Redditors beg for stricter r/place moderation as bots overrun community
Reddit/r/placer/place has been continually overrun by bots as users try to overtake certain parts of the canvas, and redditors are calling for stricter rules against those using botted accounts.
With a canvas as large as r/place’s to work with and a 5 minute timer on being able to place new pixels, it’s no surprise that active communities taking to the canvas have gotten the help of bots to make their mark.
However, users have been left annoyed by how rampant bot usage is. Even if they can be used in positive ways to create intricate images, they can also paint over entire swathes of the canvas in seconds.
This has led to redditors asking for stricter moderation to be placed on newly created accounts in the ongoing struggle against groups with bots at their disposal.
r/place Reddit canvas plagued by botted users
r/place is a one-a-year event that allows redditors all over the world to make their mark on a massive canvas one pixel at a time. Users are allowed to put up whatever they want (within reason) to represent the world from that year.
Some users get incredibly creative, like a group of people who created a timelapse of a music video by the name of Bad Apple by continually changing out pixels to creating a moving image that lasted for hours.
Alternatively, there are those who claim territory on the board and plan to keep it. Redditors have been frustrated with bots erasing entire parts of the r/place canvas in seconds, and a community from Morocco taunting people who aren’t using bots has pushed many to ask for stricter moderation or to start “wars” with bots of their own.
It’s at the point where many users think everyone is using bots to maintain their section of the board and ward off others.
The same community that created the aforementioned Bad Apple music video has denounced bots, claiming that they did the entire video on their own and calling for others to stop using bots on the canvas.
Users in the comments on several posts have suggested reddit create restrictions on new accounts or accounts that haven’t posted in a while, ensuring that only active users can participate in r/place. With the canvas winding down at this point, it’s a bit late to make changes.
However, this hasn’t kept users from admiring the art created by massive groups of people with a plan and a lot of time on their hands.
It remains to be seen whether or not r/place’s rules change in the future to counteract bot accounts on the site.