, only for trolls to come and ruin the image in real time. Part anarchy, part art experiment, r/Place will no doubt be fun for old and new Redditors alike.
Reddit is expected to keep r/Place active for 87 hours. The experience ends April 4th at 9 PM PST.
Reddit interface is horrible. As Twitter or Facebook.