JOM said:
Honestly, I hate to be the party pooper in this topic (not really) but the reason for that huge spike is because most of the new members love to spam. Case closed.
Indeed. A lot of the members like to do a lot of things that really should be prohibited. For example, no one really minds or cares much if you double/triple post. No one really minds if you continue to bump and bump your topic up, which should already be prohibited. A lot of spam or one-worded posts are also allowed to be post. I've come across a lot of posts that are either only smiley faces, one image, or one word.
But a lot of people did get things over the holidays which did bring in a lot of members. Also, some members, such as myself, come from YouTube who clicked on someone's ]Most of what you mentioned is not allowed.