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If you were placed in a room with a button and told not to press it, could you fight the temptation? 

A current Reddit thread is testing its users resolve to do just this by placing a clickable button next to a 60-second timer. 

When The Button is clicked, the timer resets and it is not yet known what happens when the clock reaches zero because no-one can resist clicking it. 

More than 730,285 Reddit users have pressed The Button (pictured) since the California firm launched its r/thebutton thread on April Fool's Day. It is not yet known what happens when the timer reaches zero and users can only click The Button once

At the time of writing, more than 730,285 Reddit users have pressed The Button since Reddit launched its r/thebutton thread on April Fool's Day. 

Only people who registered on the site before this date are eligible to click The Button, and when they do they are awarded a colour, known as a 'flair.'

This colour represents the time period at which they clicked The Button, ranging from zero to 60 seconds. 

According to the Flair Guide, users get a purple flair when they press The Button between 52 and 60 seconds.  

Blue flairs are awarded between 42 and 51 seconds, green flairs are between 32 and 41 seconds, yellow flairs are awarded when The Button is pressed when the timer is between 22 and 31 seconds, and orange flairs are between 12 and 21 seconds. 

Only people who registered on the site before this date are eligible to click The Button (picutrred left with the timer pictured centre and right), and when they do they are awarded a colour, known as a 'flair.'  This colour represents the time period at which they clicked The Button, ranging from zero up to 60 seconds

Users get a purple flair when they press The Button between 52 and 60 seconds, blue flairs are awarded between 42 and 51 seconds, green flairs are between 32 and 41 seconds, yellow flairs are awarded between 22 and 31 seconds, orange flairs are between 12 and 21 seconds, and red is between zero and 11 seconds

The last colour is red and this is only awarded to those who can resist clicking The Button until the timer reads between zero and 11 seconds.

However, thousands of users at any one time are watching The Button - 2,665 at the time of writing - and if any of them click The Button, the timer resets. 

Users who registered before 1 April but have not yet pressed The Button will have a grey dot beneath their username. 

WHAT IS THE REDDIT BUTTON?  

This guide shows what the colour-coded dots, known as 'flairs', correspond to on a person's account. The numbered flair is rounded up from the time the user pressed The Button. For example, if they pressed it at 45.01 seconds, they will received a 46 second flair

Reddit launched its r/thebutton thread on April Fool's Day. 

If you created your Reddit account before 1 April 2015, you have one chance to press The Button.

If you press it, the timer resets to 60 seconds.

You can't see The Button on mobile Reddit apps.

To press The Button, you must unlock it by clicking the lock hovering over the button.

Once the lock is clicked it will expose The Button.

You do not receive flair unless you post a comment or thread, or press The Button.

If you comment or post a thread without pressing The Button, you will get a grey flair which says 'non-presser' when you hover over the colour.

If you press The Button, nothing happens other than receiving a coloured flair with a number.

The number and coloured flair you receive depends on how many seconds were left on the timer at the moment you pressed The Button.

The numbered flair you receive is rounded up from the number you pressed The Button at.

For example, if you pressed The Button at 45.01 seconds, you will get a 46 second flair.

Source: anthonyd3ca/Reddit  

Users who registered after this date will have a light grey dot and cannot take part. 

And a tally of how many flairs have been awarded, and in which colour, is shown on the right-hand side of the thread. 

The current lowest number anyone has pressed at, so far, is 27 seconds.

The first user to get a blue flair was efnex123, the first 'green' user was Sofa_King_Chubby and PopPopandAway achieved the first yellow flair. 

Users are also tweeting their views about The Button. One wrote: 'I am becoming obsessed with The Button,' while another said: 'This "button" thing on Reddit is driving me nuts. I don't know if I should press or not'

And a third expressed his frustration by tweeting: 'STOP PUSHING THE BUTTON REDDIT. I WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS WHEN NO ONE PUSHES THE BUTTON' (pictured) 

Users are tweeting their views about The Button.

One user wrote: I am becoming obsessed with The Button. Haven't pressed it yet,' while another said 'This "button" thing on Reddit is driving me nuts. I don't know if I should press or not.'

And a third expressed his frustration by tweeting: 'STOP PUSHING THE BUTTON REDDIT. I WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS WHEN NO ONE PUSHES THE BUTTON.'

It is not known how long The Button thread will remain live.

Last month Reddit had 168,519,576 unique visitors and more than 3,632,750 logged into the site yesterday suggesting there are still a large number of users left to click The Button.