The 2023 edition of Reddit’s r/Place, was launched on July 20, 2023. As soon as r/Place 2023 was launched on Reddit, tons of angry Redditors began posting against Steve Huffman, CEO of Reddit, whose username is Spez.
The Redditors were posting against Steve Huffman due to many reasons. They are upset as in early June 2023, Reddit announced the changes to API.
This led to the shutdown of many third-party apps. Therefore, they took over the canvas and filled it with explicit comments on Steve Huffman.
Here’s everything you need to know about the ongoing turmoil on Reddit.
What Is r/Place?
r/Place is a collaborative project where individual users come together to edit pixels on a giant canvas.
Users can color a single on the canvas every five minutes. They can even override others’ pixel placements to claim territory.
The first r/Place was launched on April Fools’ Day in 2017. The r/Place experiments were fascinating pieces of artwork on colorful pixel collages.
But compared to the first the second r/Place was the biggest Pixal War on Reddit fought on canvas as countries fought over pixels to dominate the canvas.
One group took over a huge area of the 2017 Reddit Place Canvas with Void. It is a black-hole-like shape that selects an area on the canvas and starts deleting the art around it with black dots.
This was till the victimized subreddit is forced to give up. Some people tried to sabotage others’ creations with streams of purple pixels.
The third launch of r/place took place on Thursday 20 July, 2023. It will continue for the next four days.
The 2023 version has finally seen the light of day after facing various delays. It was planned to launch in April but was pushed back due to various factors.
Reddit has launched r/Place for the third time hoping to unify the community. This step is taken amid weeks of protests over the company’s controversial changes.
Why Are Redditors Posting Against Steve Huffman?
- Protests are taking place on Reddit due to the controversial API changes. In early June 2023, Reddit announced the changes to API. This led to the shutdown of many third-party apps after the company started charging a per-usage subscription fee for an API that was once free.
- A popular Reddit client app shared that as per the new terms, he will have to shell out $20 million per year for API access.
- Reddit announced that it was terminating its popular Reddit Gold reward system, which further angered users.
- Reddit has also removed years of chats and message archives from users’ accounts while transitioning to a new chat system. The sudden removal of all chat history sparked immediate dissatisfaction among users who are now protesting against Steve Huffman.
The protests were against Reddit CEO Steve Huffman. He is also popularly known as ‘u/spez’ on the site.
It was to voice the user’s opposition against the API charges that eliminated popular third-party apps. Many Reddit communities volunteer moderators have also participated in the protest and made their threads private as a sign of solidarity.
Now with the launch of r/place on July 20, 2023, the tensions have resurfaced. Many Redditors took over the r/place canvas to voice their grievances. But Reddit has responded by pressuring moderators of the private subreddits to reopen their communities.
They either have to open their communities or risk suspension of their status. Reddit has cited Rule 4 of its Moderator Code of Conduct. It emphasizes the need for moderators to be active in their subreddits.
While many subreddits have reopened, Redditors started filling some of these re-opened communities with photos of comedian John Oliver.
What Are Redditors Posting on r/Place?
Redditors have already aired their protest on r/Place. Their posts are expressing their anger against Reddit CEO Steve Huffman with explicit messages telling Reddit’s CEO, who goes by the screen name Spez, to sc**w off.
Some users have created large repetitions of this phrase while others have shared smaller versions throughout the canvas.
In the center of r/Place, a giant sign appeared “F**k Spez”, referring to Reddit CEO Steve ‘Spez’ Huffman. A bunch of black pixels were set around it that made it stand out.
Additionally, near the top surrounded by the German Flaf colors it is written, “u/spez ist ein hurensohn,” which translates to “u/spez is a son of a b**” in German.
One area on the canvas is for the Save3rdPartyApps community. It has a message that says, “Never forget what was stolen from us.”
These messages reveal the communities concern about recent changes affecting third-party apps on the platform.
Reddit acknowledged that the timing of the latest social experiment is not right with a tagline that says, “Right place, wrong time.”
Do share your thoughts about the protest by Redditors.