this post is like 5 years old now, very gnostalgic to see an approving outside observer of where we were at then

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  • 7bicycles [he/him]
    ·
    1 year ago

    I think the downfall started when trolling breached containment of extremely online people to the wider world and was nigh-immediatly re-understood as "saying mean things or insulting someone", I guess because aforementioned power structures weren't really known?

    You still hear Don't feed the trolls said occasionally but it's lost all meaning, because the word has, it's just an empty platitude now. Used to be good advice.

    • axont [she/her, comrade/them]
      ·
      1 year ago

      you just put that into perspective for me. I had always understood trolling in the older sense of the word, which is deliberately saying anything to get a rise out of people. Like pretending to be stupid, or pretending to be new in a forum when you've actually been there a while, asking dumb questions, or deliberately acting annoying. But now you're right. It just means any sort of insult or any kind of talk that isn't perfectly civil. That's why we get called trolls then, it's because we don't play that game where the first person to become uncivil automatically loses the argument.

    • Adkml [he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Don't feed the trolls kinda falls flat when the king troll gets elected president, even though you refused to dignify him with a response.

      • ChaosMaterialist [he/him]
        ·
        1 year ago

        Don't Feed The Trolls is about not falling into their trap such as long sincere replies. Counter-Trolling is about reversing the relationship; you get the troll to feed you.

        • Adkml [he/him]
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          Yea but everytime we do that some fucking lib cones in and says now they support the fascists because or unwillingness to engage in debate makes us worse than them.