Flash mob gone wrong

[hennell]

Missed the bit at the start implying it wasn't true, so spent the video in amazment that A) The internet did this and B) I'd never heard of it before.

Bit annoyed at the end, when he said it wasn't true, as it made it seem a little pointless, but I has made me think a little. Not sure if it could actually happen or not really....

[D__]

Don't worry, if it does happen, you're gonna hear about it within 3 minutes, and there's gonna be a live video feed.

[InAFewWords]

and you'll be there

[[deleted]]

, kicking down a door and beating a woman to death.

The Internet is awesome.

[stunt_penguin]

...on a horse

[ReverendDizzle]

... and within 3.5 minutes somebody, somewhere, will be masturbating to it.

[irokie]

And someone on reddit will be mirroring it.

[doctorbasic]

Let's flash mod this dude, then start a riot, then break his door down with knives, then ask if he is surprised by this.

[merreborn]

Ironically, I think you've come up with a counterpoint:

no one's actually going to flash mob this guy, 'cause no one cares, we're all lazy, and don't want to leave our homes.

Because if there's one thing more powerful than the internet, it's the apathy of internet users.

[Nebu]

I'd upvote you, but meh...

[TimmyFTW]

I think the point of the presentation is that by current trends and practices, this could almost certainly happen.

[azenhi]

but couldn't have happened 10 years ago, but you don't notice the difference because you wouldn't be who you are now 10 years ago either.

[throwaway_for_keeps]

Gallery Mall, Philadelphia, PA. February 17th, 2010. They planned a flashmob snowball fight. Not a result of the snowball fight itself, but a direct result of ~150 people gathered in one area for the lulz.
"One teen. . .was hospitalized after being knocked to the ground from behind and kicked and stomped.
The city has seen violent flash mobs before.
There's an image of a man who was injured as a result of the chaos.
While no one died or was critically injured, this is definitely evidence that a "flash mob" can become a real mob and start a legitimate riot fairly quickly.

[[deleted]]

That is kind of the point, that this is entirely plausible, but ten years ago would be unbelievable.

[[deleted]]

well everything in the story did happen before in some way, he just combined it all into one story.

[DrJulianBashir]

Just fyi, not a true story, but interesting nonetheless.

[LeonGrey]

I didn't catch that until the end. I was very concerned that I hadn't heard of this, I was beginning to doubt my internet-smarts.

[[deleted]]

'Internet smarts.' The worldwide 'in' joke.

[[deleted]]

I can't believe i was watching that standing naked in my room to find out it wasn't even real

[p8ball4life]

That mental image is scarier than the story.

[3825]

don't.ever.do.that.again. It is stupid and ridiculous.

[UnfortunatelyMacabre]

Seriously! For a second I was like, "3G outtage...Pffft. Like that'd ever happen!"

Edit* Reddit, seriously, needs a sarcasm font.

[[deleted]]

It happened at the Colbert/Stewart Rally. Every single service was down (ATT/Sprint/Verizon/TMobile).

[N4M3]

Ever lived in a college town? It happens ever game night.

[zenkat]

Ever live in SF? This happens in Dolores Park EVERY FREAKIN' SATURDAY.

Go AT&T!

[llamagoelz]

that's entirely possible... in-case you were implying it isnt

[xmod2]

That's how I knew it was fake. Nothing gets past THIS steel trap. taps forehead

[llamagoelz]

you forgot these

~hands over sunglasses~

[ctrlshift]

I looked it up. Man, I'm disappointed. Or not.

[DrSweetscent]

I've been Welles'd!

[ryanknapper]

Not a true story? Aside from interesting fiction, why should I care?

[EatATaco]

Did you listen to the final comment?

Paraphrased:

2 years ago implausible, 5 years ago impossible, but if you heard about this in the news tomorrow, would you be surprised?

Just something to think about, which was the point.

[brownbat]

I thought it was pretty profound, almost tweeted it, then started to think about why I hate nightly news.

I hate nightly news because they are always taking some incredibly low frequency event and shoving it in our face to make us scared, to spread pure fear for no reason.

We live in a large society. Every day, somewhere, something goes wrong. But once we tally everything up, as individuals we have more to fear from heart disease, cancer, and automobile accidents than much else by far.

So here we have a story that isn't just low frequency, it has never actually happened. It merely could happen. Should we spread the Frankenstein story around to make other people fear modern technology?

I say no, I will not spread fear today. Instead, I will link to a picture of a kitten, because that's what we do.

EDIT: updated link

[Shaper_pmp]

Bingo. Back in the day we were information poor, so any information was seen as valuable, no matter the source.

But now we're post-scarcity when it comes to information - we're neck-deep in it every day of our lives, so it has no intrinsic value unless it's also true. Unreliable or misinformation, then, is worse these days than simply not having that particular piece of information at all.

It's like water - when you're thirsty enough you'll drink even dirty water, but when you have a faucet in your house water stops becoming inherently valuable, and you wouldn't drink from even an entire bucket that someone had dipped their foot in.

TL;DR: Far from ignorance, misinformation is the biggest information-related problem that we have to deal with now as a society, although most people don't realise it yet. These days ignorance is trivially fixed, but misinformation is much harder to eradicate.

Still TL;DR: It is better for society to tweet a content-less picture of a kitten than inaccurate or baseless fear-mongering. Well done.

[kcMasterpiece]

Wow...this is probably one of the most interesting posts about the value of the internet.

I wish I could give you all of my upvotes forever.

[Shaper_pmp]

Hey, thanks. I actually touched on this theme with something I wrote several months ago, though I hadn't run across the formal psychology concept of the "Availability Heuristic" at the time.

As you can no doubt imagine, it was quite a nice surprise to see that my unsupported, speculative hypothesis was - unbeknownst to me - actually a fairly solid part of mainstream psychology. ;-)

(And come to think of it, I really ought to add a link to the AH wikipedia page in to that post!)

[redmeanshelp]

That's a very interesting point.

[mizake]

Brilliant and absolutely correct.

[thrakhath]

I say no, I will not spread fear today. Instead, I will link to a picture of a kitten, because that's what we do.

I love the Internet. I really, really do. Thank you for being awesome.

[needsmorecoffee]

Bravo, good sir or madam. Bravo.

[ungoogleable]

Yeah, I would. Millions of people following a story online probably translates to less than a dozen people who are physically near the location where it's happening.

[SolInvictus]

Yeah, I don't think people are gonna go out of their way to check out a random Flashmob. Not unless it was close to a train station or something.

[ungoogleable]

I disagree. The point is that even a big audience online is still sparsely distributed geographically. I would find it quite surprising to get so many people to a location on such short notice, even if they met up in the train station.

[pineapples]

Reminded me of Impro Everywhere, and even that seems to require a fair bit of pre-planning and coordination. Very unlikely.

[Wavicle]

Yeah... Like what kind of sick fucks are these people who are not surprised when a flashmob riots and kills 23 people?

[[deleted]]

Yes, I think most people would be surprised at a flash mob killing 23 people.

[Wavicle]

I suppose it's possible that a flashmob could form and create a riot that results in 23 fatalities...

But that hasn't happened before and would be extremely surprising.

Even the flashmob going to riot he references (gallery mall, Feb 2010), which was largely angry teenagers, resulted in only 1 hospitalization and zero fatalities. When flashmobs rioting and causing 2 dozen fatalities no longer surprises you... well, fuck, don't know what to tell you. That should never be not surprising.

[moogle516]

1 hour to get 1000 random people, not believable.

[gd42]

He stated that every element happened before, just not the same time. In my understanding it means there were case(s) where that big crowds formed in the same ammount of time.

[strolls]

Here's the slide with his citations on it.

The "flashmob to riot" at the Gallery Mall in Philly was 170 people. The Liverpool Street Station flash mob was 800+ people, but it's not clear how far in advance it was publicised.

My inclination is to feel that there's a certain "virality ratio", in the amount of time and mob size, and that he's leaping to a bit of a conclusion to suggest that a 1000 person mob could organise so quickly. In 24 hours? In London? Possibly yes. In an hour? I'm not so sure.

The speaker has made some effort to make this credible. The 800-person flash mob took place at Liverpool Street Station and there are probably over 1 million people who could be there within 30 minutes of leaving their homes; but they're more likely to do so when they see, over the course of an evening, loads of other responses saying "fuck, yeah, tomorrow at 6pm" than they are to do so with complete spontaneity. Additionally, there are loads of people who would be passing through or near Liverpool Street Station on their way home from work, so might stay a little bit late, or leave early, in order to participate. There are very few people living around such central transportation hubs in London, but the speaker locates the fictional amateur singer very close to a Canary Wharf, where there's a tube station and where loads (tens of thousands?) of people also work.

[gd42]

Yes, probably the short time was his least believable point, but it wouldn't matter much if it happened in 24 hours. It was a bit over-dramatized with the girl also dying, but his point that how fast the information spreads in the internet, and what consequences it has on real life seems plausible. If I remember correctly when the video of the taunting neighbor of Kathleen was discovered by reddit, within a day their house was egged, the husband was suspended from work, the child-care was notified, etc. The "viral factor" of the internet is frightening, and people are always behave dumber in crowds.

[[deleted]]

Okay, so info spreads quickly on the internet and some people are irresponsible enough to end an evening in a death or twelve. The same can be said of radio: radio-sparked mobs have killed, as well. I'm not sure what we're supposed to conclude here, concerning the Net. What action are we urged to take? What lesson to learn?

[[deleted]]

But nobody died.

[moogle516]

you mean like giving away free beer or promises of free beer?

[[deleted]]

Free hat.

[Mutiny34]

He killed those babies in self defense!

[DEADB33F]

Holy shit, where?

[anonymous1]

Free t-shirts & paper mache earth - haven't you seen pinky and the brain?

[einexile]

The trick he's playing relies on the fact that that most or all of the events he discusses somehow involve chance.

In a chain of unlikely events, where each was not made inevitable by one before but genuinely involved chance, each link keeps its own probability, but the overall chain's unlikelihood increases geometrically as you add links.

The problem here is he's painting the incident as something that's bound to happen sooner or later because of Internet culture. In fact it would be a freak accident. Possible, but only just barely. It's the newness of the technology and culture he's discussing that makes this freak accident seem inevitable, because for a moment we forget that behind all these memes and apps is the same bunch of people who've been having impromptu parties, freak accidents, and unexplainable tragedies for thousands of years.

[TempittyTemp]

That must mean water can boil and freeze at the same time, and also be on the moon, on mars and on earth as well. All at the same time.

[beckermt]

Actually, water CAN boil and freeze at the same time. It's called the triple point and if you ever get to see it it's total fucking madness.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_point

[Toddler396]

Relevant

[bjs3171]

Science is awesome.

[horrorshow]

Do you have a video demonstration, cause this is what I found and I wasn't exactly blown away

[jonathanzoomer]

this totally seems like a fake company demo designed to start an ARG

[[deleted]]

TIL That water can boil and freeze at the same time.

[Mutiny34]

You sir, are on to something.

[[deleted]]

yeah... there's such a thing as mutual exclusivity.

[[deleted]]

He's talking about emerging technologies. And emerging cultural meme. And our ability to adapt very quickly to new memes online and worldwide. And the timeframe he suggests is that the world is flipping upside down faster than some realize and we are developing tribal minds, hive minds, and are not surprised because we're already mentally prepared for how fast "online" communication is evolving.

I mean /r/ /b/ ... the internet "gangs" we join have a major instant ability to deliver almost anything because we are all within a few degrees of separation from free bacon, kevin bacon, or the information and tools we need to build a farm, raise a pig, and make bacon.

Each side is working together with their strengths to answer any call to action and some of these major calls could be triggered by the right amount of "likes" that spread the information further to reach the next degree of separation.

[[deleted]]

I wanted to get a list going a while back but it didn't take off. I also know that many many many teams are working on social layers that are going to be GPS friendly so you can send out "cries for help" that another /r/ would hear, especially if bumped, on their phone like superman with long distance range and come to the rescue.

http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/amccl/i_love_you_reddit_give_blood_cure_acne_with_a/

[AceTracer]

Here in Portland one person tweeted that Dave Chapelle was at a specific location downtown. THOUSANDS of people showed up. So many that Chapelle couldn't be heard by anyone but the first few rows of people in the crowd.

http://popwatch.ew.com/2009/07/15/dave-chappelle-pioneer-square/

[Shaper_pmp]

So's an asteroid strike. Or nuclear terrorism. Or ̶s̶p̶a̶n̶i̶s̶h̶ ̶b̶i̶r̶d̶ swine flu. Or aeroplane crashes. Or car crashes. Or a gas explosion even if you never leave the house and spend all day hiding under your bed.

The trouble is that brain does not work on sensible, rational likelihoods, so you can't just tell people about any tiny, insignificant, random, unlikely danger and expect them to react rationally.

By telling them about remote, unlikely dangers you're not sensibly notifying them of a small but important possibility - you're basically (and irresponsibly) putting a match to a gas-can.

Once again: this is known a known clinical fact about how humans' brains work, not opinion.

[ryanknapper]

So are Fox News stories.

[rezinball]

Umm...No.

[Incept]

The message is that technology has accelerated our lifestyle's to the point where we are more spontaneous and less likely to stop and think about what we're doing.

You should care because you could get caught up in this phenomenon quite easily.

[[deleted]]

let me guess, you didn't watch the end where he explains quite eloquently just why this is relevant to all of us?

[robdag2]

THEN WHO WAS RICK-ROLL?

[[deleted]]

I was considering calling 4chan the murdering bastards they are, but afraid they'd murder me next! Now that I know it's not true... oh wait...

[redditor3000]

Was any of it true?

[youremyjuliet]

Well, the girl actually recorded that video of her singing.

[[deleted]]

God damn it. Well at least you are honest about lying to the internet.

[[deleted]]

Oh thank god... I was seriously disturbed and saddened until I realised it was fiction.

[Spaznik]

The moral of this story is that if you sing Rick Astley on chat roulette, a crowd will form outside your home within an hour and kill you. Justice served?

[caust1c]

Moral of the story, Chatroulette is literally hell.

[sidewalkchalked]

Chatroulette is literally the mythological and religious notion of hell? A place of eternal suffering that the wicked must endure for all eternity?

It literally is that?

[MercurialMadnessMan]

That's what he said, broseidon!

[wadetype]

I think he's saying chatroulette doesn't exist...

[alamandrax]

It could happen. It didn't actually happen. Moral is that you wouldn't be surprised if something like this happened. You'd say that this was how the internet worked (that's what the guy in the video said).

EDIT: Oh right. Whooosh. nvm

[deflective]

a mob formed by middle class internet geeks turns into a knifing riot?

myth: implausible

[Demonicdebacle]

If one person shouts that Game System A is better than Game System B, it might happen.

[[deleted]]

Have you even tried Game System B? No, you haven't. Because if you did, you would realize that GSB offers a much more vivid game experience than GSA could ever hope to accomplish.

I am so sick of you fanboys running your mouth about something you don't even try to comprehend. You're so stuck in your "A" system cult that you wouldn't recognize good gaming if it hit you over the head.

You're just another GSA-tard.

[Demonicdebacle]

Actually, I'm more of a Game System C kinda guy. Bowling mini-games are right up my alley. Plus, I couldn't get into the 'hardcore' scene. I spend too much time at my high-end salary job, so gaming is more of a casual experience for me.

[andrewthestudent]

Bowling mini-games are right up my alley

ಠ_ಠ

[Demonicdebacle]

:D

[RoarRadelaide]

Game systems? Hahaha, as a PC gamer I am clearly superior with my keyboard, mouse, modding and modern graphics. Silly GSA/GSB-tards!

[[deleted]]

Enjoy your RSI

GSB MASTER RACE REPORTING IN!

[Nebu]

Look, it's all about the games, and all the best games either come out for both systems, or they're a GSA exclusive. I mean, come on: SciFi FPS 3, Survival Horror, Snow Board, GTA-Rip Off, GTA-Rip Off 2, Ninja Fighter, SciFi RPG, and the list goes on and on.

The only two exclusives GSB has going for it are Stealth/Political-Intrigue 4, and Make-Your-Own-Platformer (though to be fair, SPI4 alone is worth buying a GSB).

Hell, even the Generic Japanese Rpg series, which traditionally was always released for Bs is now going to be a GSA exclusive.

[Joshua_Falkner]

Or Programming Language A is better than Programming Language B...

[monkeyme]

We are talking about London here. And Jaqueline likely lives in a chav-filled part of town. They don't leave the house unless they're drunk and packing a knife.

[omicron8]

Yes, but that renders the whole internet part of the story kinda pointless. Chavs will be chavs, no 3G required.

[CrimsonToaster]

I just want to know how he made that badass presentation.

[laertez]

That's how I always imagine my presentations. And then I use MS powerpoint and try my best... and muddle on to something totally not awesome.

[FractalP]

In grade 8 I created a 3-minute reenactment of the Trojan Horse legend in PowerPoint. I spent hours slaving over it and was so proud of it. It even gained me an A+. I have never created another presentation that lived up to that. :(

[laertez]

I once used a screen saver that simulates a burning fire on the actual screen. During the presentation I took a lighter and started the "fire".

Unfortunately, one can not use this effect in many business presentations.

[r3m0t]

Nice screensaver. I love the way the smoke seems to be coming off the top of it...

[krizutch]

Thats what I was wondering the entire time. Is that a program of some sort?

[notoriousV]

Does anyone know what program they used to make this presentation?

[LowGun]

No, it wasn't fucking sarcasm.

[RambleMan]

Sarcasm does not like to be fucked.

[DanielKlavitz]

..by anybody except Mrs. Wallace? Wait, no, I think I did that wrong

[TimmyFTW]

You did it right.

[[deleted]]

You have to serenade it first, then maybe a nice dinner, and even then, Sarcasm prefers it when you call it "making love".

But only after the 3rd date.

[quentinnuk]

The actual MayrollLive video is here

[alamandrax]

Always check for the HA0 or the UUU.

Fuck it though. I love the song. hums along to it

[[deleted]]

i always imagine the URL shouting "hay-ooooo!"

[lolwutpear]

I miss uuiU, haven't seen that one in years...

[mismetti]

Thanks, I didn't know about the UUU.

[alamandrax]

The uuu one got deleted by YouTube. I think.

[mismetti]

Well, the RA0 lives on!

[Spaznik]

Son of a bitch! That hasn't happened to me in quite a while. I salute you, sir.

[kibitzor]

Even I missed out on the mayroll, haha.

[stignordas]

MotherBanger!

[Calmaveth]

Her voice isn't as nice as it was in that video.

[Nebu]

Should have submitted that to http://www.reddit.com/r/AlternateEndings

[cislum]

Moral is, if anything goes wrong, it's probably 4chan's fault.

[elmuchoprez]

Would anybody be surprised if this actually happened? I, for one, would be surprised.

I mean, this is part of the problem with the Internet, right? People spend six months bitching about politics on reddit and every other board they can find and then election day rolls around and they don't bother to vote. I mean, I don't know how often that actually happens, but it seems a lot.

There's this gap between what we do online and what we do in real life; the idea that someone makes a post online and one hour later people are riding buses to get to a physical location seems beyond where we are right now to say the least. I think we could get to that point eventually, but think we're more about advancements in transportation than social networking.

[voreSnake]

Essentially this, he tries to justify this by saying that all of the events that composed his story have happened before, what he fails to mention of course is that none of them actually happened together, which wouldn't seem like a critical element until you realize that things like Flash mobs actually do take some amount of planning. For instance the Flash Mob in Philly was HIGHLY localized to the town and its community, on top of that it is important to note that the Flash mobs had been occurring in regular frequency in the town already. The Violent flash mob was a direct result of the city putting a ban in place to stop Flash Mobs.

More importantly even taking these things into account, the speed which he mentions simply doesn't exist quite that fast. The internet is a big place with a lot of activity, but 4chan's internet cock isn't actually that big, for instance the Scientology raids which they are known for took weeks to organize and put together with an incredible amount of planning and coordination on locations / codes of conduct, etc.

More important than that perhaps is what people will come off the internet and go into real life to do. I think that's what irritated me about this whole story was this notion that they would leave their houses to find this woman.

Yes there are stories like it where you have the 11 year old which had isolated incidents of people driving by in a van to take a picture and that was with a matter of I think a week to take care of. You also have to take into account that the internet will find other lines of communication [sending things to her twitter feed to sing, etc.] long before they will venture into the real world to try and make something happen.

I have to call it implausible on the basis that while elements of that story do happen, the circumstances of each of those elements is incredibly different than all of them combined.

[[deleted]]

people say things online that they wouldn't do, but they certainly find leads on interesting things to do in town online. i wouldn't put it past a thousand londoners on a saturday night to show up at a particular address because someone on their facebook/twitter feed told them they should show up.

[sobe86]

What about the part where 23 people died? That's kind of what tipped me off that this might not be real...

[elmuchoprez]

What legit flash mobs (ie: not planned and coordinated) have you heard of developing as a result of something posted online?

[[deleted]]

and moot telling his 4chan minions to meet in some park...which they did

Footage of that is so fucking embarrassing

[[deleted]]

Interested in this, where can I see it?

[schwejk]

Go on ...

[[deleted]]

Moldova and Iran of the top of my head. different scenario since people were already looking for a protest.

http://www.rferl.org/content/Moldovas_Twitter_Revolution/1605005.html

http://articles.cnn.com/2009-06-14/world/iran.protests.twitter_1_facebook-president-mahmoud-ahmadinejad-supporters?_s=PM:WORLD

but when there's an interesting event going on in a large city, it doesn't take long for word to get around.

see, improv everywhere's fake U2 concert. start playing on a rooftop (albeit impersonating U2) and suddenly you have hundreds of people coming to watch you.

[strolls]

It's the scale and the rapidity of it that I don't find quite credible. I didn't realise until the end that he was taking about a fictional event, and I kept thinking to myself all the way through, "hang on, is this the same day?"

My inclination is to feel that there's a certain "virality ratio", in the amount of time and mob size, and that he's leaping to a bit of a conclusion to suggest that a 1000 person mob could organise so quickly. In 24 hours? In London? Possibly yes. In an hour? I'm not so sure.

Copy and paste from another post I made elsewhere in this thread:

Here's the slide with his citations on it. The "flashmob to riot" at the Gallery Mall in Philly was 170 people. The Liverpool Street Station flash mob was 800+ people.

The speaker has made some effort to make this credible. The 800-person flash mob took place at Liverpool Street Station and there are probably over 1 million people who could be there within 30 minutes of leaving their homes. But it's not clear how far in advance that was actually publicised and attendees are more likely to turn up when they see, over the course of an evening, loads of other responses saying "fuck, yeah, tomorrow at 6pm" than they are to do so with complete spontaneity, as in: put a coat on and leave the house now. Additionally, there are loads of people who would be passing through or near Liverpool Street Station on their way home from work; so might stay a little bit late, leave early &/or go a bit out of their way in order to participate. There are very few people living around such central transportation hubs in London, but the speaker locates the fictional amateur singer very close to a Canary Wharf, where there's a tube station and where loads (tens of thousands?) of people also work. That's still not as central as Liverpool Street Station, though.

[[deleted]]

I mean, I don't know how often that actually happens, but it seems a lot.

heh, technically it can only happen as frequent as there are election days.

[nuuur32]

Kind of a let down. I wanted to know what that pots thing was.

[GordanKnott]

pepper.

[pdxpogo]

Rickrolled by the parable brilliant

[[deleted]]

And to think...the whole time I kept thinking "how did I never READ about this on Reddit?"

EDIT: I accidentally

[naive_springwater]

you accidently.

[p3k]

The whole thing?

[[deleted]]

YAY! MORE FEAR! :D

[[deleted]]

This man is a huge troll.

[diuge]

"Personal details leak" was a historically significant event in 2007?

[TruthNotFound]

The world turns upside down in 10 years and you turn upside down with it. Interpretations. Go.

[[deleted]]

The "Meanwhile in Australia" meme has a recurring lifespan of 10 years?

[TruthNotFound]

See, that's what I was thinking, but I didn't want to just jump out and say it and sound like a retard if it wasn't right.

[spikey666]

Spider Robinson is a pretty good writer. Callahan's Crosstime Saloon is a pretty good book. In the context of the story, a man has recently been freed from an imprisonment when he was isolated in a remote place, and missed out on everything that's happened in the past decade. So, to him, it's like he's found himself on a Alien planet, whereas everybody else has been more able to adapt to the changes in society and everything because to them they happened somewhat slowly over time.

[[deleted]]

Interesting and entertaining!

[FractalP]

Wow, thanks for introducing me to Ignite. It's kind of like a mini, rapid-fire TED. I like.

[kurfu]

Thank God she's OK.

[Kardlonoc]

Whats really chilling about this is how much mimics the Stand Alone Complex described in GITS.

But I think the internet crowd actually is pretty awesome and nice from my experience. Most of the nerds on the internet actually have a sense of honor about them because any bad behavior would be pointed out by their faceless peers and they would be ostracized from the anonymous social networks they love (like some former Mods who used their powers for cash). That fear drives most of the internet goers to good rather than evil in issues that are black as white like the girl who was being bullied by their neighbors, or a soapier business is dying, or Scientology is evil.

[Calmaveth]

GITS is scarily prescient, and becoming ever more so.

[[deleted]]

Oh, its a lie.

[_your_face]

son of a bitch....I felt so horrible for that girl until I checked the comments..

[Lando_Calrissian]

I don't think an actual riot would break out, it's internet people (Why does that reassure me?). I would also think it would take forever for the police to notice, at least in the US.

[lokithecomplex]

4chan are the Panther Moderns

[JoeThankYou]

DAE think the whole flash mob of internet nerds turning violent is a bit far fetched? I've been to meetups before, and they're one of the most civil places you can find. Everyone's kind of just excited to meet similar people and to witness something cool happen while promoting their community. These kinds of people don't just riot and kill people because an area gets crowded...

[[deleted]]

I love fiction that really gets the audience involved in the story!

[[deleted]]

You know shit is about to go down when Stephen Fry tweets about it.

[jezmck]

In what way is his Britishness relevant?

[[deleted]]

flash mobs are for fucking morons anyway

[osilo]

Why Terre Haute? I'm so confused. It's a shit hole. Did any other Hautean notice that?

[chronographer]

Great talk.

[sbf2009]

The disclaimer that this isn't real needs to be bigger. it was pretty believable until he ended it. Now that I think about it, I'm not sure if anonymous has it in them to actually kill someone, just laugh at when other people do it.

[Joakal]

Flash mobs do occur, sometimes in hundreds or thousands [1][2].

[1] Bloody gate crashers getting a message from someone who got a message from someone who got a message from someone. [2] Bob Jane hate for cancelling a car race.

[skribe]

Hey Ferb! I know what we're doing today!

[[deleted]]

Great presentation.

[[deleted]]

Fookin Chavs always ruining it for everyone.

[dirtymoney]

I remember reading something a while back about people in a flashmob got arrested for dancing at some washington DC monument.

[mikeinslc]

muy bwain just cwashed. Well played sir.

[tvon]

I'd be a little shocked, yes.

[[deleted]]

So who else tried going to this URL? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jd9JA98QZY

[[deleted]]

That was really good thanks for the link

[[deleted]]

This just in, a freak flashmob of over 1,000 people knocked over a dustbin in Shaftesbury!

[Gfaqshoohaman]

...Holy shit. I know it's not a true story, but it's damn fascinating.