r/place
You might remember it as Reddit place canvas
The archive has not found a surviving copy.
2017·The platform era·amazing
A blank canvas, one pixel every five minutes, and a million strangers negotiating a picture.
At a glanceThe facts
- Remembered as
- Reddit place canvas
- Spread in
- 2017
- Began as
- Something you played
- Format
- Phenomenon
- Made by
- Josh Wardle, at Reddit
- Where it started
- Origin
- Not an upload originally
- Available
- Not held by ViralWorld
What this wasThe story
On April Fools' Day 2017 Reddit opened a shared canvas. Any registered user could change the colour of exactly one pixel, then wait five to twenty minutes before changing another. Nothing else. Over seventy-two hours more than a million people placed about sixteen million pixels, and the result was a dense map of every community on the site — flags, logos, in-jokes — held in place only by continuous collective effort.
Reddit reran it in 2022 and again in 2023, when users turned the canvas into a protest against the company's own leadership. The format has been copied constantly, and "a place-like canvas" is now a recognised genre of collective online event.
Why it matteredWhat changed
A blank canvas where each person could colour one square every few minutes drew more than a million users in three days. It has run three times, and the second and third ended in white.
TimelineIn order
- Made
The first canvas opens: a thousand squares by a thousand, sixteen colours. Over three days more than a million users place about sixteen million squares.1 What else happened on 1 April
- Came back
A second, larger canvas opens. More than 10.5 million users change about 160 million squares, and it ends with only white allowed.1
- Came back
A third opens during a dispute between Reddit and its users. They write an insult to the chief executive across it.1
- Later
The third canvas closes, filled with white.1 What else happened on 25 July
What it createdWhat came out of it
- The 2017 canvas held art from more than 800 communities, a black “void” that swallowed other drawings, and a blue corner.1
Why it is here: something the internet still knows by name · a moment that changed what the internet did next · it got out of its own corner of the internet fast · still being watched and quoted years later
This began as something you played rather than watched. Originally published on Reddit.
Where it came fromWhat we know
There is no original upload to identify: this did not begin as one. What it began as is recorded here, and what is shown is a later copy.
Nothing here is claimed to be the first publication of this Moment, because the first publication was not an upload. This began as something you played rather than watched. Originally published on Reddit.
Not established. This index only names a creator where the evidence supports it.
More from 2017You were there
ConnectedFollow it further
- Refers to The Reddit blackoutEvent · 2023
In 2023 users wrote an insult to Reddit’s chief executive across the canvas, in protest at the API charges.
SourcesWhat was read
Sources last read on . That date is about the history on this page. Whether the media still plays is checked separately and can change any day. How ViralWorld documents things