Just had to log off, close browser and start over to post.
These are large scale bot attacks, I suspect largely from China. That is probably my least favorite part of the world, and I regard the whole outfit as as a curse on humanity and go out of my way as far as I can to avoid anything that originates from there. The forum has cut out posts with Chinese IP addresses for some time and this helped for a while. Now the scoundrels have VPNs all over the world, and so their spam can come in from any part of the globe. I understand their nasty bots are now smart enough to solve even difficult CPATCHA puzzles. Not sure there is an easy solution, or any to solve this, apart from onerous registration and login requirements. What is worse, I understand these Chinese criminals can mine the forum date as a route to collect our personal data.
I would be in favor of putting 100% tariffs, or higher on anything originating from China. Do not buy Chinese goods. You can by better made products from other sources.