On April Fool's Day 2015, a mysterious new page appeared on Reddit, featuring an oblong blue button, and next to it a clock ticking down from a minute. Every time anyone clicked on the button, three things happened: they couldn't press it again, the timer reset, and a small coloured circle appeared next to their name. No one knew what would happen if the countdown reached zero.
There are lots of ways of describing Reddit that are both accurate and fail to capture what it is. It is one of the most popular websites in the world, with 330 million active users. It's a “social news site”, the “front page of the Internet”, a place where users can “up-vote” the stories they think deserve prominence. But none of these quite works. A better picture comes through what had happened 10 million clicks of The Button later: the Knights of the Button had formed to keep the button going, never letting it tick down to certain oblivion. The coloured circle beside one's name depended on the exact number on the clock at the time of clicking and “The Purps” formed to celebrate going as early as possible. The Emerald Council stood for balance, pressing the button at the halfway point. Some people would watch the button for hours so they could press it in the last eleven seconds, and join the coveted Redguard.
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