What Is /r/Place On Reddit And How Does It Work? Reddit's Community Canvas Explained

One of Reddit's most historically beloved events, /r/Place, is back for 2023. The event lets users create artwork on a massive canvas pixel-by-pixel, encouraging communities to come together to earn their spot on the final art piece. This year, however, the canvas is noticeably being filled with pieces of protest art about the site's CEO, Steve "Spez" Huffman. Here's what you need to know.

What Is /r/Place On Reddit?

The first /r/Place event took place in April 2017 on the dedicated /r/Place subreddit. The subreddit works like any other on the site, but with one big difference: at the top of the subreddit is a canvas that users can click on and add a pixel to. Once a pixel is placed, the user enters a cooldown period, after which they can place another.

The first iteration of /r/Place ended after three days and resulted in a final art piece featuring tons of flags, emblems, detailed works of pixel art and symbols relating to various subreddits. The event also inspired a lot of memes and reactions throughout the process, posted to /r/place.

/r/Place wouldn't reappear until April 2022, becoming one of the biggest events online thanks largely to streamers like xQc and Hasan Piker, who directed their massive followings to the canvas to claim their piece of the canvas.

What Were The Highlights Of /r/Place 2022?

During 2022's /r/Place run between April 1st and April 4th, it became one of the biggest events on social media. Subreddit users coordinated through apps like Discord, picked a spot on the canvas and worked diligently to keep their artwork on the canvas. This led to battles between various subreddits as they competed for their spot on the canvas.

Like 2017, the 2022 canvas became largely filled with flags, recreations of artworks, pixel art characters and memes. Streamers got in on the fun and started commanding their armies of viewers to the canvas to take over massive chunks of space, leading to some drama between streamers.

To end the event, Reddit disabled all canvas colors but white, resulting in users erasing the whole canvas after spending so many days dedicated to the event. Thankfully, the full, finished artwork was shared by many and Reddit posted a timelapse documenting the whole thing, becoming an iconic piece of internet history.

Why Are People Posting 'Spez' On /r/Place 2023?

Reddit brought back /r/Place on July 20th, 2023, and Redditors quickly jumped in on the community canvas with all sorts of creations. This time, however, things were a bit different. Some users began creating messages on the canvas protesting Reddit's API changes that recently forced many third-party Reddit apps to shut down.

The messages on the canvas are not very kind to Reddit's CEO spez, who has been getting memed on the site since the API changes were announced. Of course, beyond the Spez hate, the canvas is also being filled with flags, pixel art and all the other common /r/Place markings. This year's iteration of /r/Place is definitely going to be an interesting one.

How Do I Use /r/Place?

To participate in /r/place 2023, all you have to do is visit the /r/Place subreddit, sign into your Reddit account and click on the "place your pixel" button at the top of the page. After placing a pixel you'll be placed on a two-minute cooldown, after which you can place another pixel. This year, you can also right-click on the canvas to see what communities are working on which pieces.

If you want to get really into the event, you might be able to find a Discord server or chat group for your favorite subreddit to coordinate your pixels and hopefully solidify your place in the final canvas.

For the full history of /r/Place, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry for more information.