Back in the Old Days (can there be old days of the Internet already?) there were Newsgroups and Fidonet groups before most people had Internet as we know it. It was dial-up and sent by volunteer computer users who would send this "stuff" around in the wee hours of the morning, through the nods, to other local computers.

When people would write innocent looking messages, or incite others, seeking some sort of response, it was called "trolling" like in fishing, when people troll for a strike.

Not that it matters much, because I like the idea of representing them in pictures as little lawn trolls, which is fair enough since most are nothing but frisky hermits of their own lonely forest, with nothing better to do than try to disrupt others interests.