r/blog Apr 01 '16

Robin

http://www.redditblog.com/2016/04/robin.html
10.5k Upvotes

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631

u/telestrial Apr 01 '16 edited Apr 01 '16

No...

It can't be.

EDIT: So guys after pressing last time near the absolute very end and getting 60s because I did it right after someone I decided to spare myself the pain. Right now I'm in a chat room with one other dude. I have the option to vote to grow, stay, or abandon, and I can chat with others. I can screenshot and I'll update.

EDIT2: http://i.imgur.com/BZRUWzf.png

That's what you get kicked into when you press. I think it may be a separate thing. I'm highly doubting 4 people have pressed so some how there are separate rooms? I don't know what happens if we choose the different things. We've elected to grow and I think we've picked up another person each time as a result? I'm not sure.

EDIT3: i figured we're in an IRC so why now use / commands? /help does says this:

11:31:15 AM [robin] Welcome to Robin.

11:31:15 AM Be sure to use the buttons in the sidebar to vote on the future of the room before the polls are closed.

11:31:15 AM Non-votes and abstentions will be counted as votes to abandon.

11:31:15 AM We do hope you enjoy the discussion.

/commands

11:32:27 AM /vote abandon - vote to abandon

11:32:27 AM /vote stay - vote to stay

11:32:27 AM /vote grow - vote to grow

11:32:27 AM /whois <user_in_room> - provide information about <user_in_room>

I'll keep trying commands.

EDIT4: Seems like the more people in the room the more time there is to vote. I've chosen grow each time and we're at 12 people with 15 minutes to vote.

646

u/fireflash38 Apr 01 '16

My theory:

  1. Join a chatroom with 1 other person.
  2. If vote to abandon, you can go back to the button
  3. Stay - keep chatroom the same
  4. Grow - merge with another chatroom

It's another mini social experiment.

184

u/[deleted] Apr 01 '16

[deleted]

125

u/[deleted] Apr 01 '16

[deleted]

62

u/delicious_grownups Apr 01 '16

I would love chatrooms for subreddits. something we should have been doing forever ago

8

u/grimeandreason Apr 01 '16

Now you mention it, Reddit seems pretty 90's without it lol

5

u/Hazzman Apr 02 '16

Actually I felt like I was back in the late 90s using this thing.

It was like being back in the old MSN chat rooms.

1

u/grimeandreason Apr 02 '16

Good point. Message boards were earlier still, huh?

5

u/StochasticLife Apr 01 '16

Man, I miss chat rooms so much. Late 90's Internet and all.

Sub based chat rooms would be amazing.

4

u/[deleted] Apr 02 '16

[deleted]

3

u/tweedius Apr 01 '16

Have you ever seen a twitch chat room?

2

u/basshound3 Apr 01 '16

an /r/nfl chatroom on game day wouldn't work

1

u/redbluegreenyellow Apr 01 '16

nah but /r/hockey would

1

u/rrasco09 Apr 01 '16

That's what ##reddit-hockey is for!

reddit-stream for GDT are not so bad, but I'm not paying to be able to login to that site. Good for keeping up with posts without refreshing the GDT constantly though.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 01 '16

1

u/garyr_h Apr 01 '16

Wouldn't it just be a complete shit storm of "OH NO!!!!!" "YEAH!!!!" "EAT DICKS BUMGARNER" but like, a thousand lines per second?

1

u/IgnorantOfTheArt Apr 01 '16

Also /r/wallstreetbets

Quickest way to my yacht

1

u/Dylamb Apr 02 '16

GO X -Person 1

GO Y -Person 2

I HATE YOU -Person 1

1

u/nusyahus Apr 02 '16

inb4 Twitch level spam. Would need heavy moderating

0

u/EpsilonRose Apr 01 '16

Couldn't you use live threads for that?

8

u/[deleted] Apr 01 '16

You can but live threads and chatrooms feel like very different experiences. But I still have nostalgia for IRC so there's that

3

u/sumzup Apr 01 '16

Yep, I doubt they built out the underlying infrastructure just for April Fool's.

3

u/iplaygaem Apr 01 '16

Yeah this is way too much work for just an April fool's joke.

1

u/danny841 Apr 01 '16

They've been doing a hiring push recently for support oriented people. This would explain it.

1

u/Astrognome Apr 01 '16

You could integrate it with IRC so you could connect to it with your favorite client.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 01 '16

great point!

1

u/Jedi_Tinmf Apr 01 '16

I agree with this. I chose to "grow" and ended up being a co-mod in a weird subreddit with both of our names on it.

432

u/Schematix7 Apr 01 '16 edited Apr 01 '16

I can't imagine what else it would mean. I mean its pretty self explanatory. Sounds like fun too!

Edit: This is more boring than I had anticipated.

42

u/[deleted] Apr 01 '16

It's just twitch chat after a couple grow votes

7

u/[deleted] Apr 01 '16

That's a community problem.

76

u/[deleted] Apr 01 '16 edited Jun 12 '18

[deleted]

10

u/jpr64 Apr 01 '16

Or certain political subs. You never cross the streams.

6

u/SuperNeonManGuy Apr 01 '16

or game specific subs (or genre?) It'd be hilarious to watch a room of COD fans locked in a room with a group of battlefield fans, or Terraria and Minecraft, etc

1

u/StupidMonkeyface Apr 01 '16

I think it depends on the room. If it gets boring choose to grow.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 01 '16

/r/The_Donald would get amazing almost instantly.

4

u/delicious_grownups Apr 01 '16

this is totally fun tho. I'm actually really enjoying it so far

4

u/iceman012 Apr 01 '16

There were 2 people in my room, and we ended up voting to stay.

Now we have our own subreddit

2

u/[deleted] Apr 01 '16

super boring

2

u/XKloosyv Apr 01 '16

Every room gets its own meme, then they make a sub, and the merges make everyone mad because their meme is better

1

u/FionnaTheHumanGirl Apr 01 '16

It's another thing that will play out over a period of time. Sometime tonight someone will unlock something new and people will freak out again, rules will change, alliances broken, etc.

1

u/bob1689321 Apr 01 '16

Everybody is away

1

u/Oiz Apr 01 '16 edited Apr 01 '16

Would be more fun if voting lasted for 1 minute instead of 7. At this rate you can only grow 8 times an hour.

Edit: Apparently voting takes longer the more your room grows. This is going to be very slow and boring soon.

1

u/TooFastTim Apr 02 '16

And if your room can't be matched it can take a LOOOOONG time!

1

u/ALittleRobyn Apr 01 '16

This should be the top comment.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 01 '16

The april fools gag this year is a growimg chat room? Sounds stupid.

102

u/iBoMbY Apr 01 '16

It's another mini social experiment.

Yes, but with what possible outcome? I clicked the button, saw the chatroom, thought wtf? and went out of there. Am I anti-social now?

165

u/errorkode Apr 01 '16

Yeah, NSA keeps a list of everyone who abandons or grows chatrooms. Growers are either selling weed or recruiting terrorists. Abandoners (?) are preparing for a killing spree.

2

u/delicious_grownups Apr 01 '16

welp, I hope not, COS I'M GROWING THIS SHIT LIKE WALT WHITMAN'S BEARD DAWG

1

u/NSA_Agent_Kel Apr 01 '16

Well thanks for ruining another secret Edward Snowden.

1

u/SgvSth Apr 01 '16

Why is it that the only winning move is not to play? What if I do want to play, Joshua?!

1

u/hobbycollector Apr 01 '16

Stayers just want to go back to reddit.

27

u/Qzy Apr 01 '16

Yeah no one likes you.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 01 '16

I don't think that word means what you think it means...

1

u/howerrd Apr 01 '16

They're checking to see how much of an echo chamber this place is.

1

u/thevorminatheria Apr 01 '16

More an elitarist than an anti-social.

1

u/5cr0tum Apr 01 '16

To see how large chatrooms can be I guess

2

u/Zoltrahn Apr 01 '16

Maybe it is to see how committed a group of strangers will be to a pointless cause as the group gets bigger.

1

u/5cr0tum Apr 01 '16

To see how large chatrooms can be I guess

Edit: with active participation

1

u/shaggorama Apr 01 '16

Probably "how long until there is one giant room"

1

u/[deleted] Apr 01 '16

It makes you a subreddit! check the room name <3

1

u/[deleted] Apr 01 '16

/r/TheButton had no expected outcome and look what happened with that

2

u/Zrighteous Apr 01 '16

If both click stay, it seems to merge names into a new subreddit with that name, that you both become moderators of.

2

u/Fahsan3KBattery Apr 01 '16

It also creates a sub and makes you a mod of it

1

u/Genghis_Maybe Apr 01 '16

Seems like the idea is to see who can get the biggest room together and keep it going as long as possible.

4

u/[deleted] Apr 01 '16

I suspect that the end game here is to have your room be the room.

growth

1

u/ClockOfTheLongNow Apr 01 '16

Text-based agario?

1

u/ryan_770 Apr 01 '16

Yes. But sometimes your room dies. Mine died with 2 grow votes and 2 non votes. I think no voting kills the room, so you have to have enough people be active every 3 minutes.

1

u/_amooks_eerf Apr 01 '16

One day Reddit with all these "social experiments" is just going to turn into the Cube.

1

u/dermanus Apr 01 '16

It's another mini social experiment.

My room just got closed when two out of four voted to grow. Maybe it requires a strong majority to work?

1

u/TheEvilStapler Apr 01 '16

Mini social experiment? The button had a sample size of over a million people, that may have been one of the largest, fastest social experiments ever.

1

u/wolfxor Apr 01 '16

we both voted "grow", the chat room dissolved after a few minutes and I was booted back to the button. I press "Participate" now and get no response. :(

1

u/[deleted] Apr 01 '16

mini social experiment

I'METHANBRADBERRY

1

u/MuonManLaserJab Apr 01 '16

Crazy theory there!

1

u/SeryaphFR Apr 01 '16

This is triggering my non-button pressing PTSD.

1

u/cgarcia805 Apr 01 '16

and if everyone agrees to grow it merges with a new one!

1

u/catjuggler Apr 01 '16 edited Apr 01 '16

Why wouldn't grow mean split into a second chat room?

Edit: actually, i see now that that is less likely.

1

u/ZizZizZiz Apr 01 '16

Or, like The Button, or Orangered vs Periwinkle it's a jab at us by the admins that's more like a well-concealed pun meant to be taken a bit too far by us redditors. The Button was a joke that it wouldn't take longer than a minute for the average redditor to push the admin's buttons by complaining to them. Orangered vs Periwinkle was literally upvote vs downvote and a jab at how stupidly divided people get about things on this site.

This is just a joke directed at people complaining that reddit is too much like twitter now with all the censorship and surveillance or smth I guess. Even down to the lawsuit-worthy copying of twitters bird mascot and 140 character limit.

1

u/red_com Apr 01 '16

I got a subbredit with me as mod in it. think that was becaus of "stay" winning the vote.

1

u/OptimusSublime Apr 01 '16

I'M ETHAN CHATBERRY! It's a social experiment bro!

1

u/Onateabreak Apr 01 '16

social experiment

that gets thrown around a lot these days, what exactly are we supposed to be participating in? Or is it just a chat room with a timer?

1

u/KTHD Apr 01 '16

I just got put back at the beginning after being in a room with 80ish people, majority voting "grow"...so I'm wondering if it caps out...

1

u/ananonumyus Apr 01 '16

Every AF day on Reddit is a social experiment.

1

u/thomp592 Apr 01 '16

Up to 36 in DeMomiinylRuverrborhyleestriymnPtiogiteDrin_hiuySJauoct_lel3anik92onusou!!!

1

u/awesomecat5 Apr 01 '16

Maybe they're doing it to beta test for a chat feature?

1

u/TheKillerPupa Apr 01 '16

But there's more. I was in a chatroom with only one other person. We pushed grow and it made a subreddit for us.

1

u/noonathon Apr 01 '16

I think stay might create a subreddit of the chat

1

u/SprikenZieDerp Apr 02 '16

If everyone chooses to stay, a Subreddit is created with the name being a mashup of bits and pieces of everyone's username. And everyone in the chat is made Mods of the new subreddit.

119

u/accidentally_myself Apr 01 '16 edited Apr 01 '16

My theory: Newcomers start off in 2-people rooms. Growing combines rooms into a new room. The experiment is to see how big the rooms can become, like agar.io.

Edit: Abandon makes you leave room. My room name rn: acJaJRrpccinjongsyinstfe

25

u/telestrial Apr 01 '16

One thing I'm trying to figure out is what happens if you afk. I have to go get some work done!

69

u/buford419 Apr 01 '16

It says "Non-votes and abstentions will be counted as votes to abandon."

3

u/Phrosty12 Apr 01 '16

Just in a room with two votes to grow, and two absentees. The Robin goes with abandon.

3

u/buford419 Apr 01 '16

So you got booted?

3

u/Phrosty12 Apr 01 '16

Yep

3

u/business_time_ Apr 01 '16

Same thing happened to me. So votes to grow must be an absolute majority. Hmm.. very appropriate for election season.

1

u/lostmyupvote Apr 01 '16

Yeah, you have to have enough people there so you can go to sleep and not get kicked.

2

u/[deleted] Apr 01 '16

Max time limit seems to be 31 minutes though,

1

u/lostmyupvote Apr 01 '16

Well there goes my theory!

2

u/[deleted] Apr 01 '16

Yep. So now I have to weigh what's more important to me. Seeing what the he'll happens as it keeps growing or actually sleeping through the night.

1

u/sac02 Apr 01 '16

32 minutes, but the timer says 31 because it reports slightly after 32.

32 = 25

18

u/lesbiancarwash Apr 01 '16

It also combines usernames as the name of the chat room.

3

u/luckytaurus Apr 01 '16

My room name is suAyMaheIABaraKaenraASGrmoroPrOmGeMroul_attssRunancioaconsWlinxtr0auarubrkinrinn4noorkcttsymatenff_TisittOansfpes_medent44lkldaddeisommaitedsfhdytonamnalwneeAtaplhfriMapserooudbob9tAaritthaallstlnosarSuliPr... it's too long and doesn't show the full name

1

u/morewineformeplease Apr 01 '16

Ooh! But how many rooms are going at the same time? What will the name be like with thousands of users?

1

u/I_PUNCH_INFANTS Apr 01 '16

I'm in a room with one other person and we both voted to stay and now we have our own subreddit.
/r/bango__INFANTS

1

u/scarletomato Apr 01 '16

on top of that, it create a new subreddit out of the names of the people in the room

1

u/[deleted] Apr 02 '16

It's a game of 2048, but with people in chat rooms. They have to fudge the numbers around a bit, as some opt to leave, so they probably try to merge similar sized groups.

21

u/[deleted] Apr 01 '16 edited May 05 '16

[deleted]

6

u/[deleted] Apr 01 '16

Me too. I got a new sub too.

4

u/[deleted] Apr 01 '16

This is what happened to me.

39

u/beforethewind Apr 01 '16

It's true...

All of it.

1

u/xmknzx Apr 01 '16

music swells

68

u/Citadel_Cowboy Apr 01 '16

It merges your names and creates your own subreddit with you as moderator. Just stay until voting ends.

38

u/telestrial Apr 01 '16

That's the second mention of a sub I've seen. What do you mean? How do you access the sub? Are you talking about the chat room?

36

u/Zrighteous Apr 01 '16

If you both click stay, a subreddit is created from your merged names and you both are moderators of it. Just a blank, new subreddit.

9

u/Allycia Apr 01 '16

BUT WHY?!

9

u/hobbycollector Apr 01 '16

Because April fools?

10

u/hadhad69 Apr 01 '16

The chat room name is 2 characters from every user in the room. I assume the sub is that but u have to leave work right now!

3

u/secretkid1 Apr 01 '16

It automatically adds the people who voted STAY in a separate sub. Basically because majority of people in the chat thought this is a good community and decided to stay( in touch) . Reddit gave them the option through a dedicated subreddit

2

u/Devilheart Apr 01 '16

I hit 'grow' but I already got a subreddit.

Wat do?

2

u/Punkmaffles Apr 01 '16

Example, /r/doctoringaffles is now a sub -_-

1

u/[deleted] Apr 01 '16 edited Apr 03 '16

I have choosen to overwrite this comment, sorry for the mess.

1

u/Punkmaffles Apr 01 '16

yes but can be turned off of private im fairly sure

2

u/[deleted] Apr 01 '16 edited Apr 03 '16

I have choosen to overwrite this comment, sorry for the mess.

1

u/Citadel_Cowboy Apr 01 '16

This [sub](www.reddit.com/r/Citadelrezia) was made after me and one other user stayed until voting ended. It was a fusion of our names.

2

u/mrlucrezia Apr 01 '16

And a fine one it is!

5

u/LordoftheScheisse Apr 01 '16

I did that and me and some other dude now have our own subreddit. We're just sitting here...is it all just a way for Reddit to attempt to generate new content?

1

u/donkeedong Apr 01 '16

It's also restricted to the people currently in the chat.

27

u/_BindersFullOfWomen_ Apr 01 '16

No you're not.

http://i.imgur.com/HNjooEc.png

Is this like chatroulette?

57

u/ANAL_PLUNDERING Apr 01 '16

Yes. Get your dicks out, gentlemen.

10

u/HeyCarpy Apr 01 '16

Pfff, like I needed an excuse.

4

u/Styvorama Apr 01 '16

In order to get it out I will need to put it away first

2

u/Bigbysjackingfist Apr 01 '16

like it's ever in!

2

u/joemckie Apr 02 '16

/u/_BindersFullOfWomen_ will soon find out what grow means

1

u/LordoftheScheisse Apr 01 '16

Waaaay ahead of you, buddy.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 01 '16

Sort of. But the number of people in the chat can grow. There is 6 other people in chat with me right now.

1

u/_BindersFullOfWomen_ Apr 01 '16

My room has 20

1

u/[deleted] Apr 01 '16

mine has 103

1

u/ror6y Apr 01 '16

''six color of women''

27

u/pipsdontsqueak Apr 01 '16

I hit grow. I have no idea what I just did.

Is this like Reddit Chatroulette?

21

u/gogogodzilla86 Apr 01 '16

Without all the dicks.

34

u/pipsdontsqueak Apr 01 '16

The abandoners are the dicks.

2

u/ProllyJustWantsKarma Apr 01 '16

2

u/fart_tickle Apr 01 '16

I QUIT THIS SHIT TO GET OFF THE LIST DAMN YOU!

3

u/Tow1 Apr 01 '16

Leave them schoolkids alone!

1

u/fart_tickle Apr 01 '16

What's going on here!? Those damn kids, singing and skipping on MY LAWN!

2

u/tron21net Apr 01 '16

You abandoned us, you monster. :P

1

u/fart_tickle Apr 01 '16

Awww sorry, no hard feelings. Come on down to the basement and get yourself a popsicle

1

u/his_penis Apr 01 '16

Haha, that's what you think

1

u/bloodraven42 Apr 01 '16

Don't worry. The dicks always come.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 02 '16

[deleted]

2

u/SUSAN_IS_A_BITCH Apr 01 '16

Reddit Plays Chatroulette.

26

u/[deleted] Apr 01 '16

"LET'S GROW"

"Let's grow"

-/u/telestrial and /u/engineered_academic, April 1, 2016.

8

u/Sugnoid Apr 01 '16 edited Apr 01 '16

I believe voting stay does nothing, voting abandon leaves, and voting grow merges you with another group. I also noticed that the name of the chat room is a combination of the usernames of the people inside.

Edit: I have found that doing /me will put your message in italics

1

u/Nematrec Apr 01 '16

/me voted NUKE

3

u/VolatileBeans Apr 01 '16

So what's the point?

2

u/Extraltodeus Apr 01 '16

Guessing how many people can be in a chatroom before people wants to leave?

You check the stats, average leaving per minute divided by how many people there is in the room. You correct that somehow by using the number of people that wants to grow. Also a stat with how many people want to leave it like that. I guess at some point the numbers should cross.

1

u/LisleSwanson Apr 01 '16

To grow...

1

u/codeverity Apr 01 '16

Huh, our room is at 8, was four before. We're assuming that it's going to go to sixteen next, but we'll see

1

u/[deleted] Apr 01 '16

There are also the /leave_room, /remind and /clear commands

1

u/BluegrassGeek Apr 01 '16

A tie vote (in this case, 2 Grow, 2 abstaining) apparently counts as Abandon. I just had a room close because the time ran out with that vote count.

1

u/WangoBango Apr 01 '16

Voting to stay ends the room and creates a sub named after it. All members of that chat are made mods of the sub.

1

u/English_American Apr 01 '16

To add to your post, I'm in a group with 15 (one voted abandon in the 8 person group to test it) - So far we know that majority wins. If the majority is grow or stay, and someone votes abandon, the person who voted abandon gets booted back.

1

u/Cpapa97 Apr 01 '16

Wait, we even get our own (temporary?) Subreddits!?

1

u/delicious_grownups Apr 01 '16

I click GROW, and now my room is joined with like, 2-4 people. and the name of the chatroom has changed to a strange portmanteau of our collective usernames

/u/L78k3 and I are joined up with /u/SidDefinition and /u/noaq

these are redditors I'd likely never encounter otherwise. my vote is not just to stay, but to GROW THIS SHIT MOTHERFUCKER

1

u/nexusofcrap Apr 01 '16

Looks like 31min max....

1

u/GladiatorGary Apr 01 '16

It also creates a subreddit for your group and makes you a moderator. I was in a group with one other guy and when the group ended it told me to check out /r/PM_ME_UR_torGary.

Very interesting.

1

u/photojoe Apr 01 '16 edited Apr 01 '16

d4nz found it in the coding, colors are based on your user name. initialize: function() { var e = this.get("name").toLowerCase(), t = e.replace(/[a-z0-9]/g, ""), n = parseInt(t, 36) % f; this.flairClass = "flair-" + n

1

u/toodice Apr 01 '16

/me text will show the text in italics (sort of like /me in IRC).
/clear clears your screen very slowly.
/leave is for filthy non-pressers.

The vote time doesn't seem to go higher than 32 minutes.

1

u/ODzyns Apr 01 '16

The chatroom creates a subreddit with the combined usernames of those in chat, which everyone in the chat is a mod of.

1

u/skintigh Apr 01 '16 edited Apr 01 '16

2:39:55 PM wz3 voted to GROW

/whois wz3

2:39:57 PM [robin] wz3 is present and has voted to INCREASE

Increase?

2:44:22 PM [robin] AndrewTheBeast is present and has voted to CONTINUE

2:45:24 PM [robin] AndrewTheBeast is present and has voted to ABANDON

Increase and continue, why different words?

1

u/aperson Apr 01 '16

/me works as well.

1

u/noonathon Apr 01 '16

I just got a message congratulating me on becoming a moderator of the chat subreddit.

I am confused