Influx of Threads with Negative Replies, what are these?

See reply count (right) on screen shot of recent threads page:

What does this mean, and how can a thread have a negative reply count, and why are there so many of them on the board all of a sudden?

Staff is taking care of this.

Closed.

[edit on June 5th 2010 by greeneyedleo]

Sorry for reopening this GEL but this has to be said. Yes, we have some spammers here that are disgruntled ex-members probably. The staff is cleaning this up as fast as we can. These guys don't realize that by spamming in this manner that they are taking away from all the other members. Selfish. We're on it guys.