A word that describes non physical “activity”
Solution 1:
I want to say for example, “people who engage in such trolling...are...”
OED:
Draft additions March 2006
Troll (v.) intransitive. Computing slang. To post a deliberately erroneous or antagonistic message on a newsgroup or similar forum with the intention of eliciting a hostile or corrective response. Also transitive: to elicit such a response from (a person); to post messages of this type to (a newsgroup, etc.).
1992 Re: Post the FAQ in alt.folklore.urban (Usenet newsgroup) 8 Oct. Maybe after I post it, we could go trolling some more and see what happens.
2005 B. McWilliams Spam Kings iii. 69 Once, after a spammer trolled Nanae, accusing antis of having no life, Mad Pierre sarcastically responded that the spammer was correct.
Probably from the angling/fishing term "to troll"
V. Senses relating to angling.
- Angling. intransitive. To angle with a running line (? originally with the line running on a ‘troll’ or winch); (also transitive) to fish (water) in this way;
[See also] v. 10a, 10b; (c) (in U.S. and Scottish use, perhaps through association with trail or trawl) to trail a baited line behind a boat; also figurative.In quot. 1606 perhaps confused with trawl n and v.
1606 S. Gardiner Bk. Angling 28 Consider how God by his Preachers trowleth for thee.
1891 A. Lang Angling Sketches 5 Trolling a minnow from a boat in Loch Leven—probably the lowest possible form of angling.
1966 ‘E. Lindall’ Time too Soon iv. 51 Kamindo had rebuffed him when he had trolled for information.