I can provide some insight here. The thread starter in that case was actually a spammer or a bot. We have been fighting spam, spammers and bots pretty much since the site opened and much of it originates from overseas. Once we find a spammer/bot we delete all the threads they have started.
Certain site privileges are not available until a certain post count is met. The spammers know this so they will post seemingly generic posts to artificially inflate their post count so that they will have access to other site features (PMing other users, posting links, pictures, etc).
Some examples of their generic threads are "what do you think of this forum?" or "what did everyone do on the weekend?" - these are essentially questions that could work on any forum, orange tractors or not. Once they reach 5 - 10 posts they start spamming, PMing and otherwise being a nuisance.
OTT is not a closed minded forum just one that fights spam on a regular basis.
By and large our only rule here is to be respectful of your fellow man.
Hope this helps out a bit.