There was recently something of a debacle on Stack Overflow in which one user included an exceptionally dangerous line of code in answer as an example of code that should never be run. Specifically, running the short program in the answer would result in the complete erasure of all writable files on the computer. Fortunately, the bad code was not obfuscated in any way, the section that included it was clearly marked as terrible, the question was not applicable to novice users, and the bad part was neutralized within minutes by a high-rep user. (The previous link was to the original revision, which hasn't been live for a while.) The person who posted the code apologized, and as far as I can tell, never intended to hurt anybody.
Nevertheless, a link to the situation with an editorialized title was posted on the programming section of Reddit, a forum-ish place whose users seem to think pretty highly of themselves. That post wasn't super special; people try to make sensational stories all the time. No, the appalling part came when people started talking about the debacle with zero understanding of Stack Overflow or what actually happened.
Commenters there evidently didn't read the meta post, didn't consider the fact that no newbie would be copy/pasting that answer (because of the toughness of the question), and assumed malice from the start. Accusations of psychopathy got thrown around, and there were calls for that user to be banned. Nobody seemed to understand how Stack Overflow works or what its moderation process is. Comments accusing the original poster of being unrepentant got lots of upvotes, while explanations of what actually went on were not so acknowledged.
The lesson to learn here is that people who come sailing in with passionate condemnations might have absolutely no idea what they're talking about.
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