Do people not teach "don't feed the trolls" any more?

I'm not old, I swear. I'm 25. I've just Internet'd for most of those years.

One of the most common phrases I'd hear in communities such as League in which trolls exist was "Don't feed the troll(s)". It was so often repeated that most of the time, when it was used, it would be responded to with "I know, duh" or similar sentiments. It was the golden rule, we all knew it, we didn't need to be reminded of it. We understood that, given the anonymity of the Internet, some small, sad folks out there would abuse others purely for the sake of getting a rise out of strangers while having zero accountability for their actions. This was never a crisis, because we knew the way to handle it: Ignoring them. Acknowledging them, arguing with them, and attempting to fight their fire with our own flames was simply giving them what they wanted, and it accomplished nothing.

Where did "Don't feed the trolls" go?

So many League players feel the need to "defend" themselves. Flames are met with flames. Slurs are responded to with slurs. Perceived intentional feeding is met with overt intentional feeding. And when the dust settles, more often than not, it's the victim that fed the troll that receives the punishment from Riot. And they deserve it, because there are very simple rules, and they were reported for breaking them. I feel sorry for the victims of harassment and bullying, especially when their attempts at defending themselves results in their own restrictions and bans, but really, all they had to do was avoid feeding the troll.

Can we as a community rediscover the golden rule of not feeding the trolls? It will protect the victims of trolls, it helps everybody have fun playing this game, and perhaps most satisfyingly, the single most effective way to get back at the kind of person who likes to ruin games of League for others is to ignore them (and then report them). If you want a troll to feel worse for their actions, you don't yell at them. You go quiet. That means that they don't get what they want, and they hate it.