Inviting 15,000 people to your birthday party by mistake - How common are Facebook mishaps?

‘Around 1600 people were cleared from the streets of a quiet Hamburg neighborhood on Friday, June 3, after police had cordoned off a house where a 16-year-old German girl had wanted to celebrate her birthday with family and friends. The revelers outside – carrying posters saying “We love Thessa” – were celebrating the birthday, too, though they hadn’t been invited – at least not intentionally. The 16-year-old had posted an invitation to the party on the social networking site, Facebook, and accidentally listed the party as a public event.

After over 15,000 people responded confirming that they would attend the party, the 16-year-old attempted to correct the mistake by cancelling the party over the site. The cancellation was to no avail, however, and by early evening hundreds of young Germans from Hamburg and across Germany had already begun arriving. “It was a great party atmosphere,” said one visitor, Angelika. “It’s almost like a festival here.”

Some were even singing a song to the 16-year-old, the text of which had been disseminated over Facebook prior to the event. “Thessa, oh Thessa, we don’t know each other but it doesn’t matter we’re celebrating you and getting wasted.”

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http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,15131464,00.html

It seems there was just one wrong click. With tremendous consequences. How common is this? Do you know of other Facebook mishaps? Fluther mishaps? Should social networking sites include better safety mechanisms? Like: Do you really, really want to do this… (yes/no) ? Or something like that?