brigading
/brɪˈɡeɪdɪŋ/
CommonWhen an outside group floods a community, post, or person's profile with coordinated negative votes, comments, or reports.
Platform-specific: on Reddit it usually means downvote raids or spam. On X it means coordinated reply attacks. The defining element is outside coordination, not just a lot of people reacting organically.
Real-world examples4 examples
| # | Example | What it means | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | this sub is being brigaded. look at all the new accounts leaving the same comments. | The pattern of activity shows coordinated outside interference. | reddit, 2023 |
| 02 | they linked the post in their discord and now we're getting brigaded. | An outside group was directed here specifically to attack the post. | reddit, 2024 |
| 03 | her comments got brigaded after the drama account posted her. | A drama aggregator account directed a crowd to flood her posts. | x, 2024 |
| 04 | brigading against a small creator is honestly cowardly. | Organizing a coordinated attack against someone with a small audience is seen as punching down. | tiktok, 2023 |
Use it when
- A subreddit or community is getting flooded with hostile outsiders.
- A post is being downvoted by people who came from a different community specifically to do so.
- Someone's profile is being swarmed with hostile comments from a coordinated group.
Do not use it when
- You mean people are just disagreeing with a post organically.
- You mean a single person leaving many comments.
- You mean general harassment without cross-community coordination.Use “pile-on” instead.
Brigading vs pile-on
brigading
Brigading is coordinated across community lines, often platform-manipulating (votes, reports).
VS
pile-on
Pile-on is mass criticism that can happen organically within the same platform or community.
Origin and context
Originated in Reddit culture as coordinated subreddit raids became common. The term comes from military brigades. Spread to wider internet culture as cross-platform coordination grew.
- First seen
- early-2010s
- Confidence
- medium
Cite this page
Use this stable URL to reference the entry.
https://slang.fyi/brigadingUpdated: 2026-08-28License: CC BY 4.0