What's with the useless, inane, post-boosting thank you posts?

[kkinsey]

Hello,

My boss is responsible for moderating our community sites.

He's noticed an increase in what appear to be useless "bumps" of old threads, with inane platitudes and useless content ("What a great idea. Thank you for posting this extremely helpful information."). These are typically new users, and it's their first post. The post contains no link(s), no hidden content that we've been able to find, etc.

He's scratching his head because he cannot figure out any reason for this. Are they attempting to exploit some back-end system (private messaging the members, etc.)? Is it simply an attempt to discredit our community by filling it with meaningless drivel?

I'm sure that some of you all are familiar with what I'm talking about. I'm not even sure what to search for, although I've done some trying (apparently most of us don't use the word 'inane' very often )

Thanks for any insight you can offer us.