Dogpiling
Etymology
From "dogpile," American slang (from a rough children’s and football game) for a heap of bodies flung onto one person. Online it names the same dynamic in words: a crowd stacking onto a lone target. The physical image conveys how the weight comes from sheer numbers, not any one blow.
noun · /DAWG-py-ling/
A mass of people piling onto one person online, each adding their own criticism until the volume becomes wildly disproportionate to the offense.
What it names
An emergent cruelty that no single participant intends — each reply feels minor to its author, but their sum is an overwhelming assault — which is exactly why the collective word matters.
Example
A clumsy joke turned into a dogpile of ten thousand quote-tweets by morning.
Related idea
A ratio is a quantified verdict on a post; a dogpile is the human swarm behind it, where individual pile-on becomes collective punishment.