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Comment by rhema | Hacker News Reader

A long time ago, I was told "don't feed the trolls". It's hard to see how this publicity (e.g. the NYT) is not feeding the trolls. There is no doubt that this campaign, whatever motivations, was successful. At the same time, social media platforms are more at the ready to ban pranksters, bots, etc. That might be the only approach that works when the majority of society participates.

(1) don't feed the troll, but it grows despite most people trying to ignore it. (2) ban the troll, and give them the NYT press they wanted in the first place

Not a lot of good options here.

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That approach only works for people who are "acting out" and trying to get attention online. The meaning of "troll" has changed. It doesn't work for people who are conducting harassment campaigns or spreading misinformation. It kinda doesn't work for anyone you're interacting with on a personal, non-anonymous basis anyway. If someone is behaving badly in a company or even in a casual group, you don't just ignore them.

"If someone is behaving badly in a company or even in a casual group, you don't just ignore them."

I think I agree, but it goes against the grain of what people previously thought you should do on the internet.

>harassment campaigns or spreading misinformation

I am genuinely curious about the flora of the NPC movement. I mean, this territory between meme and organized campaign is really interesting and it's sad it comes at the cost of society.

> don't feed the trolls

Absolutely, but it's still interesting to dissect and debate on why this campaign spread like fire compared to all other running trolling campaigns

What also make it interesting is how quickly social media reacted to it, seems unprecedented in speed and efficiency.

You're completely correct. Don't feed the trolls is exactly right. And yet every single time that the right throws out some more bait, no matter how silly, no matter how stupid, the left looses it's shit.

Take this NPC thing, it's a damn joke, just like every single meme - it may be funny, it may not be depending on your own preferences, but when it gets posted and in response you have 50 articles the next day about how it 'dehumanises' something or other ... before it even gets to NYT, the trolls are more than fed.

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