r/Place users accuse Reddit admins & bots of ruining artwork by deleting pixels; LGBT community complaints about 'no pink pixel'

In April 2017, Reddit launched a fascinating experiment known as r/Place, where millions of users collaborated to create a vast digital canvas by placing colored pixels.

What started out as a fun community effort quickly developed into an online sensation, with jokes, art, and messages linked together in a complex web of creation.

r/Place is a one-of-a-kind event on Reddit where each user could contribute one pixel every five minutes, with an array of 16 colors to choose from.

Reddit admins ruining r/place artwork by deleting Pixels

However, some users noticed that certain artwork was being tampered with, leading to accusations of intervention by Reddit admins and bots.

It’s alleged that admins are deleting pixels from the existing artwork, causing distress among artists (1,2,3,4,5,6,7).

To the admins deleting our artworks:
You are erasing the very things that make up the culture of this website and what we are known for. By deleting it, you are demonstrating to us that you are more about how Reddit looks to advertisers than about your community.
Source

The whole point of this event is to appreciate the collaboration that goes into it, its democratizing art. Instead you dipshits have made a mockery of the whole thing.You’ve proven this was just an attempt to jangle keys in front of us to distract us from the fact that u/spez is a cowardly shitweasel
Source

One of the users shared a post proving that Reddit admins are indeed interfering with the board and removing the pixels. However, their post was quickly taken down causing further unrest among the community.

It should also be noted that the 2023 edition of r/Place, comes at the time of the company’s API modifications policy. This, sadly, aggravates the current problem for both users and admins.

Pink color missing from r/Place

Among the many artwork-related conflicts is the issue of the ‘pink pixel’. Some members of the LGBT community have expressed frustration at the lack of a designated pink color in the available palette.

The rainbow flag is currently being attacked by bots which would be super easy for reddit to prevent just by creating a minimum account age or karma limit to participate but they won’t because fuck spez.
Source

It appears that the lack of pink pixels is an unintentional blunder. But the LGBT community feels as though their concerns were being ignored.

Nonetheless, Some are hopeful that the color palette will be expanded soon. Other users are also pitching in to confirm that colors were indeed added in the past too.

The colors should increase in the coming days as they did in the last r/place
Source

Thus, the controversy related to Reddit admins deleting r/place artwork pixels highlights how crucial transparency is. The missing pink color also sheds light on the theme of representation.

By listening to the concerns of users, Reddit can surely create more inclusive spaces for users. This will also help restore their faith in the social media platform.

It remains to be seen how Reddit will react to the accusations. But if and when they do, we’ll be updating this space with noteworthy information so stay tuned for more.

Note: There are more such stories in our News Section so be sure to follow them as well.

Featured and inline image source: Reddit

PiunikaWeb started as purely an investigative tech journalism website with main focus on ‘breaking’ or ‘exclusive’ news. In no time, our stories got picked up by the likes of Forbes, Foxnews, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Engadget, The Verge, Macrumors, and many others. Want to know more about us? Head here.