Mods, would you please give some guidance on flagging spam posts, versus writing cutesy quasi-answers to them?

I seem to remember from some past time that jellies were advised not to post in spam threads but just to flag them. I think it had to do with not turning them into legitimate users’ threads that were then arguably keepers. But I may be misremembering.

In recent times they’ve often been treated as opportunities for puns and one-liners.

Does this type of response serve the community in any way, or is it better just to help eliminate the spammers by flagging them?