You are the reporters, Sunday Herald readers. Throughout the weekend, your tweets, retweets, Facebook posts, YouTube videos and emails were invaluable to us trying to piece together what was happening throughout Glasgow as loyalist trouble flared in George Square.

We had three reporting staff in the square, along with two photographers. After we began posting live images of loyalists giving Nazi salutes and taunting and jeering a much smaller and more peaceful group of Yes supporters, you more or less took over. You sent our images around the country, and you emailed our news desk and reporters with information on where loyalist gangs were moving in the city and what they were doing.

You sent us images and footage of them fighting, terrorising ordinary people and spreading disorder in a city which until Friday night had been a carnival of fun and hope, not a carnival of hate.

Where throughout the week students, office staff on their lunch breaks, and families had sung Caledonia and Labi Siffri's Something Inside So Strong in George Square, by Friday night the songs had become chants - including "You had your chance and you f***** it up" - screamed with menace and hate, and interposed with singing of Rule Britannia. The heart of Glasgow had gone from Woodstock to Belfast in the space of just one day.

And you told us what you thought of this. This was the dark face of Unionism, you said again and again in messages on social media. This was Scotland's shame. This disgusted and repelled you. You - the 45% - responded to our requests for information by liaising with each other online and getting the information to us when you could.

And then you decided to act not just as reporters but as investigative reporters. We had heard that the loyalist violence was being co-ordinated online by a hardline group with connections to Northern Ireland. So, we used social media to ask you to help us find out if this was true - there was too much chatter and activity online for any one news desk to check every lead - and you helped us.

The entire loyalist demonstration had indeed been orchestrated online, it turned out. You sent us the online poster headed "Scotland Said No" asking for demonstrators to come to the city centre at 6pm. The poster was circulated widely by Britain First, the far-right party set up by ex-BNP members, which has a strong following in Northern Ireland and the west of Scotland.

Then you sent us Facebook postings from ordinary Rangers fans, horrified at what their fellow fans were planning. One read: "I am a Rangers supporter. The Rangers pages have been drumming up support to riot at George Square all day. It's disgusting. I am ashamed

of them."

Then you sent us the social media exchanges of various loyalists you had been monitoring online. One read: "Glasgow riots were crazy, absolutely brilliant buzz. Rule Britannia!"

Others talked of going out "slashing c**ts" and wanting "to go to George Square and stab a couple of pencilcases" (slang for students). Another read: "I stabbed a c**t n

I liked it". One post from a Rangers supporters' club called on members to gather at "17.00 on the street behind the Louden [Bar] and the Bristol Bar on Duke Street". It went on to give a "map route … to all cars", and instructed followers to go to "George Sq for a party".

You then identified to us a group of Rangers football fans called the "Vanguard Bears" as being the organisation most involved in the "aggro", as people dubbed the violence online. By Saturday morning, multiple sources were confirming that the Vanguard Bears were the main instigators.

Last year, Police Scotland said it had received complaints of a "death list" posted online by the Vanguard Bears of individuals its sees as being opposed to the club.

The Vanguard Bears, which has close links with loyalist groups in Belfast, posted an image showing journalists, politicians and people involved in football, including the face of late QC Paul McBride - a prominent Celtic supporter and friend of Neil Lennon.

The Progressive Unionist Party - a Northern Ireland political party affiliated with the loyalist paramilitary group the Ulster Volunteer Force - also met with the Vanguard Bears supporters group last year to discuss opposition to the independence referendum.

On Thursday, the day of the referendum, the Bears group posted an image of Britannia alongside images of Alex Salmond's head on a spike and the severed head of Nicola Sturgeon. Yesterday it posted a statement online reading: "Our voice is on the rise, we must by actions, not words or political soundbites, ensure our Union is defended."

As Friday night wore on into the early hours of Saturday, you, our readers, were even able to keep our reporting staff out on the streets informed about events at our offices. Two men started a fire by the generator which powers the offices of Sunday Herald, The Herald and the Evening Times. Soon you were tweeting images of the fire and asking if we were all OK. We were - though we were out of action until early yesterday afternoon because of the power outage caused by the fire. Police are now investigating.

You also retweeted the numerous threats and vile verbal attacks made to our members of staff in order to name and shame the loyalists trolling them online. Your support was much appreciated. On you went, overnight and into yesterday, thousands and thousands of tip-offs, leads, pictures, videos, screen grabs and support. You became an integral part of the newspaper.

During the independence campaign, we tried our very hardest to give you the voice in the media you wanted and no-one else was giving you, and you repaid us over the weekend by becoming our eyes and ears - and joining in and becoming a part of the voice of the Sunday Herald. And for that, we thank you from the very bottom of our hearts.