Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/04/10/how-reddit-users-created-a-col.html
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It’s an interesting read, but one line kind of bothered me:
Perhaps the most amazing thing is that on an anonymous, no-holds-barred space on the Internet, there were no hate or racist symbols at all.
That’s not true actually. Although none seem to have shown up in the end result, there were quite a few attempts to get racist symbols in the mix.
One example is the Tux Penguin. Below that it says “GNU / Linux”, but earlier on it said “GNU + Linux”, which had to be changed because assholes were constantly trying to convert that plus sign to a swastika.
I’m sure there were several other similar occurrences that were beaten down by the works of better people.
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That’s actually one of my favourite parts. Not that such crap didn’t exist, but that it didn’t triumph.
Personally, I spent the entire weekend (far, far too much of it according to my SO) defending someone else’s national flag from vandalism - simply because they appeared to need the help more than my own, and I thoroughly enjoyed the absurdism.
This interaction between different ‘groups’ defending/promoting different ‘art’ was the best part, easily. Seeing various doodles have diplomatic struggles (and treaties & successes) with neighbouring doodles was fascinating.
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There’s a flag that appears towards the end just to the left of the Van Gogh, which seems to be based on a Nazi flag, but green and with an iron cross instead of a swastika, and the 4chan logo instead of the iron cross. I think? I’m not quite sure what it is supposed to mean, but I guess somebody took offense because by the end it had been mostly converted to a rainbow flag.
Overall though, I am impressed by the paucity of hateful symbols given that there were no apparent controls against them aside from the collective action of the community.
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Remember that dude with his annoyingly successful million-dollar web page?
That was, ooh, idea #547 in my “why didn’t I think of/attempt that first” list. I mean, it was 2005.
Really well executed. What a wonderful opportunity that must be for a designer, to get the opportunity to turn all of reddit loose on their idea. Reddit may treat serious issues like a silly game, but they treat silly games as a serious issue.
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