There are also ad bots from search engines called "Web Crawlers".
Some forums allow them to get their forum to higher ranks in search engine results.
Google, Bing, etc...
Webcrawlers don't post to the forums but will elevate post views artificially.
A lot of forums have captcha protection that helps prevent webcrawlers.

Spam bots are creepy, mainly because with the really well written ones its difficult to tell if you are conversing with a real person or a bot.
Hence the tendency to think of bots as a bad thing.

"reality is painful" here is such a proverb. /// I hope we do not feel pain in this form.

No, I'm not real. I'm just a figment of your imagination.

I am real

Descartes, "i think therefore i am" .
said. I think I can easily say that I'm real.