> One recent example is Reddit trying to "catch" the Bostom marathon bombers I feel like something has been lost in the retelling. That thread was also full of

> One recent example is Reddit trying to "catch" the Bostom marathon bombers I feel like something has been lost in the retelling. That thread was also full of self-aware posts warning about mob mentality, posts criticizing baseless or racist speculation. A lot of the photos posted resulted in pretty balanced debates about whether they were worth flagging for the FBI or just completely useless. Then again, every photo was completely useless, so every photo "of interest" that was identified was a special failure. For those who don't know how it emerged, there was a photo gallery posted online that collected photos from the event. There were thousands of photos, people were just dumping their entire SD cards in there. It was obvious the set was full of noise, so the thread was designed to just put a lot of eyes on these images, ala mechanical turk, and reduce the thousands to a few dozen that were most likely to be of interest. As it happened, the full set contained no images of any value. The primary mischaracterization of the thread is actually about the student from Brown University. Speculation about him really emerged from the broader social media phenomenon. (Remember the thread's purpose, and that the student would not have been in any of the photos being reviewed... he came from completely external speculation.) That theory was primarily spread by /r/news and twitter, but /r/findbostonbombers took all the blame for it anyway, even though that was the only place with rules in place designed to prevent exactly this sort of thing. From the sub's creator: "My particular subreddit never allowed posts about him — they were immediately deleted, as a name is personal information." ... "In regard to "Find Boston Bombers," I think the media is talking like everything to do with the Boston bombers was posted there, when it's clearly not true." http://www.thewire.com/national/2013/04/reddit-find-boston-bombers-founder-interview/64455/ http://www.thewire.com/national/2013/04/reddit-find-boston-b... Sure, it was hopelessly naive as a project, and very tiny mistakes can lead to devastating outsized consequences when you're involving that many people. But, I don't know, the thread wasn't quite so thoroughly dominated by misguided monsters as the prevailing narrative suggests, and I think it's a bit of a scapegoat for how awful the entire internet was that week.