this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2026
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Canvas

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Canvas — A collaborative annual pixel placing event for the Fediverse!



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Atlas

https://2026.canvas-atlas.fediverse.events/

Timelapses

Organized by @grant@toast.ooo

founded 3 years ago
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Drop your ideas for future events or leave some feedback for next year!

Main thread: https://toast.ooo/post/15168448

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[–] Sibbo@sopuli.xyz 0 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I have the feeling that people are botting, especially the bronies. Anyone else has the same feeling, or are there just so many of them that they always immediately react if you paint over their stuff?

[–] Ategon@programming.dev 0 points 1 month ago

the bronies are by far the largest faction in the event and with pixel pulses you can catch someone griefing pretty quickly

[–] Muehe@lemmy.ml 0 points 1 month ago (3 children)

I tried ranking my flower vine over their border with the Lemmy logo, and initially they resisted, but then I showed them what I wanted to do with the cursor and they let me. Didn't feel like botting.

[–] ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.net 0 points 1 month ago

I loved how you made your vine sync up with our sunflower patch (above the SLRPNK logo and Turtle Island flag) ^^

[–] Mubelotix@jlai.lu 0 points 1 month ago

Your vine was beautiful, my GF and I continued it a bit

[–] Pandantic@midwest.social 0 points 1 month ago

I also had a good experience with the bronies being polite to my art once I messages them. I don't think they were botting, I just think they are numerous and well coordinated because they already have established groups.

[–] enchantedgoldapple@sopuli.xyz 0 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

The quality of life improvements for the canvas UI over the years made the experience for this year's canvas event incredible! I virtually had no complaints for the core features save for the buggy pixel cooldown timer, which was fixed later on. The best feature about this year was the addition of cursors, which really brought the canvas to life, plus it helped strangers coordinate with the pixel placements and also communicate with each other through gestures.

Here are my suggestions for improvements for the next year's canvas event:

  1. Make the template feature more intuitive: The current UI for adding templates through the URL was not obvious initially. Ideally the cotemplate feature should be integrated with the canvas UI instead of being in a separate webpage. If not possible, then at least add an option to display a short guide on using templates.
  2. ~~Allow non-team members to access other teams' templates: It was difficult assisting other users with their art since I didn't have access to their template (or I didn't know that I did). Even if I'm not in a team, I should at least have a read-only access to use other teams' templates on my own.~~ It's only after the event finished that I got to know that I could've used other teams' templates after all, even though I did spent considerable time in the website trying to figure out how. I guess this should be clubbed under 1.
  3. Add coordination-centric reactions for cursors: The cursor reactions feature could be extended so you could communicate with other users directly with your cursor for coordination without actually having to text others. You could add emojis like thumbs up, thumbs down etc, tool icons like pencil, erase, fill etc, and even directional symbols like arrows pointing vertically, horizontally, diagonally etc.
  4. Add option to only place pixels on left mouse click: It was only later in the event that I realised that I was placing pixels even while right-clicking which I had reserved for moving through the canvas, wasting pixels in the process and possibly littering other users' art. It would be better to have control over how pixel placement has to be triggered.
[–] joeljoelle@piefed.blahaj.zone 0 points 1 month ago

I did find myself wishing for a thumbs up reaction or something like that it would be very handy indeed!

[–] Rose@lemmy.zip 0 points 1 month ago

The keybind explanations aren't particularly descriptive and it would be good if there were better descriptions for the reactions in particular, maybe even with a preview of each. Other than that, the event was great. Thanks.

[–] Staden_@pawb.social 0 points 1 month ago (2 children)

A preview of the emotes on the keybinds list would be good

[–] Ethanol@pawb.social 0 points 1 month ago

and maybe increase the duration and size of the emoji reactions showing! I could barely tell what they show xD

[–] Staden_@pawb.social 0 points 1 month ago

Also a short guide for the template features

[–] waldfee@feddit.org 0 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Perhaps the cooldown could be reduced when coloring a blank pixel. I think this could accelerate initial efforts without affecting later interactions

[–] Deebster@infosec.pub 0 points 1 month ago

I'm not sure I agree - this could lead to a massive land grab at the start, making it even harder to find space for new art for anyone coming later.

It always would make it easier to sabotage any art with white in, since you could colour it in quicker than people could fix.

[–] Snoopy@piefed.social 0 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

It works well on mobile, very good job, thank to the dev team :3

However i have connexion problem with ironfox, i had to switch to chrome 💀 maybe it was my own settings or something else.

I have one idea to suggest you. The template layer could be a box where we can :

  • move in the canvas with our finger or mouse
  • reduce its size (width) by clicking on an arrow at the bottom right coner.
  • fix its position by clicking on a check arrow
  • manage its opacity by clicking on a button near template button. It should be located at the bottom bar.

It would be easier if we can manage it directly on the canvas instead of going into the sidebar :)

Here is a quick drawing of my suggestion :

XFV8YSex5OOnm7c.jpg