# \[b\]Silentgoldfish\[/b\], \*you\* don't seem to know what 'feeding trolls' means (mild) **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 5, 2005, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/b-silentgoldfish-b-you-dont-seem-to-know-what-feeding-trolls-means-mild/293125 "2005-03-05T21:17:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2005, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/b-silentgoldfish-b-you-dont-seem-to-know-what-feeding-trolls-means-mild/293125/1 "2005-03-05T21:17:54Z")
[Here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=5912978&postcount=11) you call us thick for not knowing what ‘don’t feed the troll’ means. Er… we do know what it means. It means responding to a troll. It means participating in dialogue with it. It does not mean agreeing with general opinion that the troll is an asshole, which is what we were doing. The troll in question made one post in that thread, and the very next post was a closure post. So absolutely no feeding of trolls was going on. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2005, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/b-silentgoldfish-b-you-dont-seem-to-know-what-feeding-trolls-means-mild/293125/2 "2005-03-05T21:40:00Z")
Um… no. “Feeding a troll” means giving it any sort of attention, what so ever. A troll exsists just to piss you off. A thread where people are bitching about a troll without ever directly adressing the troll? That’s feeding the troll. All he wants is a reaction. Starting a pit thread about him is a reaction. It’s _exactly_ what he wants you to do. Don’t play his game. The only way to deal with trolls is to ignore them until the mods ban their ass, and then pretend like they never exsisted. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2005, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/b-silentgoldfish-b-you-dont-seem-to-know-what-feeding-trolls-means-mild/293125/3 "2005-03-05T21:43:26Z")
> [@Lobsang](#): > > It does not mean agreeing with general opinion that the troll is an asshole, which is what we were doing. I would disagree with this. **Any** discussion of a troll’s activities (including this one) constitutes feeding it to some extent. (And I plead guilty to this myself, having posted in that thread myself. I thought better of it afterwards.) Better to just report the troll post (which I did in the thread that inspired the linked one) and hope a moderator gets to it before too many others have responded to it. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2005, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/b-silentgoldfish-b-you-dont-seem-to-know-what-feeding-trolls-means-mild/293125/4 "2005-03-05T21:56:10Z")
So if someone says something low and heartless we should just act as if nothing happened? I accept your definitions of feed the troll, but did **Silent** have to call us ‘thick’? As someone who posted in outrage at what, at the time seemed more like a sick joke than trollbait I resent the term ‘thick’. And as this thread counts (although the troll can’t see it) then please close it at your leisure. ---
**Author:** ![Berkut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a88e57/32.png) [@Berkut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Berkut)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2005, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/b-silentgoldfish-b-you-dont-seem-to-know-what-feeding-trolls-means-mild/293125/5 "2005-03-05T22:14:26Z")
> [@Lobsang](#): > > So if someone says something low and heartless we should just act as if nothing happened? You should use a little common sense. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2005, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/b-silentgoldfish-b-you-dont-seem-to-know-what-feeding-trolls-means-mild/293125/6 "2005-03-05T22:19:29Z")
> [@Lobsang](#): > > So if someone says something low and heartless we should just act as if nothing happened? Nope. If it seems to be a blatant troll post, especially by a Guest, report the post to a moderator. They will warn the poster or ban him/her as seems appropriate. If it is an insensitive remark by a longer term poster, by all means open up a pit thread. I’ll grant that in this case, the original post _could_ have been simply meant as an extremely insensitive joke, but it did seem like a troll post to me. > [@](#): > > And as this thread counts (although the troll can’t see it) then please close it at your leisure. Of course the troll can see it. Just because he’s banned doesn’t mean he can’t still read the boards. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2005, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/b-silentgoldfish-b-you-dont-seem-to-know-what-feeding-trolls-means-mild/293125/7 "2005-03-05T22:29:42Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Of course the troll can see it. Just because he’s banned doesn’t mean he can’t still read the boards. Some Boards can stop banned users from _seeing_ the board. I thought this was one of them. ---
**Author:** ![Silentgoldfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@Silentgoldfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silentgoldfish)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2005, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/b-silentgoldfish-b-you-dont-seem-to-know-what-feeding-trolls-means-mild/293125/8 "2005-03-05T22:31:49Z")
Dude, the guy made 2 posts in which he was needlessly an asshole and got exactly the response he was after; lots of outrage and his very own pitting. If people keep responding like that to such obvious trolling attempts we’ll never get rid of the buggers. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2005, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/b-silentgoldfish-b-you-dont-seem-to-know-what-feeding-trolls-means-mild/293125/9 "2005-03-05T22:39:22Z")
He made _one_ asshole post before your ‘thick’ comment. It was _one_ comment by him that outraged me. I mistook it for a tasteless joke not a troll’s bait. I admit that a sensible thing to do would have been to look at his join date and report the post, but we’re not used to dicks like that here (or at least I’m not) so it takes longer to pigeonhole them as a troll. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2005, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/b-silentgoldfish-b-you-dont-seem-to-know-what-feeding-trolls-means-mild/293125/10 "2005-03-05T22:41:31Z")
And in retrospect, one of his total 3 posts was perfectly in-keeping with the spirit of the thread it was posted in. Do trolls behave like that? Or just insensetive assholes. ---
**Author:** ![Silentgoldfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@Silentgoldfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silentgoldfish)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2005, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/b-silentgoldfish-b-you-dont-seem-to-know-what-feeding-trolls-means-mild/293125/11 "2005-03-06T01:49:41Z")
I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that if someone can’t resist being a jerk in their firt 5 posts they’re probably going to turn out to be a troll. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2005, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/b-silentgoldfish-b-you-dont-seem-to-know-what-feeding-trolls-means-mild/293125/12 "2005-03-06T02:07:26Z")
> [@Silentgoldfish](#): > > I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that if someone can’t resist being a jerk in their firt 5 posts they’re probably going to turn out to be a troll. I’m gonna go out on a limb also and say that it takes experience of trolls to go out on your limb. If a person can’t resist being a jerk in their first 5 posts then lack of troll-experience leads one to suspect that they are nothing more than a jerk. And since I already explained that I (and perhaps others) don’t have that much experience of this behaviour on these boards. I submit that our reaction(s) were justified. And not ‘thick’. ---
**Author:** ![Silentgoldfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@Silentgoldfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silentgoldfish)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2005, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/b-silentgoldfish-b-you-dont-seem-to-know-what-feeding-trolls-means-mild/293125/13 "2005-03-06T02:23:38Z")
Why would someone go to the trouble of signing up here just to be an asshole unless they’re just after a reaction? Pretty much all my “experience of trolls” comes from this board, you’ve been here two years, have you somehow missed all the trolls that have been banned in that time? We’ve had some pretty spectacular ones. Troll spotting doesn’t take any special powers, just a little common sense, as **Berkut** said\*\* above.