It feels like Snopes outgrew its roots in urban-legend debunking, and decided to scale up to more real-time fact-checking - either because they saw a commercial opportunity, or just because they felt that they had a duty to do so. I was really surprised earlier this year when I realized they'd employed a staff - for so many years, Snopes was just Barbara and David Mikkelson.

It's a pity if they did scale up for altruistic reasons, but in the process ended up out of their depth - fact-checking news stories in a highly controversial and partisan environment seems like an entirely different kettle of fish than unravelling easily-debunked urban legends.