So over on Tumblr tonight there was an alert going around about a blog with child abuse/rape/pornography all over it.

At the same time that the alert went out, there was already another post circulating about someone calling a certain child protection agency and being told that the blog site had already been reported to them a dozen times and they were already in the process of investigating it...

So what happens next? Posts urging people to call that agency and report the blog. Posts urging people to urge every person who follows them to also call that same agency and report the blog.

I'm PRETTY SURE that this kind of thing doesn't work via petition? It was ALREADY ESTABLISHED that the agency knew about the site and was checking it out. Why the hell would ANYONE think the problem would get resolved sooner if the agency's phonelines are spammed with thousands and thousands of people all calling in to report the same, already-known problem? Let's hope that in the hour this was going on, not a single other case of child endangerment needed to be reported throughout the entire united states.

It really aggravates me when panicking people add to a problem and get in the way of it being resolved. Like, people trampling each other in fire exits or drowning people dragging their rescuers down with them. How rare of a skill is staying calm and rational when it's needed the most?