They should not be a thing. At least not until there is already consistent active discussion threads happening for a given series. If I want to discuss a new chapter of something, and there isn’t a post already, I will make one.
As it is now, the dozens and dozens of empty discussion posts only drown out the few posts by people who DO have something to say.
They also show up in my subscriptions as a wall of spam, and do the same for “all”. One post is enough to facilitate discovery of the community, a dozen does the opposite.
If they’re popular, won’t the chapters be posted here by a user instead of a bot if we remove the bot?
I do actually agree that automatically created threads that appear the moment a new chapter is out makes sense in these cases.
The post would serve as a notification of a new chapter for some, who would then use the link to read and comment, immediately.
It also removes the competition around being “the one” that posts the discussion thread each chapter.