First off, A bot is a scripted program that will infiltrate a board for the purpose of sending spam messages to it. Basically a person would sign up for an account here and then set the bot loose, the bot would then post messages of total garbage.
OT is off topic, again basically garbage, nothing that anyone is really interested in. Say if you came on here and wanted to talk about.. OMG did you see that PIRATES (a porn Movie) Was filmed in FLORIDA??? that'd be pretty spammy, and pretty trolly, as it really has nothing to do with the community at large other than being in florida.
A lot of the topics are duplicated, yes. But when someone posts about "OMG did you know that people have DIED at DISNEY?" (Which has been covered about a bajillion times) that's trollish behaviour.
If you ask me, people are bickering so much because they're getting spring fever. Those up north have been cooped up for so long they're getting anxious to be released to the wilds of the land. With the weather beginning to warm, they're feeling freedom beging to chaffe. *grin* It happens in cycles. It'll die down, and it'll start back up, like the wheel of life. You do have to take everything with a grain of salt.
The general rule of thumb is this, if you see something that's interesting, jump in, have fun. But remember there are people behind the tags here. Try to live by the golden rule, Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. I think we'd all get along better that way.