We Did It Reddit!

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About

"We Did It Reddit!" is an ironic expression used by members of the social news site Reddit to bring undue credit to themselves for their involvement in the resolution of a major event, especially when the effectiveness of their crowdsourced efforts stands in dispute.

Origin

Although the origin of the phrase is unknown and some of its early instances dates back to 2012, the phrase shot in to widespread usage on the site after a crowdsourced campaign to identify the suspects behind the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombings, mistakenly placed the spotlight on Sunil Tripathi, an American college student who had been missing for months. Soon, Redditors began congratulating themselves by using the phrase, though it quickly turned into an ironic reminder of negative effects when vigilant efforts are made without official guidance, as it became clear the student in question had nothing to do with the attack.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]

Precursor

Meanwhile, it has been suggested that the coinage of the catchphrase can be credited to The Colbert Report hosted by the American writer and actor Stephen Colbert. In the show, Colbert often uses a banner with the phrase "We Did It."

Spread

As the ironic use of the catchphrase continued to gain momentum, at least two subreddits were launched in the wake of the community's botched efforts at identifying the Boston marathon bomber: /r/wediditreddit^[5] was created on April 20th, followed by /r/WE_DID_IT_REDDIT/^[5] on April 21st, with both sub-forums featuring a variety of news stories under the title "we did it, reddit!" falsely implying that Reddit's efforts had influenced the outcome of these events.

Various Examples

Since then, a number of other notable stories and current events in the news have been facetiously credited to the efforts made by the Reddit community, such as the White House veto of the controversial CISPA bill, legalization of cannabis in Colorado and legalization of same-sex marriage, among others. In addition, the snowclone of the catchphrase ("we did it, X") has been also adopted by members of other major social media platforms, including 4chan^[7] and Tumblr.^[8]