For its April Fool’s Day, the Reddit network has relaunched a social experiment carried out in 2017: offering its users an empty fresco that they must fill in together in collaboration. But after a few days of artistic creation, a real clash took place between the Spanish and American communities on the one hand and the French on the other. The reason for this discord? The tricolor flag.
The concept of this fresco is simple: each user of a verified account on Reddit can pose a pixel (a tile) every five minutes to be able to help create a drawing. And with a mural of over 4 million pixels, coordination is key to creating quality shapes and designs.
.@Reddit is bringing back the r/place artwork on popular demand. here’s the first day of r/place in one minute. pic.twitter.com/g80gUNsjny
— Ergin Kocyildirim, MD (@kocyildirim) April 2, 2022
In 2017 during the first edition, there were far fewer people and fewer battles between different communities. In 2022, the story is quite different. At the center of the battle: the installation of the French flag in the left corner of the work. The Hispanic and American communities have joined forces in several attempts to regain possession of the flag, which they consider too large.
Facing them, the French streamer Kameto (with Zerator, Inoxtag, Amine or even Etoiles), who wishes to highlight the French Internet, is supported by several French Internet users. Yesterday, there were more than 200,000 spectators until just over 3 am to defend and bring their stone to the building. Proof if any, that the French internet community is particularly invested in defending its values. At the time of writing, it was still possible to see the French flag with the Arc de Triomphe and the head of star footballer and coach Zinedine Zidane.
History is on its way.
We’re going for the olympixel gold medal ?
Come on Blues, go place your pixel: https://t.co/8WgMpfrrH6#pixelwar@Kammetohttps://t.co/wOLtDtobVwpic.twitter.com/WBOFGw9nd2— Paris 2024 (@Paris2024) April 4, 2022
Faced with the huge success of this April Fool’s Day, many brands or associations have shown their support for the operation, via the hashtag #RedditPlace on Twitter. A recovery also attempted on Sunday evening by Eric Zemmour’s team, widely criticized on Reddit afterwards.
Several Internet users are wondering what Reddit will do next with the work. There are rumors of a sale as an NFT, but nothing official has been announced yet. For now, Reddit users still have a few hours to fill in this fresco.
In 2017, Reddit claimed that over a million redditors had placed approximately 16 million pixels on his collaborative digital work. This year the record should be easily broken, as communities of streamers around the world have largely taken part in the social experiment.