This is an artificial means of increasing a community's activity indicators. A sudden rise in the number of followers without the necessary effort and resources often points to fake activity.
Activity can be faked using:
- bots.
- hacked accounts.
- social exchange websites that provide community follows for a fee.
Fake members don't help grow and promote a community due to their lack of real activity in it.
The use of fake activity can lead to a community being blocked. The main reason why we view this method of growing a community negatively is that it compromises fair play. When users search for communities, they want to see interesting communities with unique content first and not those whose members include a large number of bot accounts.