neolex, in fact they did blanket a lot. Right on August 8. Not only major sites, but they appeared on blogs as well, although in much smaller count. It ebbed after a week, especially the obvious bots, but the more subtle ones seemed to remain in kind of monitoring mode, with less frequent posting.

So, it is not entirely paranoid to presume that they may be still present, selectively and in small numbers. Some even on their “own dime”, as a form of a challenge.