The post-Stanley Cup Finals riots in Vancouver, among other things, has made for some really good web content, giving the audience a closer look at the chaos that went on. Now, that the childish acting out has subsided, the city is beginning its healing process, and while this will probably continue throughout the summer, some olive branches have been offered by Vancouver residents who are looking to change the perception left by the Stanley Cup riots.

Meanwhile, perhaps the lead image, via reddit, sheds some light on why the riots happened. We were led to believe it was fans behaving badly after their team lost to the Boston Bruins in Game 7, when, in fact, a rampaging Tim Thomas was trying to destroy Vancouver and the residents simply panicked.

Considering Thomas’ sterling goal-keeping against the Canucks, perhaps the image isn’t that far-fetched, at least on a metaphorical level.

As for the healing process, it has already begun in earnest as Vancouver residents are eager to put the ugly incident behind them. Of course, social media has played a big role in the recovery process, with Facebook playing a big part in the organization of clean-up efforts — the page in question has over 17,000 likes — Twitter was also leveraged. While these kinds of responses are to be expected in today’s world, another area of healing that may surprise you comes from the avalanche of hand-written apologies notes from various residents.

Instead of posting apologies on the two social media platforms, relying on technology to do the deed, many people hand-delivered their message directly to the authorities in made-for-the-Internet moments that resonate almost as loudly as the kissing couple. The first wave of apologies came in the form of sticky notes left on a Vancouver police squad car. While the idea is a great one, the images are even better:

Images courtesy of here and here.

That’s not the only hand-written apologies that popped up around Vancouver, either. There’s also the “Citizen’s Wall,” a plywood barrier that’s covered in hand-written apologies and other self-incriminating messages. The entire wall can be seen over at Gigapixel, and it measures in at 877 megapixels (107,271 X 8,173). Gigapixel’s “image” of the “Citizen’s Wall” is made up of 472 separate images. An example of the notes:

There’s also a video of the clean-up process, but the noticeable thing is it has much less views than the images of the riots themselves. Apparently, chaos is good for almost 200,000 views, while goodwill is only worth a little over 400.

Whatever your feelings about the riots and/or the rioters, you have to admit just how effective social media on the Internet is for keeping up with this stuff. I can only imagine what the content would’ve been like if Twitter/Facebook/YouTube had been around during the Rodney King riots. We’d have enough stuff to write about for the next 10 years if that were the case.