When I first looked at MN, the best part of 20 years ago, the popular threads were on parenting, health, FWR and a couple of others. And there were loads of posters!
Now there seem to be fewer posters and the ‘normal’ type threads that were the stock-in-trade of MN seem to get little traction. I think AI has had a role here. Many of those questions are well answered by an AI query.
OTOH, there are a lot of ‘exciting’ threads started where the OP contributes relatively little for a few hours and then disappears, and they keep going until often full. Sometimes they are deleted later. There are at least two that I contributed to early now which are still going.
Of course there are loads of genuine trolls (if that isn’t a contradiction in terms!) but it’s also great for MN, increases the value of advertising and, if the site is for sale, will increase the value.
Of course, maybe they are all trolls, but Occam’s razor kind of says that it wouldn’t be hard for employees of MN to quietly and anonymously start these threads which are very helpful for the site.
Of course we can never know the answer, but it is odd.