This is not a hot take, people are aware of the dissonance of using Reddit to complain about Reddit. But many folks are still upset but not upset enough to leave, or would like to leave but aren’t ready for places like Lemmy yet. It still needs work and polish before the average Joe will be comfortable here.

So in the meantime I say go for it, having fuck spez be one of the main focal points of the whole canvas is incredible and sends a message. Yea most folks have heard about it by now but might be surprised users are still upset, or never really understood what the big deal was before but maybe they look into it now. Every bit of negative sentiment on Reddit about Reddit will slowly push users away. This is more than a bit of negative sentiment.

Roughly speaking, there are three different ways people handle when something they enjoy is changed in a way they don't enjoy.

The first simply cut their losses and move on, abandoning the thing. Nothing wrong with that. Things change and it's okay to move on to something else. Companies that are causing harm to their user base should suffer the consequences of their decisions. Do this too much, though, and you may find you abandon your loves too easily.

The second just accept and bear it. Arguably nothing wrong with that as long as you still enjoy it. Just be careful that apathy is not taken for permission for further change.

The third will attempt to fight back in an attempt to preserve it. These are the type who still use Reddit even though they know it's broken. They do not abandon it because to do so is to lose it entirely. They are trying to work within the system to change the system. Nothing wrong with that either, as long as you know when the battle is lost. They obviously don't believe it has been lost yet.

Can't talk for everyone, but for the case of rplace, I'd say propaganda.

I know of people who still use reddit as they always do, and its likely because they don't know reddit's latest (and terrible) corporate decisions, so using rplace to spread a message that tells people something is wrong with reddit is the first step for these people to find the right path: leaving reddit.

Sabotaging the quality of reddit also hurts spez. Advertisers have been pulling out, ipo valuation is going down. If the super users make it a place people don't want to go, they will stop going, and it will get worse. If they make life hard for the mods, some of them will say "fuck it." And stop being mods because they will realize it's not worth it.

It's not just about raising awareness

Hey, what better way to convey how people feel about Spez than to collaborate in such large numbers on his own platform to draw it out pixel for pixel...

r/place isn't gonna last much longer either, I wouldn't be surprised if many of the people that collaborated on the Fuck Spez messages end up ditching Reddit more or less altogether after r/place is over.

Honestly I can't wait to see the final time lapse.