How Reddit beautifully illustrated the way communities power the internet
On the 1st April the team behind Reddit did something interesting. Without any warning they opened a new subreddit called /place. Here is the description:
There is an empty canvas.
You may place a tile upon it, but you must wait to place another.
Individually you can create something.
Together you can create something more.
The rules were that every reddit user had power over one square on a grid 1000 x 1000 pixels big. You had a choice of 16 colours and you could change any pixel you wanted, but you could only change it once every five minutes.
What resulted was an amazing visual expression of the power of online communities.
Over the few days that Reddit ran the experiment, different online groups and subreddits fought and worked together to place their stamp on the canvas.
In the early hours the bottom right corner disappeared in ocean-coloured blue as one group tried to flood the entire canvas. Another group (‘ the Void ‘) tried to cover the centre with blackness. Other users countered by planting and defending the American flag in the middle of the canvas.
Each corner of the canvas was a different little story. Here Newsweek describes how things unfolded:
“It took less than a day for flags to start appearing on the canvas, as members of Reddit communities (known as subreddits) dedicated to individual countries began to mobilize. One of the largest was the German flag, created through the efficient collaboration of Germany’s subreddit, and it soon began to grow toward a smaller French flag nearby.
Despite calls by some members to not invade their neighbor one user wrote, “last time we did… well let’s say it didn’t work out that great in the end” — the black, red and gold stripes had completely covered the French tricolor. To bring an end to the battle, one Reddit user came up with “Operation EU Love,” which saw hundreds of users paint the European Union’s flag on the disputed territory between the historical enemies.” (Newsweek)
Here’s where things ended up:
I think when I started making video for online, I thought of the internet as a series of interconnected users — nodes spread out evenly on a grid like something from Tron. In fact when you google-image search ‘social network’ you get images like this:
But the internet is made up of more than individuals. It’s made up of networks, clusters, subreddits, newsletters, hubs and influencers, and tapping into these can be incredibly powerful. It’s a landscape of cities and towns.
The first time I considered this was when we were trying to decide whether to do a Things Not to Say film about either vegetarians or vegans.
We ended up making a film about vegans even though they were a smaller group than vegetarians and the reason was that vegans were much more strongly networked online. Because the challenges for vegans are higher (both in finding food they can eat and because everyone seems to enjoy giving them abuse) they are drawn to the internet for information and community. There are specialist blogs, instagram accounts, influencers and newsletters in a way there isn’t for vegetarians. Once we’d successful connected with this network, it was straightforward for our film to go viral in that space. This network then acted as the films promoters, getting the film out to a more general audience.
That is basically the viral formula for Things Not to Say, and the reason it’s been so successful.
So when you’re making internet video, think about who the audience is. Is it a general group or niche one, and would you get a bigger audience by being more niche?
Hi, my name is Brendan Miller, thank you for reading. I’m a filmmaker that specialises in explainers, video essays and social video formats. (You can see the kind of thing I do here: brendanmiller.co.uk) I also lead masterclasses and training sessions on social media video if you’re looking to improve the videos you make for platforms like YouTube or Facebook. (Available dates and more details are here: MAKE BETTER)
This article first appeared on my email newsletter where I talk about video, creativity and the world of online media. You can sign up here. I’m on Twitter at @brenkjm and Instagram here.
