• ryven@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    11 months ago

    Is all bad online behavior “trolling” now? Isn’t “shill” a better word for someone who is paid to surreptitiously promote something?

    • Milk_Sheikh@lemm.ee
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      11 months ago

      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

      • MIDItheKID@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        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.

        • Cosmic Cleric@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          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.

          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.

        • theneverfox@pawb.social
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          11 months ago

          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

      • Cosmic Cleric@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        polemic

        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”

    • paraphrand@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      No, all bad online behavior now is “bots.”

      At least that’s how people in the comments on lemmy and Reddit label them.

        • paraphrand@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          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.

        • phillaholic@lemm.ee
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          11 months ago

          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?

      • Cosmic Cleric@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        No, all bad online behavior now is “bots.”

        At least that’s how people in the comments on lemmy and Reddit label them.

        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.

      • SCB@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        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.

    • gohixo9650@discuss.tchncs.de
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      11 months ago

      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.