I've done two NFT drops that have gone viral. My most recent one is the Base fundraising announcement which has 27k+ mints.

It seems that 99% of minters are in it for an airdrop. They mint off-platform (eg on mint.fun) and don't even visit the website.

Is this true for viral drops in general?

cma.xyz. Founder /paragraph, ceo /mirror, previously at Google & Coinbase 

Yes, it is. But maybe it's not a bad thing. They drive transactions, reward fee and awareness.

These are free mints with no reward fee. The awareness seems to be a net negative - this coincided with hundreds of people joining our Discord and asking "wen airdrop" and other ultra low quality content.

At least in my usecase I'd say overall this is a bad thing

This made me realize I should really do that 😅 hoping to add one in within the next few weeks

That does stink. Why not introduce a small reward fee?

That was my intuition. The flood of farmers brings a culture of bored intolerance and entitlement that can turn toxic quickly. Sure, they spread awareness... but to who and with what expectations? If they're the minority, great. Otherwise, yuck.