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:: COMPARE ::

Engagement farmingvsRage bait

The short answer

Rage bait specifies the emotion; engagement farming specifies the business model. All rage bait is engagement farming. Most engagement farming is not rage bait — a lot of it is aggressively pleasant.

Side by side

AspectEngagement farmingRage bait
NamesThe modelThe emotion
Requires angerNoYes
Can be wholesomeYesNo
ScopeBroaderA subset

Which one you meant

Readers who land here meaning Engagement Farming rather than Rage bait are usually searching for phrases like “what is engagement farming”, “engagement bait meaning”, “why do people post obvious nonsense”.

Engagement Farming

  • what is engagement farming
  • engagement bait meaning
  • why do people post obvious nonsense
  • engagement farming vs rage bait

Rage Bait

  • what is rage bait
  • rage bait vs clickbait
  • why is everything designed to make me angry
  • how to spot rage bait

Which came first

Rage bait. 2002 — Oxford dates the earliest recorded online use of 'rage bait' to a Usenet posting — about drivers deliberately provoking one another, not yet about online content.

  1. 2002Rage BaitOxford dates the earliest recorded online use of 'rage bait' to a Usenet posting — about drivers deliberately provoking one another, not yet about online content.
  2. 2014Engagement FarmingThe first big anti-clickbait turn: Facebook announces News Feed ranking changes against click-baiting (News Feed FYI: Click-baiting, 25 August 2014), and The Onion launches ClickHole on 12 June 2014 to parody the format.

Where the confusion comes from

Engagement farming is the same as rage bait.

Rage bait is one crop. Engagement farming also uses reply-bait polls, 'name a better X', fake giveaways and meme formats that carry no anger at all. Anger is the most efficient fuel, not the only one.

Read either one in full