What is their purpose?

[Songbird]

I really don’t know that much when it comes to Junk so I’m asking for kicks; why here? They keep coming, but at the moment they aren’t posting anything in the threads so why do they keep pouring in? What makes less sense is why they are looking at threads to being with; I’ve noticed that recent threads have rather high numbers compared to older ones.

[DancingFlameDragon]

No idea, it is pretty baffling. I'm not really sure about the specifics of how these bots work...

[RetroVortex]

A porpoise is an aquatic mammal in the same family as whales and dolphins.

They look very much like dolphins, but tend to be stouter and lack the "beak" a dolphin has.

Porpoises prey on fish, squid, and crustaceans. Although they are capable of dives up to 200 m, they generally hunt in shallow coastal waters. They are found most commonly in small groups of fewer than ten individuals, referred to as pods. Rarely, some species form brief aggregations of several hundred animals.



(To serve Dick Van Dyke, Porpoise Overlord)

[DancingFlameDragon]

That...was very random

[Worf]

Easy - spammers see a forum, they'll just post. After all, maybe someone clicks on the link. Either way, it only takes a few seconds for them to get it all set up and working.

No, they don't care if it's offtopic or whatever. It costs them only a few seconds of time.

As for posting in threads - it's just another tactic - hoping that embedded thread ads make it harder to see - maybe people skip them. Also, they scan threads and copy the text to bump up post costs so they don't look so newbie by reposting the same content later. The long threads especially since no one remembers the text from months ago.