# Question about first appearance of "Do not feed the trolls."

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-first-appearance-of-do-not-feed-the-trolls/712322>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 10, 2015, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-first-appearance-of-do-not-feed-the-trolls/712322 "2015-02-10T18:58:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![JasonH](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e0b2c6/32.png) [@JasonH](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JasonH)\
**Post date:** [February 10, 2015, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-first-appearance-of-do-not-feed-the-trolls/712322/1 "2015-02-10T18:58:42Z")

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Hi,

Can anyone tell me and/or cite the earliest known use or appearance of the term “Do not feed the troll/s”?

A cursory google search provides information about the evolution of the term “troll,” but no info about when that specific phrase first appeared.

I do know that Weird Al used the phrase in a 1999 song, “All About the Pentiums.” [“I got me a hundred gigabytes of RAM. I never feed trolls and I don’t read spam.”]

Thanks!

Jason

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**Author:** ![Cardboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Cardboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardboard)\
**Post date:** [February 10, 2015, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-first-appearance-of-do-not-feed-the-trolls/712322/2 "2015-02-10T19:03:11Z")

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This is circa 1994, I think:

[http://ddi.digital.net/~gandalf/trollfaq.html](http://ddi.digital.net/~gandalf/trollfaq.html)

It references the saying.

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**Author:** ![JasonH](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e0b2c6/32.png) [@JasonH](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JasonH)\
**Post date:** [February 10, 2015, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-first-appearance-of-do-not-feed-the-trolls/712322/3 "2015-02-10T19:10:11Z")

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Thanks for that. I wonder if we could find an earlier and/or more specific citation.

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**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\
**Post date:** [February 10, 2015, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-first-appearance-of-do-not-feed-the-trolls/712322/4 "2015-02-10T19:12:58Z")

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This doesn’t really help to answer your question, but FWIW, [this Staff Report from 2000](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1764/what-is-a-troll) indicates that DNFTT was used here on the SDMB at that time.

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**Author:** ![kk\_fusion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kk_fusion/32/15276_2.png) [@kk\_fusion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kk_fusion)\
**Post date:** [February 10, 2015, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-first-appearance-of-do-not-feed-the-trolls/712322/5 "2015-02-10T20:48:34Z")

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It’s referenced in _The Secret of Monkey Island_ from 1990.