Theme: Star Wars · Duration: 25h 39m · Started: 2026-05-04 20:00 UTC · Ended: 2026-05-05 21:39 UTC

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🏆 Winner: Purple

A genuine four-way scrap. Every faction crossed 21% of total hold time, and the gap between 1st and 4th was less than 8 percentage points.

Rank	Faction	Hold %	Hold time
🥇 1	Purple	29.41%	7h 32m
🥈 2	Green	25.75%	6h 36m
🥉 3	Blue	23.12%	5h 55m
4	Red	21.70%	5h 34m

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🔘 The Button

• 473 presses from 172 unique players
• 213 active recruits (faction members) across the season
• 30 referrals signed up via referral links
• Median timer at press: 14m 18s (858s)
• Game duration: 25h 39m 38s

Press distribution

Faction	Presses	Members	Unused presses
Purple	161	59	213
Green	148	56	85
Red	85	45	126
Blue	79	53	157

Purple's win was carried by sheer participation. The most members and the most presses.

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🎬 First & last press

• First click: stegodon (stegodon.social, 🟪 purple) - 14m 53s left on the clock at 2026-05-04 20:00:07. Less than a second after the gates opened.
• Last click: livligkinkajou (slrpnk.net, 🟩 green) - 14m 49s left at 2026-05-05 21:24:45, with 15 minutes to spare before the timer ran out for good.

The opening flurry (first 8 presses)

#	Player	Faction	Timer left
1	stegodon	🟪	14:53
2	volore	🟥	14:39
3	wagnast	🟩	14:36
4	elettrona	🟪	14:47
5	winged_hussar	🟥	12:57
6	roydbt	🟩	14:48
7	zloubida	🟪	10:30
8	nusm	🟩	14:54

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🔥 Closest calls

Five players took the timer all the way to a single-digit second count:

Player	Faction	Hold	When
livligkinkajou	🟩	0:01	2026-05-04 23:57
comradepupivy	🟥	0:01	2026-05-05 00:51
tigeruppercut	🟩	0:02	2026-05-05 03:59
demigodrick	🟪	0:05	2026-05-05 03:37
squirrel	🟪	0:08	2026-05-05 20:15

livligkinkajou got the badge for closest-to-zero overall.

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🥇 Most active pressers

Player	Faction	Presses	Total time held	Longest single hold
zedstrian	🟩	15	3h 15m	15:00
squirrel	🟪	15	2h 15m	14:59
dunstabzugshaubitze	🟩	12	2h 45m	14:57
netweirdo	🟪	10	2h 23m	14:58
livligkinkajou	🟩	10	2h 03m	15:00
stegodon	🟪	10	1h 55m	15:00
sebas	🟩	10	1h 53m	14:58

• The longest holds were by Chancellors!

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🏛️ The Galactic Senate

Six elections were held over the course of the game. Five chancellors used their term; the final election ran out the clock with no nominations:

Term	Chancellor	Faction
1	stegodon	🟪 Purple
2	zedstrian	🟩 Green
3	havatra	🟥 Red
4	corvuscornix	🟦 Blue
5	rajtinka	🟪 Purple
6	(unfilled)	—

Notable chancellor moves:

• stegodon opened with a flurry - three royal decrees, two custom badges (⭐ and 🦾), two bonus presses, and a timer bonus
• zedstrian and havatra both leaned hard on Galactic Largesse, twice each
• corvuscornix burned three royal decrees in 20 minutes, a Blue blitz mid-game
• rajtinka wrapped up with two faction bonus presses for Purple, very likely the deciding shove

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Senate Voter Turnout

Election	Faction-vote ballots	Chancellor-vote ballots
1 (start of game)	30	20
2 (overnight)	9	8 ← lowest turnout, the dead-of-night election
3 (early morning)	20	18
4 (lunchtime)	20	14
5 (final)	19	22 ← highest turnout, peak engagement

Engagement climbed steadily into the final hours.

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🧩 The Stranded Jedi puzzle

Master Kellin Vos was waiting in the holocron channel for anyone who could hear him.

• 2 players completed all 9 steps:
  • 🟦 m_f finished 2026-05-05 12:34 (light/dark final reached first)
  • 🥈 w3dd1e finished 2026-05-05 15:33
• 2 more reached step 8 havatra and marauderiic (decoded the Vigenère but didn't speak the mantra)
• 3 reached step 7 zedstrian, shimozu, corvuscornix
• 5 broke past step 1 beyond that
• 246 messages in the hidden #holocron channel

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💬 Chat

4,272 messages across all channels:

Channel	Messages
#main	2,743
#purple	375
#holocron 🔒	246
#senate	223
#green	211
#red	204
#corvid-chat (pop-up)	144
#blue	126

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Top 10 chatters

#	Player	Faction	Messages
1	w3dd1e	🔴 Red	473
2	corvuscornix	🔵 Blue	424
3	squirrel	🟣 Purple	228
4	rajtinka	🟣 Purple	218
5	havatra	🔴 Red	192
6	zedstrian	🟢 Green	153
7	stegodon	🟣 Purple	126
8	demigodrick	🟢 Green	119
9	dmmacniel	🟢 Green	112
10	comradepupivy	🔴 Red	79

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Top 5 reaction emojis

Emoji	Count
❤️	200
🐦‍⬛	182
😂	133
👍	131
💯	117

The crow emoji, added to the picker only hours before the game ended, landed in second place behind the heart. A late-game phenomenon.

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🎖️ Final badges

• 🥇 stegodon - first to press the button
• 🥈 w3dd1e - runner-up Jedi
• 🟦 m_f - light-side Jedi master
• 🛡️ Sentinels - demigodrick, comradepupivy, squirrel, zedstrian, tigeruppercut, havatra
• 🛡️🏁 livligkinkajou - sentinel + closest-to-zero
• ⚡ siv9939 - chancellor's electric custom badge

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🔝 Top referrers

Recruitment chain MVPs:

Player	Faction	Sign-ups brought in
zedstrian	🟩	8
dunstabzugshaubitze	🟩	7
squirrel	🟪	5
livligkinkajou	🟩	3
snoopy	🟩	2

Green ran the strongest referral game (20 sign-ups), but Purple's existing roster was already big enough to translate into wins on the board.

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📊 By the numbers

)

• Most presses by one player: 15 (zedstrian and squirrel, tied)
• Average press timer remaining: 14:18
• Unused presses across all factions: 581 (more than were actually used!)

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⏰ Hourly Heatmap

Press volume climbed steadily into the final evening (UTC):

Shading legend: 0 · ░ 1–2 · ▒ 3–5 · ▓ 6–9 · █ 10+

Hour (UTC)	🟦 Blue	🟩 Green	🟪 Purple	🟥 Red	Total	Bar
May 04 20:00	▒ 4	█ 10	▓ 9	▓ 6	29	███████████████
May 04 21:00	░ 1	▒ 4	▒ 4	▒ 3	12	██████
May 04 22:00	▒ 5	▒ 5	▒ 3	▒ 5	18	█████████
May 04 23:00	▒ 3	▒ 5	░ 2	░ 2	12	██████
May 05 00:00	░ 2	░ 1	░ 2	░ 2	7	███
May 05 01:00	▓ 6	▒ 3	░ 2	▒ 3	14	███████
May 05 02:00	░ 2	▒ 3	░ 2	▒ 4	11	█████
May 05 03:00	0	▒ 4	░ 2	▒ 3	9	████
May 05 04:00	▒ 3	░ 1	░ 2	▒ 3	9	████
May 05 05:00	0	░ 1	░ 1	░ 1	3	█
May 05 06:00	▒ 3	▓ 8	▒ 3	▒ 5	19	█████████
May 05 07:00	░ 2	░ 2	▓ 6	▒ 3	13	██████
May 05 08:00	0	0	▓ 7	░ 2	9	████
May 05 09:00	▒ 5	▒ 3	░ 2	░ 2	12	██████
May 05 10:00	░ 1	▒ 4	▓ 6	░ 2	13	██████
May 05 11:00	▒ 3	▒ 3	▓ 6	▒ 3	15	███████
May 05 12:00	▓ 8	█ 14	█ 20	░ 2	44	██████████████████████ ← peak
May 05 13:00	▓ 8	█ 15	█ 15	▒ 4	42	█████████████████████
May 05 14:00	▒ 3	▓ 6	▒ 5	▒ 3	17	████████
May 05 15:00	▒ 3	▒ 3	▒ 3	▓ 6	15	███████
May 05 16:00	░ 1	▓ 7	▓ 8	▒ 4	20	██████████
May 05 17:00	░ 1	░ 1	▒ 5	▒ 3	10	█████
May 05 18:00	░ 2	▓ 8	▓ 9	█ 10	29	██████████████
May 05 19:00	▒ 5	█ 20	█ 21	▒ 3	49	████████████████████████ ← peak
May 05 20:00	▓ 7	▓ 9	█ 10	░ 1	27	█████████████
May 05 21:00	░ 1	▓ 8	▓ 6	0	15	███████
Total	79	148	161	85	473
Chat volume followed a similar curve, peaking at 323 messages in the 20:00 hour as the season raced toward the finish.

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🌐 The Fediverse Showed Up

Players came from 49 different Fediverse instances. Top contributors:

Instance	Players
lemmy.zip	65
lemmy.world	32
feddit.org	22
sh.itjust.works	13
piefed.social	7
lemmy.ml	7
discuss.tchncs.de	5
sopuli.xyz	4
startrek.website	3
piefed.zip	3

…plus 39 more instances with 1–2 players each. A genuinely cross-platform crowd.

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🐦‍⬛ Honourable Mentions

• Corvid Chat - the first admin pop-up channel ever spawned. 144 messages in roughly an hour. The crow emoji that arrived in the same patch promptly took silver in the reactions chart.
• The 8-vote election - election 2 fired at 02:30 UTC and got 8 chancellor votes. The dead-of-night turnout floor.
• The Light Side Choice - m_f could have hoarded ten bonus presses for themselves. They didn't. Whoever you are: that's a Jedi move. 🟦

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Bugs!

There were a couple of bugs in this Season, for which I apologise profusely for. One ended up wiping the database mid game. I managed to recover most things, but fastest press is not correct sadly, just an approximation based on chat timestamps :(

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Until next season. 🟪

Don't miss out :D

I just found out about The Button

It's cool to see more experimental fediverse gamification taking place.
"Season 3" of @thebutton starts May 4th. I hope I remember to press it.

If so, when?

The Button returns for a third season, no bonus points for guessing the theme!

The game will start Monday 4th May at 20:00 UTC (that's 16:00 EST, 13:00 PDT, 22:00 CEST)

You only get one press, but without giving away too much, you decide who the ultimate power is. Will they give you your press back? Let's hope you've put your faith in the right person!

Preregistration will open 24 hours before the game does, on Sunday 3rd at 20:00 UTC. You'll be able to get your unique referral link and whoever can refer more people, may get rewarded...

Chat opens 3 hours before the game begins at 17:00 UTC.

I mean I think there should be a button (yes of course it'd be a button) that, if within 1 hour, gets pressed by at least 50 different users, it automatically begins a new season, without an admin needing to manually start it.

The Button - Season 2 Stats

Winner: Green Faction

Green held the button the longest, narrowly beating Purple by just 2 minutes and 50 seconds.

Game Overview

Stat	Value
Game Duration	16h 23m 35s
Total Players	244
Players Who Pressed	205
Total Button Presses	242
Chat Messages	1,549
Unique Chatters	99
Referred Players	14

Faction Standings

Rank	Faction	Time Held	Share	Players	Presses
1st	Green	4h 31m 34s	27.6%	67	64
2nd	Purple	4h 28m 44s	27.3%	79	76
3rd	Blue	4h 14m 10s	25.8%	54	53
4th	Red	3h 9m 6s	19.2%	44	49

Achievement Badge Holders

Badge	Player	Achievement
🥇 First Presser	@weddingcrasher@lemmy.zip	First to press the button
🏁 Latest Presser	@skipwappallypap@lemmy.world	Last player to press
⚡ Fastest Reaction	@nusm@peachpie.theatl.social	129ms reaction time
🛡 Last-Second Save	@tamlyn@lemmy.zip	Pressed at 1.16s remaining
🔍 Mystery Solver	@solace@lemmy.blahaj.zone	Found the easter egg

Top 5 Closest Saves

Player	Faction	Timer Remaining
@tamlyn@lemmy.zip	Purple	1.16s
@tamlyn@lemmy.zip	Purple	2.25s
@hellhound1@lemmy.world	Purple	4.22s
@birne@feddit.org	Blue	5.25s
@lvxferre@mander.xyz	Red	6.84s

Top 5 Fastest Reactions

Player	Faction	Reaction Time
@nusm@peachpie.theatl.social	Green	129ms
@merdaverse@lemmy.zip	Red	372ms
@sebas@lemmy.zip	Purple	688ms
@allero@lemmy.today	Blue	856ms
@susaga@sh.itjust.works	Green	987ms

Most Active Chatters

Player	Faction	Messages
@calmblue75@lemmy.ml	Blue	201
@allero@lemmy.today	Blue	96
@mschae@discuss.mschae23.de	Green	77
@solace@lemmy.blahaj.zone	Purple	59
@demigodrick@lemmy.zip	Green	59

Top Referrer

@deathbybigsad@sh.itjust.works (Purple) referred 7 players

Press Activity by Hour (UTC)

Time Block	Presses
Apr 5, 12:00	25
Apr 5, 13:00	20
Apr 5, 14:00	19
Apr 5, 15:00	16
Apr 5, 16:00	24
Apr 5, 17:00	15
Apr 5, 18:00	10
Apr 5, 19:00	11
Apr 5, 20:00	6
Apr 5, 21:00	16
Apr 5, 22:00	17
Apr 5, 23:00	14
Apr 6, 00:00	9
Apr 6, 01:00	11
Apr 6, 02:00	13
Apr 6, 03:00	11
Apr 6, 04:00	5

The opening hour saw 25 presses as players rushed to claim the button. Activity stayed strong through the afternoon (15–25 presses/hour) before tapering off overnight. The timer finally ran out at 04:23 UTC on April 6 after a quiet stretch with just 5 presses in the final hour.

Fun Facts

• The average timer value at press was 10m 59s - most players pressed well before the 15-minute deadline
• 13 presses were made with less than 60 seconds on the clock
• 39 players registered but never pressed the button
• The margin between 1st and 2nd place was just 2 minutes 50 seconds out of 16+ hours
• Purple had the most players (79) and most presses (76) but still came 2nd

I'll start: A button to ping the admin chat for when the chat is accidentally paused

Secondary suggestion: move the pause chat button somewhere less pressable

My girlfriend's suggestion: add an easter egg that can pause chat once every 24 hours

This is a thread for reporting bugs encountered in season 2 of the Button.

When is the best time to press the button?

Wait until the leading team takes control, then press immediately. Let other teams ride out most of the full 15 minutes. If you are on the leading team, press immediately when the second place team takes control, and let the bottom 2 teams (and your own) ride.

Yes, The Button is returning for a second season!

This time around, your press resets after 24 hours and you get to press again (if the game makes it that far!)

The chat will open from 10:00 UTC on Sunday, 2 hours before the game begins.

A new feature this time around, in addition to the reset press, is achievements in chat for things like first presser and fastest presser. There may even be an Easter egg to find...

Hey all,

I just wanted to open a brainstorming post for possible future variations on the game.
Note that this is just for fun and that i hold no weight toward game decisions.

Here's a couple ideas floating around in my own head, what's in yours?

• Speed click: First team to press 100* times wins
  *Obviously this should be calibrated based on expected participation
• Short timer, for length: No teams, only community effort to make it last as long as possible but the timer is shorter
  Perhaps instead of short timer, the press value degrades over time. Basically a sub-a-thon, tbh
• Lowest score after 24hrs* wins, but still have to keep the game alive until then or else nobody wins
  *Needs calibrated for feasibility

Share your thoughts!

The Reds were meant to be the last stronghold to keep The Button alive. Dozens of us held off our push in the name of longevity.

But it lasted less than a meager 24 hours.. we have failed, and for that, my comrades, I am sorry.

Almost have a working setup for a season 2 of The Button.

I am thinking 3 presses each, with an hour minimum between each press? Should give plenty of life to the game.

Also curious as to when the community would like to see it run again. I'm mindful it was originally an April Fools thing so I can run it again in a few hours so that everyone can get a go today. Or I can wait a couple of weeks so people don't feel to burned out on it?

If there is a season 3 though, that will probably be a couple of months away to give people a chance to miss playing it!

Hello everyone - I hope you enjoyed the first season of The Button! I certainly did 😀

Below are some stats based on Season 1, which I hope you find interesting!

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The Button — Season 1 Final Stats

Overview

Stat	Value
Duration	12.6 hours
Total Players	378
Total Presses	292
Chat Messages	2,906
Fediverse Instances	58
Median Timer at Press	13:32

Faction Standings

Faction	Control %	Members	Presses
Purple	29.8%	124	99
Green	29.6%	107	79
Blue	26.0%	94	76
Red	14.6%	53	38

Purple wins by just 0.2% over Green.

Records

Record	Player	Faction	Value
First Press	@weddingcrasher@lemmy.zip	Purple	14:59 remaining
Last Press	@mschae@discuss.mschae23.de	Green	13:29 remaining
Fastest Reaction	@simpliston@programming.dev	Green	63ms after reset
Closest to Zero	@melvisntnormal@feddit.uk	Purple	1.4s remaining

Milestones

Press #	Player	Faction
1st	@weddingcrasher@lemmy.zip	Purple
10th	@ptz@dubvee.org	Blue
25th	@protoknuckles@lemmy.world	Red
50th	@potter297@lemmy.zip	Purple
100th	@stellarextract@lemmy.zip	Purple
150th	@caesium@lemmy.world	Blue
200th	@hereiamagain@sh.itjust.works	Blue
250th	@chunes@lemmy.world	Red
292nd (final)	@mschae@discuss.mschae23.de	Green

Top Instances

Instance	Players
lemmy.zip	118
lemmy.world	64
sh.itjust.works	34
piefed.zip	14
piefed.social	11
feddit.org	11
lemmy.dbzer0.com	8
lemmy.ca	8
sopuli.xyz	7
lemmy.blahaj.zone	7

Hourly Activity

Hour (UTC)	Presses
2026-03-31 20:00	25
2026-03-31 21:00	19
2026-03-31 22:00	21
2026-03-31 23:00	36
2026-04-01 00:00	33
2026-04-01 01:00	29
2026-04-01 02:00	24
2026-04-01 03:00	13
2026-04-01 04:00	22
2026-04-01 05:00	17
2026-04-01 06:00	20
2026-04-01 07:00	13
2026-04-01 08:00	11
2026-04-01 09:00	9

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I am working on updating the platform to support multiple seasons with modifiers :) more info soon!