Reddit Sequence

Submission 4,379

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Overview

Sequence is a collaborative social experiment launched by Reddit on April 1st, 2019. The event involves Redditors submitting and voting for animated GIFs which are then strung together in a united narrative, or sequence, in a film-like fashion.

Background

On March 28th, 2019, Reddit launched an alternate reality game based on a number of patents posted as subreddit messages on then-private /r/sequence subreddit.^[1] The ARG was solved by members of /r/snakeroom subreddit on March 31st, 2019,^[2] discovering a number of hidden animated GIFs in the process and the final revealed message reading "GOOD GAME SNEKS | WE WILL DANCE AGAIN | BUT TOMORROW WE PLAY."^[3]

On March 30th, 2019, Reddit updated their profile picture and banner image on Twitter and Facebook, teasing the upcoming event.^[3]

At approximately 18:00 EST on March 31st, Reddit Sequence (different from /r/sequence subreddit) went live.^[3]^[4]

Notable Developments

Sequence was revealed to be a crowd-moderated GIF-based sequencing machine. Redditors were invited to build animated sequences consisting of 50 GIF slots. For each available slot, users can submit and vote for GIF images, with the highest upvoted image being permanently locked into the slot after a set time period. Slots open one by one, however, a GIF doesn't have to get permanently locked into a slot in order for the next slot to become available. Slots lock in the same order they were opened. The implied objective of the experiment is to collectively build visual stories based on a selection of animated images pieced together in a narrative fashion.

Patent #62305 // Internet Sequencing Machine // Insert gifs, allow time for sorting // Process through multi-user matrix // Narrative will be generated

As of April 2nd, 13:30, one full sequence, titled Act 1 (shown below),^[5] and a shorter, 20-GIF prologue have been completed.^[6]

The event concluded on April 4th after a prologue, five acts and an epilogue were assembled. On the same day, Redditor YoungLuck uploaded the entire 15-minute movie to /r/sequence subreddit (shown below).^[7]