Yes, this very much confirms my theory that startups must do unorthidox methods to gain traffic, especially when the users of the site impact other users.

spock is worthless without other users on spock. What is a phone book/directory without people? If they can break through the chicken or egg problem that many others have faced in the past, they'll be very successful because that same problem will arise as a barrier of entry to competitors.

Having competitions, paying users, or even sending spam are all viable methods to getting initial traffic for a site.