Excellent points. When a big story hits- we start digging- lots of us and sometimes in that process we hit a dead end or identify the wrong John Doe. But what’s great is the teamwork- when someone learns they’ve gone down the wrong road they simply change direction. It’s important for lurkers to understand (though I’m sure not all do) that digging for facts is ongoing- it’s a scavenger hunt- not paint-by-numbers. We don’t start out knowing all the facts and just fill in the details.
I’ve seen other sites do this a little bit -but I’ve never seen anything like the collaborative effort of freepers on the trail of a story.
P.S. It’s now OVER 20,000!
well said, FRiend, well said
Problem is, it looks like DHS wants to get to the info and scrub it before we do. I can’t tell you how disturbing that is.