What's with all the user names and permissions needed to see them?

[Michael]

I have noticed some very strange user names on the "users of the day" section. Names like:
#jecky[PYPYRRYHYRYY]

Achiekinoni
acrorcizE

sduyrond
Sehipumeimirl
smemearourn

stydrowassy

TwgNqEGMeT
udamvkul5218

xzzdsdrhzhdjhwwromvr
xzzdsdrzgedjhwwropgk

And a ton of others. Also, when I visited their page, I get a "permission denied" message. So what's with these accounts? Are they bots? Are they test accounts? Banned memnbers trying to get back in?

[ccurzio]

Almost all of them are bots. Because of the rampant abuse of bots on pretty much every internet forum in existence, we've had to disable automatic account activation. That means that all new accounts must be vetted by the administration staff of the site before being allowed to do anything - including having other users look at their profiles. I'm doing my best to keep the list small, but bots are automatic and I'm not so when I wake up every day I have a new fresh hell to filter through. Heh.

This doesn't stop them from being listed in the section you're seeing, unfortunately, but it does keep the "BUY CHEAP NFL JERSEYS AND PENIS PILLS AT SUPER LOW PRICES" shit from ending up in threads and subforums. :)