Probably the most concerning attitude around the snafu was this:

“In 2013, all you need [is] a connection to the Boston police scanner and a Twitter feed to know what’s up. We don’t even need TV anymore,” shifted the now-fervid speculation to established fact

Which became rampant during Reddit's sleuthing. People didn't have the sense to know what they were doing and caused a huge mess.

The pervasive egoism on Reddit is pretty detrimental. There's this sense that they can do anything better than the media or that the real truth can surface there when it can't anywhere else. But when it comes to something that matters, they don't know their limits.

Reddit isn't a source of news. It's an aggregator. Yet it's become popular opinion that Reddit should be about original content and breaking news; that it should be the source.

You think crowd-sourcing is good for news and investigation? Well it's no doubt even better at hive-minding, sensationalism and snowballing. These were issues everyone was well aware were problematic with Reddit before it was thrust-forth as an investigative platform. Why in the hell would people expect this combination to end well? A person is smart; people are dumb. It's an excellent system to promote the worst aspects of people.

So whether Reddit's naming suspects in the marathon bombing or spreading questionable theories about the Dorner case, be a smart person and be skeptical.