Please don't feed the troll? [was Re: Call for Aman's banning]

[Erik Hoover]

Meine Damen und Herren,

Does anyone have the earliest citation for "Please don't feed the
troll", used in newsgroups and community message boards?  It is an
admonition to ignore belligerent posters.

The earliest I have found is the less formal "Don't feed the troll"
in a post from December 12 1997 in the Google newsgroup archive.

Maybe this has been examined or discussed in detail in the past.  If
so, my apologies.

Hochachtungsvoll,

Erik

On May 21, 2007, at 5:02 PM, Reinhold (Rey) Aman wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Reinhold (Rey) Aman" <aman at SONIC.NET>
> Organization: The International Maledicta Society
> Subject:      Re: Call for Aman's banning
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> ---------
>
> Paul Johnston bitched about Reinhold Aman's cruel ad hominems:
>
> [...]
>
>> A crank is one thing, but this is something else.
>
> Remember, guys & guyettes, what I wrote to James Harbeck?
>
>       "Like every twit and twat who has bitched about my verbal
>       aggression against fools and non-clinical morons, you
>       yourself engage in quite nasty verbal aggression."
>
> Bingo!  Another twit.  Q.E.D.
>
> P.S.
> I don't know whether this Paul Johnston is that ghastly,
> effeminate-looking and possibly transgendered Associate Professor/
> Chairperson:
>
>   http://web.plattsburgh.edu/academics/english/faculty/johnston.php
>
> but if he is, I'd advise him to leave the house only at night to
> prevent his scaring the women and horses.
>
> --
> Reinhold (Rey) Aman
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org