Also was saddened to hear about Frank Meza, and wish that it did not end the way that I did. Been thinking a fair amount about it and have been looking for some perspective from someone (not a troll or sleuth on the threads, although some have put in some reasonable thought). Haven't seen much. But here are some of my thoughts for what it's worth (and probably not much).
I saw the opening of the thread while still in Poland last spring and by half way through page 1 figured that his time at the LA Marathon was suspect, due to his previous DQs from CIM, and that it would blow over in a week. So I pretty much ignored it all--figuring it was all just a bunch of crazy trolls and blowhards doing what they do here--until the other week when it was announced he'd been DQ'd from LA. And then the media storm hit a week and a half ago.
I do think that cheaters should be caught and held accountable (that is disqualified) but that it should be up to the race directors. In this case the online sleuths here did their job, but this was very wild west vigilante justice and it ought not be that way. It's unfortunate but especially at these big races--and anything sanctioned by USATF--the race director should be hiring investigators and the work should be done in a reasonable process at that level and in the end the DQ can be handed discretely or with a public announcement.
As athletes, for BQ level and up (e.g., USATF rankings, records etc.) we should have a license, paying maybe an extra $10 or $20 a year for administrative handling, where we vow to abide by rules and regs (which we already do of course!), and if we violate those codes (e.g., cheating) we get suspended. In the Meza case he would have been suspended by 2014 and we probably would not have had to have gone through all this.
And probably, almost certainly, the site owners here should have shut that thread down--and any subsequent crop ups--within a day after the DQ was finally announced. But in reality what should be done is not. So maybe after this tragic ending, maybe we should reconsider how these cases are handled and I'd like to see our governing boards, race managers, and media outlets (including this site), as well as ourselves to step up and develop a fair system to catch cheaters but without the likes mob rule.
I'll probably get flamed for this but those are my thoughts and lame attempt at punditry.