What does "don't feed the trolls" mean in practice?

The phrase "don't feed the trolls" advises users to refrain from engaging with disruptive actors whose primary goal is to provoke a reaction rather than participate in genuine conversation. The logic is that trolls — people who post inflammatory, exaggerated, or deliberately provocative content to generate emotional responses — are motivated by the engagement itself. Responding, even to correct them or express frustration, provides exactly what they are seeking and signals that their behavior is effective, encouraging more of it. In practice, not feeding a troll means declining to reply, declining to downvote or upvote their content (which both count as forms of engagement), and if their behavior is rule-violating, using the Report button rather than the comment thread to address it. On Reddit specifically, a reported comment that a moderator removes has less impact on the broader conversation than a lengthy visible argument thread, even one in which the troll is clearly wrong. The distinction between a troll and someone who is simply wrong, or who has genuinely objectionable views, matters significantly. A troll's defining characteristic is that they are not acting in good faith — they are performing for an audience rather than attempting to persuade or exchange ideas. Trying to reason with a troll is frustrating because there is no actual engagement happening on their end; they are simply waiting for an emotional reaction. With someone who is genuinely mistaken or holds views you disagree with strongly, factual correction or respectful counter-argument may be worthwhile. Identifying trolling accurately is the hard part. Trolls often imitate sincere argumentation well enough to initially appear genuine. Signs include: rapidly shifting goalposts when cornered, focusing on emotional impact rather than logical consistency, returning to the same provocation repeatedly regardless of response, and showing no genuine interest in any answer that is actually provided. When these patterns appear, disengaging is more productive than continuing.