On April 1, a mysterious button appeared that sent users of the popular online community into a spin.
A simple timer appeared and counted down from 60 seconds with a button.
Users could press it to reset the timer back to 60 seconds.
The rules were simple. “You can only press the button once. Only accounts created before 2015-04-01 can press the button. We can’t tell you what to do from here on out. The choice is yours,” Reddit stated.
So the game began.
Fascination about the button grew fast as people from around the world began to click it.
As each user clicked, they were given a colour code called a “flair”, depending on how fast they pressed the button within the timer limit.
Soon, the Reddit world became divided into camps of colour — those who hit the button early, those who held off as long as possible, and those who refused to press the button at all
Colour was everything. It determined levels of respect among their press-happy peers.
While there was no structure, the colour code created a hierarchy of button elite.
Red became the hottest colour in Reddit town. It was reserved for those who could hold out the longest and click between 0 and 11 seconds. They were hardcore.
Purple became a colour for those who would cave to the pressure to click less than eight seconds into the counter. Or as one user referred to it: “Purple is the colour Vegas is made out of”.
As Reddit user RamsesThePigeon — a grey flair who chose to abstain from pressing the button altogether — stated in the video: “It was one of the most attractive ‘what ifs?’ I suppose you can have out there. It’s a ‘what if?’ you can be personally involved in.”
The experiment was intense
As the button started to make headlines across the globe, the Brookings Institute even suggested there may actually be some awesome science in it. They said the experiment reflected ideas about prestige and that people would engage in boring tasks online for a reward.
Users also created a load of apps and browser extensions around the button.
But button was not without technical glitches. There were several times when issues caused the button to reach zero, despite ample button pressers giving it their best — yet the button did not expire.
It led to speculation it had been gamed by Reddit administrators.
In an NBC explainer video, Reddit product producer Josh Wardle said the idea of the button came to him as he was falling asleep, but he said it wasn’t designed to be a prank.
“It was kind of an art project or a social experiment,” he said.
“I didn’t have any, like, distinct goals or expectations going into it. I just wanted to put it out there and let the Reddit community decide what to do with it.
“People were really imaginative and we just gave them an avenue to be creative.”
Behind the success
As one user explained in the video, there may be a simple reason for the success of the experiment.
“That human instinct, we like to watch numbers, especially, we like to see number go up,” he said.
“When you see them going down, it’s kind of instinctively stressful.”
As time went on and awareness of the experiment grew, hundreds of threads popped up on Reddit, just to talk about the button, the future of the button, the meaning of the button, the importance of keeping the button alive, and the fear of the button finally being over.
There were even Knights of the button.
The BBC penned a piece What Reddit’s ‘ridiculous’ button tells us about mortality.
But, as the button was only available to those registered before April Fool’s Day, the button was always going to end, as the Independent pointed out.
“What if the April Fool’s joke is that it’ll never run out?” eboyblue3 asked. He was purple.
By the time the clock finally did run out on June 5, 1,008,316 Reddit users had pressed the button.
“I was here when it ended, and let me tell you, it was not barely as exciting as I thought it was going to be,” declared TehRainsOfCastamere, a mid-range button presser, permanently flared in green.
And the end result?
Button fans were left with a special kind of empty feeling.
It was a complete fizzer. Nothing happened. The timer just stopped. The end.
Since the button’s demise, there’s been assessment of the button, the statistics of the button and reflection of the button.
Now the dream is over, it seems Reddit users are even more captivated, pondering the bigger questions of the universe.
What does it all mean?
Josh Wardle had this response.
“I think in art it is sometimes a mistake for an author to try and put too much meaning on what they’re doing because the real meaning of this for me was what the community created. We just made a button. They made it successful,” he said.
What the button colour meant.
Purple: 60-52 seconds
Blue: 51-42 seconds
Green: 41-32 seconds
Yellow: 31-22 seconds
Orange: 21-12 seconds
Red: 11-0 seconds
Gray: no click
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