User:Maimanm/sandbox

Religious Cults of The Button
The inherent segregation on this specific Reddit community (subreddit) lead to the development of passionate cult-like religions surrounding specific flairs or beliefs towards the button itself. Each individual cult could be easily identified by the color of its flair, represented by the short time frame in which any user pressed the button. Of the cults, the most basic was the division between those that would press the button, “the pressers”, and those that would abstain, “the non-pressers”. More so, a unique cult formed over each of the six other colored flairs. The separate cults all held their own beliefs surrounding what might happen when the clock reached zero.

A public image surrounding each cult eventually developed. Some, such as the “grey” flair given to those who would not press the button, or the “red” flair given to those that pressed it when the timer showed 0-11 seconds, were regarded as pretentious and arrogant about their beliefs, and hostile towards newcomers. Others, however, like the “purple” flair given to those that pressed the button between 52-60 seconds, were seen as compassionate and welcoming to new members. Regardless, each cult maintained a public image through the use of dressed and color-coded mascots. In addition, names arose to represent each of the cults, such as “The Redguard” for the red flair, or “The Violet Hand” for the purple flair. Eventually the community built around the button referred to the colored flairs not by their color, but by the name given to the cults representing them.

Within the larger group of the grey flair, those who would not press the button, smaller cults formed with unique beliefs to others that also held the grey flair. Of these, the most prominent was the “Knights of The Button”. Members of this cult attempted to prevent the button from ever reaching zero by pressing it before the clock could fully descend. The 'Knights' went so far as to create an algorithm associated with a large pool of thousands of “dummy” accounts to press the button automatically before it could reach zero. However, of these accounts, one was not verified to have been created prior to April 1st, 2015 and therefore was unable to press the button, permitting it to finally reach zero.