Isn't that a different paradigm, though? A posting bot set loose on a forum/platform will (normally) visibly degrade service in a much more visible and impactfu

Isn't that a different paradigm, though? A posting bot set loose on a forum/platform will (normally) visibly degrade service in a much more visible and impactful way than a scraping bot. And in either case, writing (and running!) a bot that posts on HN is not illegal behaviour in itself.