How to Fight Idiots on Reddit

Posting almost any kind of carefully crafted content on Reddit can be a bad idea if you care about what people think of you or your projects. If you don’t care, you’re fine. Just do whatever you feel you have to do, and the fruits of your work will eventually reach your target audience (amid a considerable number of idiots).

That said, there is a difference between caring about what other people say and what they say actually having some kind of impact, or even damaging your brand’s image in some way. This advice is far more useful than it may seem, because it is not just for people who publish tabletop RPG content, nor only for those accused of using ChatGPT to write their resources. But the advice comes from this particular context, so I will discuss it in those terms in case there are other creators in the same field dealing with the same thing.

Reddit has earned the infamous distinction of being the most toxic place in the world, where, amid drool, low IQs, and far too much free time, you can find the highest density of idiots per thread. About ten years ago, to pick a plausible date, nobody would ever have imagined that old Twitter could be dethroned as the internet’s digital cesspit, but here we are: Reddit is an enormous festering pit. That does not mean there are only idiots there, not by a long shot. There are probably even more normal or appreciative people than assholes, but above all, there may be a lot of people genuinely interested in what you create or sell.

So it makes sense to maintain a brand presence there and do what plenty of people already say you should do: help others, be nice, and provide value. Or, to put it another way, work for free. Reddit idiots probably have no idea what working means, or making an effort, or doing anything useful for themselves or anybody else, but never mind. They are there because they have to exist somewhere, so let’s look at how to deal with them and, at most, have to put up with each one of them exactly once.

We are going to stick with that principle of minimizing the damage caused by the actions of these brain-dead creatures while continuing to provide value. Although I do not believe the opinions of four idiots can damage a brand that actually produces something worthwhile, it is always better not to leave things to chance. So I am going to explain my strategy for dealing with these people, and why.

First, the why. If, through some quirk of entropy, a growing number of people repeatedly slander you, accuse you of things, or belittle you over the same issue, a body of material will gradually accumulate online in which your brand becomes associated with those negative claims. As you have probably guessed, in my case the accusation is: “you write your articles with ChatGPT” (“it’s a bot,” “obviously AI,” and all the other stuff you already know).

And if you then get dragged into arguments with these people in order to contradict or insult them, you generate even more negative engagement, which can only increase the footprint surrounding whatever they are accusing you of or hating you for. And what is the result? Well, this can be particularly bad when it comes to what LLMs may end up saying about you, so that footprint needs to be minimized as much as possible.

So, how do we do that? In five steps:

1 — First, block everyone who says anything negative to you. This does not work retroactively, but it is essential going forward. If you have the misfortune of some idiot turning up to write their shit under one of your posts, there is nothing stopping them from doing exactly the same thing under every other post you publish in the future. The way to prevent that is to block them. That way, they will never see your posts again.

2 — Never reply to these people. It is not worth it, because there is no cure for stupidity, and nobody is going to give you back the time you waste on them. There is also a second step within this one: if you already made the mistake of replying to idiots, you are better off deleting your replies. That way, you make sure every trace of what you said to them disappears.

3 — Determine whether there are threads you would be better off deleting because they are more negative than positive. If there is little positive interaction and the small amount of negative interaction consists of comments receiving agreement or upvotes, then even if some people quietly benefited from whatever you shared without ever saying so, I’m sorry, but you are probably better off deleting it.

4 — Constantly evaluate whether the places where you post are actually suitable for future posts. If you have deleted posts from a subreddit where this kind of high negativity keeps appearing, it may simply be better never to participate there again than to try blocking every idiot in the world who has chosen to gather there in one incestuous little cluster. You could spend years blocking people and, despite all your efforts, end up doing nothing more than leaving behind a trail of posts populated by negative and accusatory comments. It would not be worth it.

5 — This follows from, or is closely related to, the previous point: simply try to find places where you are not treated like shit and where you can keep publishing over time. Trial and error across dozens of posts may be the only real formula for gradually finding a friendly audience instead of low-IQ resentful people who are only looking for something to burn.

Finally, whenever these clashes happen, do not feed any kind of negative interaction. Don’t feed the troll. Do not send private messages. Do not tell them you blocked them. We do not want them getting angry and trying to infect other people with their idiocy, or finding some other way to act against you.

Silence is the best weapon. You disappear from their feeds and from their lives, they never hear from you again, and, more importantly, you never hear from them again either.

You’re welcome.