alt.games.grand-theft-auto
Jammed between dial-up BBS and Internet forums was Usenet. A collection of newsgroups that people could subscribe to for subject-threaded messages on a particular subject. There was a lot of different groups for any different subject. Unlike Internet forums, there was no signing up, you just posted. Ultimately this contributed to the downfall, due to lots of spam.
Like forums today, communities and culture grew out of it. This was centre of the social-Internet before the likes of Reddit, Facebook and Twitter. A lot of Internet culture was incubated here.
One of the phenomenon to arise was the concept of a "flame-war". Due to the ability to post to any subject group, and even cross-post to multiple groups, it was very easy to bait and wind up other communities for no particular reason - this is where trolling comes from. If they bite, then you get a flame war with lots of "flame" messages being sent between newsgroups. Often foul-mouthed, and very funny (at the time).
In my teens I was part of the alt.games.grand-theft-auto community, and even ran the community website for a while. During my time with this group there was a renowned flame-war that crossed over some of the bigger newsgroups: alt.games.baldurs-gate,alt.games.final-fantasy,alt.games.grand-theft-auto,alt.games.microsoft.zone.alt.music.prodigy-the
It went on for hundreds of posts - which in the days of dial-up and having to download your messages in bulk, was pretty impressive. Other threads spawned and years of random interactions and Internet lore rose out of it, including some iconic people, such as a random chap called "Peter Thomas" who gained notoriety for no particular reason.
I can't find the post that relaly kicked it off, but I think it was by "n4cer" from the GTA newsgroup with a message ID of "7fqubu$m39$1@gxsn.com" and a subject "I'd just like to point out...". In a master-piece of trolling this guy cross-posted to the above groups insulting every user group and just let the fall out commence. The Google archive is incomplete but even that goes to almost a thousand messages of complete and utter rubbish.
Whilst the language was harsh it was done in less serious days. People didn't get offended and posts were done in jest. Now with controlled and monitored social networks and a world of political correctness this sort of thing could never happen. Is that a bad thing? Probably not, but I think it's important to remember that culture and usages have changed massively over twenty years. Most likely due to the accessibility of technology now bringing a wider range of personalities to the Internet.