So, after my last Twitter-based entry, I've been thinking a bit more about the whole #amazonfail thing. My point was about how we should have held Amazon to account for it anyway, regardless of the whether it was deliberate or not.

Something @Glinner said made me think though; Twitter is the perfect medium for a mob. I think someone once said "a person is smart, but people are stupid". Actually, Google tells me that's from Men In Black, but I still like it. There's something about the conformity and self-validation of a large group of people that can fan the flames of what might be a reasonable point into something altogether more sinister.

Mobs are bad enough, but with hashtags and trending topics on Twitter, finding groups of like-minded people is easy. Perhaps the easiest it's ever been, and that's definitely something we all need to be careful of. The #fixreplies hashtag is one of them. Maybe I'm being stupid, but are that many people really bothered about these not appearing on their timeline? It bugged me when I did have it on, and I follow less than 100 people. As it is, plenty of funny and interesting tweets pass me by, without the extra noise involved.

Actually though, I think that there a lot of people tweeting with the hashtag because someone they follow did, and they want to "help that person out". And so the fans are flamed. If Twitter is used more and more, then these twitmobs will crop up more and more often. Of course, there are also some great charities and causes that gain much needed attention from their use too, so it's not all bad. I'm just going to try to avoid being part of a mob from now on.