this post was submitted on 19 Dec 2023
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Is all bad online behavior "trolling" now? Isn't "shill" a better word for someone who is paid to surreptitiously promote something?
Back in my day trolling meant something. It meant you cared enough to actually form a real argument that withstands scrutiny, just to setup for the rug pull. The better your polemic, the more engagement as people debated if you were for real or not.
Shitposting controversial hot takes or dog whistle memes is mid af, do better
From my understanding trolling meant exactly what it says it is: Trolling. I think people for some reason get this mixed up with trolls - as in the fantasy type monster. But I think it actually has to do with the fishing termtrolling where you cast out your line, and see if you can get somebody to take the bait. Once they take the bait, you take em for a ride.
https://www.flamewarriorsguide.com/warriorshtm/troller.htm
Actually, that's also where the name of the mythical creature comes from. They'd set up bridges that offer convenient shortcuts as bait for humans
When the word is used on the Internet it's meant in the fantasy monster way. Specifically it comes from the story of the troll underneath the bridge, interfering with people trying to cross the bridge.
po·lem·ic /pəˈlemik/ noun a speech or piece of writing expressing a strongly critical attack on or controversial opinion about someone or something. "his polemic against the cultural relativism of the Sixties"
No, all bad online behavior now is “bots.”
At least that’s how people in the comments on lemmy and Reddit label them.
It seems to correlate with the rise in general awareness of LLMs like ChatGPT. It seems like just the threat/possibility of ChatGPT being used has already distorted discourse online.
I always saw it as someone who only repeats talking points verbatim is essentially a robot. If I can’t tell if you are a human posting, or an automated response is there a meaningful difference?
Shut up, bot!
Edit: Shitty typo
He'd probably need a strong sphincter muscle to manage that.
Lol, how did I miss that
I, and others, have distinguish between shills and bots.
Usually people use shilling as an alternative to astroturfing by paid human beings, while bots are just AI/programming posting.
Shill is a banned word on reddit still right?
No idea!
There's no way it's a banned word. /r/neoliberal has a "neoliberal shill of the year" award where they vote for their favorite economist based on social media posts, books released that year, etc.
There was a time when you'd get hit with a [Removed by Reddit] for calling people shills but that was a while back I guess
People like throwing buzzwords regardless of their meaning.
it is not "now". It is exactly as it was being used in 2020, when the article was written, by the mass media. They were calling "troll" everyone they were disagreeing with.