Reddit Virtual Community Rallies to Repair Photo of Fellow Redditor's Reportedly Deceased Brother & Fiancé

The two versions of the photo below are a great testament to the power of virtual community and user-generated content, and I'll tell you why:

The photo on the left is the original, and was posted last weekend by a member of Reddit. "My brother and his fiance died in a car crash a few months ago," he wrote, "and I just ran across this picture of them on the first day they met. It would be really cool if someone could try to restore it, so I could have it printed."

More than one person tried to restore it -- perhaps several dozen Redditors did so, putting what was probably hundreds of total hours into the effort with Photoshop and other post-processing tools. To judge by the quality of the output, many of them are almost certainly graphic artists and other professionals. Above right is the submission by "colacube", whose submission garnered the most karma points from other Redditors. (But there are many more submissions of roughly equal quality.)

The improved photo itself is impressive enough, but consider just how many other amazing elements came together to make it possible, and what it says about the power of virtual, pseudonymous community:

Far as I can tell, all or nearly all of the Redditors participating in this thread do not know the original poster in real life, let alone his recently deceased relatives. It's even slightly possible the photo is a cruel hoax, and not what it purports to be, which unfortunately has happened before with virtual communities where real names are not generally used. Yet despite all this, and despite the fact that they would get little or no recognition for their efforts, beyond praise, thanks, and the virtual currency of Reddit karma from people they also don't know, dozens of talented graphics editors devoted hours of their time to try and improve the lives of some people they also likely didn't know, and likely never will.

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Comments

[DD Ra]

"what it says about the power of virtual, pseudonymous community"
So true !
Thanks for reporting this !
^_^

[Psion]

Even if it turned out to be a hoax, those who helped did so with the noblest of intent. Though cheated by the hoaxer, the artists who helped still demonstrated the best part of humanity and should feel no less pride in themselves.

Thanks for sharing this, Hamlet!