After all the heavier topics, I am delighted to be able to offer a very different article, a collaboration with my oldest son. He’s in High School, thinking about applying to the Air Force Academy, and as most teenage boys, loves spending time online browsing memes and connecting with people.
One such place is Reddit. Funky memes, crazy pictures and videos, but also informative content and debate about any topic imaginable, it has it all.
But what makes it unique and very interesting, is this thing they call ‘Place’. r/Place is a social experiment that was launched on Reddit back in 2017 by Josh Wardle (founder of Wordle). He called r/Place "a screenshot of the Internet at this moment in time."
It basically is a huge canvas, where members of Reddit could place pixels, one at a time (every 5, 10 to 20 minutes), to create art or messages or whatever they wanted. People started to work together to create images from fan topics or countries or clubs, others just spent their time taking down what others made. Rivalries, battles for canvas space, cooperation and treaties, it resembled a true snapshot of humanity. Many national themes sprung up, as well as countless cultural references. (For a general description, see this Reddit Fandom page, or the Wikipedia page)
Five years later, on April 1, 2022, a second edition was started that was to last 4 days. And my son was ready for it. It was rather time consuming, but I quickly realized the unique opportunity this was, and the leadership roles and experience he was getting from this, so I shielding him from Mom’s attempts to keep his phone time to decent limits (let’s say he went way past his phone time allotment for those 4 consecutive days), to allow him to finish what he started.
I will let him tell the story.
R/Place is a community project of the app Reddit. It allows groups to work together and against each other to get their art and other items on a virtual canvas. It simple: every 10 minutes or so you could palce a pixel of various color anywhere on the canvas. You had the choice to build or destroy. Most would come to chose to build, but a small few would watch as small communities would crumble before them.
The Beginning of our story starts simple.
The Belgian flag started along with the server, I joined at 100 members.
You can see here up to the top right the start of tintin.
The flag started to grow, overcoming columbia. The addition of Tintin was added at around 200 members, and Papa Smurf was rough to start. But we eventually got it at around 250 members. Then the rainbow flag came in. At around 250 members as well, at the same time we met up with Germany, and I started my masterpiece. I also became a German Rep. in the Belgian server. At around 350 members I finished my masterpiece. A belgian beer pouring into the massive german coat of arms (the eagle coat of arms). This addition to the server granted me the rights to become a Mod on the server.
That’s when the rainbow road redirected and came through once more at around 400 members. The first time we stayed neutral and allowed it. The second time I spoke to the server saying, “we will not be a speedbump again”, and this rallied all our members in agreement. So Belgium banded together, and at the same time a rainbow road Rep. said to us, “ If you continue to take away our flag, we will crush the Belgian flag”. Obviously he was pressuring us to keep the second pass through of the gaypride rainbow road. So I stated, “ Sorry, we would like to keep our flag STRAIGHT”. Following this he was kicked from the server. Thats when we won the battle with the help of our German allies.
Our flag was clean once more at around 700 members.
This was the end of the first day, we ended the day with a thousand members
I woke up to a battle ground, even losing my beer glass. We quickly resolved the mess though, through various secret alliances with Germany.
Next we put a Duvel D on the glass.
Then we pioneered this emblem.
The map expanded and we created another flag. This allowed many new art projects, like Manneken Pis.
Then the canvas expanded again and we were able to claim a nice chunk on the bottom, so we tripled in size.
We bordered with spain and went through the other side. At around 2000 members.
We had another border with germany so we made this. When I saw this I did everything to make it happen. And so it happened. Amazing to see how today, more than 100 years after the end of WWI, both sides can come back together, as friends, to honor those who fell.
Later through the night, while I was sleeping and gone from Place, Spain was being butchered. When I came back the next morning and saw it, I was not going to pretend I didn't like it (I was ecstatic). It allowed lots of extra space for art for us! It also bolstered our commanding presence on the stage that is the R/place canvas.
Some art we added to the new space was Lucky Luke . Which I loved. This was near to the end of the chronicles. Only roughly a day left till the end.
The next art made was Ambiorix. We made this at around 3000 members.
This was the last project made before the whiteout. This was made at around 3,500 members.
The hivemind was a huge problem, such a problem that memes were made about them.
A fellow Reddit member defined the hivemind as follows:
”The hive mind is not a group of organized people or bots, but it can be (and it is) influenced by them. It's just about public opinion being influenced by public opinion.
Think about a hive of bees. Alone, each bee behaves differently and individually, but when an entire hive is together, they tend to act as if there was only one mind.
Reddit's hive mind happens when too many people start acting as one, i.e. downvoting specific opinions and upvoting others. It is essentially just used to describe what is the overall "opinion" that the website seems to have.
Up until now, it seems really similar to a "popular opinion". But the hive mind goes beyond that. At some point, the group opinion starts to influence the opinion of individuals. People are more likely to upvote a comment that has many upvotes, and to downvote one that has many downvotes. Not necessarily because of the content of the comment itself, but simply because of a psychological effect: "if it is so downvoted, surely the comment must have wrong information and I will downvote it too" even if the comment is perfectly reasonable. Kind of a feedback loop.”
This was the next symbol we made (of the Belgian Soccer Federation), it was one that I also helped cultivate to popularity. The belgian mods were very good but a little slow (it may be because I was at a 6 hour time difference from the US). So for most projects and art projects I kinda would push them.
This was the final Canvas, we were proudly the third biggest flag on the canvas.
This was the final member count. After the end it it fell to around 3,500. I abstained from being a mod after the end.
These were my final roles given.
One of our guys in the Belgium subreddit said this after the whole canvas was finished, about the belgian fight on the canvas.
I really enjoyed this experience, liked creating fun (and meaningful) pieces, protecting what we had while also expanding, dealing with threats and making deals with other groups.
It was amusing to see my son take up a place among the Belgium Reddit, honoring his heritage, and I was impressed at the leadership he displayed, making deals and treaties with neighboring groups, dealing with his own group and steering them towards or from certain projects. And I loved to see the type of projects he’d champion: betraying a shared love for history! I must be doing something right!
(Did you notice the award he got, the last one? GIGACHAD INSANE BELGIAN WARLORD GOD MOD. Yeah. My son!)
I asked him to share about his experience, because it portrayed such an incredible microcosm of society at large (and to give him an exercise in writing, which would also help him remember this better afterwards). Better, in a way, as it wasn’t corrupted by a political elite (yet?), as we are in the real world.
There is one particular event that bears pointing out. In the first experiment, the LGBTQ group was prominently present, with a large rainbow flag. So in this new edition, that started up again as well. People around it allowed it, of course, each can do what they want on this canvas.
But then something changed. The LGBTQ got greedy, and started to metastasize. Literally. They spread out in a small but continuous rainbow ribbon, crossing the art of anything in their path. My son mentioned it in his story, but this took place all over the Canvas.
Crossing many countries and art:
People got really upset, and started to take over, in a constant tug of war, with the result that on the final map, there is barely any presence of the rainbow flag left. They wanted too much, trampled over art from others, without any regard, and used bully tactics to try and get away with it. The counter by the rest of the canvas was swift and decisive.
They even got the attention of ‘the void’, a group a nihilists, who simply created a black hole (always fought back against by the people and groups they swallowed, as on the final version no trace of the void is left). The void targeted the core area of the LGBTQ group several times, as well. Everyone was fed up with them.
What a small scale mirror of society. No one has problems with gay people individually, really. But many DO have serious problems with this becomes pushed down our throats in ever expanding ways, down to grooming in the first few years in primary school and drag shows. Even gay people themselves speak out against the political agenda that is being pushed, as even self-identified gay Disney employees testify to, when they spoke out against the Disney policies that attacked the Florida Governor and the Florida law banning sex ed in the lower grades of school. It was not longer enough to live and let live, but we had to conform to them and affirm them actively, loudly and openly (refusal was equated with hate and violence!). And now we see the backlash all around us.
As an example of what happens when you get too greedy, this is it. And I will likely refer to it again, in later articles.
Politics, as well. Ukraine featured large, and they got alloted a huge swat of territory.
Everyone understood.
Still, that support didn’t last long, at least not to that extent, and quickly all that was left was a fraction of that large piece of real estate:
The whole place is full of delightful details, and is worth looking through leisurely. Some of the collabs between countries are absolutely stunning!
You can view a high resolution image of the final canvas here.
If you want to see a timelapse of the constant back-and-forth building, destruction and rebuilding, take a look here.
And if you want help with deciphering everything on the map, some people put in incredible effort to make this interactive atlas.
This is one of my favorites, and something my son had thought of, put in place, protected and improved: A glass of Belgian beer (a Duvel!), pouring into the open beak of the German Reichs-eagle. Yes, we have the better beer!
And the Germans accepted that, and made a fun images to show that they knew: a famous puppet character, Bernd das Brot (star mascot and cult figure from a German Children’s TV channel), holding a typical ‘Maß’ of beer, the famous 1 liter beer mug, stands on the side looking at the eagle drink the Belgian beer, spills his own beer in dejection, and says “Mist”. Which basically translates to ‘sh*t’ or ‘d*mn*.
Belgium really has the best beer!
But Belgium is also a country of contradiction, and a very poorly functioning government. So the crew of the Belgium subreddit my son was mod in, made this briliant art to symbolize that:
Road work signs, that point in opposite directions, in each of the two main languages in Belgium (Flemish/Dutch and French). The Belgian government can’t get anything done right…
Or look at this collab between Portugal and Argentina, putting behind them any soccer rivalry, in this great hommage to 2 of their own greats: Messi and Ronaldo, arm over each other's shoulder. Just beautiful. Notice how they have their own player on the other country’s flag, as well: a subtle welcoming honor.
Or the Irish and the French, working together to have their wine bottle and a glass of Guiness stand together, in their respective flags:
Or the Dutch, recreating 2 famous paintings telling of their own past glory:
and
Or the humor and self-depricating views, as the Italians showed:
Americans had to fight hard to keep their place on the map, as too many people thought it fun to attack them, but they managed to end strong:
In short, take your time to look through, perhaps you’ll recognize the many references.
And I hope you enjoyed this more visual feast in this article. Doesn’t always have to be serious!
All is well!
This is where the internet shines. I dabbled in one of these reddit canvases several years ago, creating and defending the logo of the band Nine Inch Nails (my favorite). A truly trivial pursuit compared your son's endeavor, but a similar collaborative dynamic.
Wow….well I won’t pretend to understand the Reddit component!!……at 70 years I’m a little technologically challenged….but what I can say your son gives me hope for our future generations….and of course good parenting has everything to do with that😉🇺🇸✝️