I think there have been some incidents which were dangerous and notorious. In particular, the misidentification of the Boston Bomber was one case that attracted mainstream attention[1].
[1] http://www.cnet.com/news/reddit-regrets-role-in-online-witch...
> The boston bombing error is known and passed down like folklore from old members to new, keeping similar actions on check.
No it's not. The Boston bombing thing was just the most high-profile example in a long line of similar problems. Here's one from before the Boston Bombing:
http://gawker.com/5751581/misguided-internet-vigilantes-atta...
And here's one from after:
http://www.theawl.com/2013/09/i-was-a-hated-hipster-meme-and...
This is possibly the most hated guy on Reddit right now. Not whoever started the whole boston bombing witchhunt. Not someone who actually did anything harmful. Just a guy who got "unfair karma". And unlike with the boston bombing, there is zero self-awareness about how idiotic this whole thing is (and how common it is for anyone remotely popular on that site to manipulate votes in some way). It's a sad display, and I cannot imagine what this would turn into with more concrete monetary incentives.
Voting accomplishes two things - giving/taking meaningless points, and determining where (and if) your posts are ranked on the board.
The problem with Unidan is that he used a botnet to cheat the system. When you're on the new queue or have just commented in a large thread, a single vote or two can be the difference between ending up at the top of the thread (or board) or never being seen at all.
It's not about the points, it's about the fact that the voting system is pretty damned sacred to Reddit. By breaking pretty much one of the only global rules, he cheated people out of a chance to have their own posts/comments seen. We can only speculate as to how long it was going on.
Creating "useful content" is not a valid excuse for usurping community for your own self-aggrandizement. Even HN has a voting ring detector. Why do you think that is?
Which I find strange, since he actually delivered very high quality content and was overall a boon to the community.
It doesn't make the incident any less notorious though (which I guess is why it was remembered so well).
It sure is easy to point out your own flaws when you're in someone else's body.
Most accusations of "circle jerking" I hear there consist of shock and horror that certain communities seem to have certain beliefs/thoughts/ideas in common and that they were dared to be disagreed with. (I.e, you really should not be all that surprised when you try to float progressive ideas in /r/republican, or vice versa, and find your comments downvoted)
It's to the point where I almost reflexively downvote anyone on Reddit who brings it up, since 99 out of 100 times, it's a complaint that they were disagreed with, rather than anything that adds to the discussion at hand. (Which, IMO, is the explicit purpose of downvotes)