Alan, I think that lots of that volume was bogus stuff to increase the volume. All those trades at the same price or within 0.0001, for exactly the same number of shares -- I view this as what you call "wash trading to generate volume" (not to be confused with the tax code definition of wash trading).

So I would not conclude that they were adding to short positions -- they might just be trying to get the average volume up, given the crummy volume they had for several days.

Also, if you're trying to suppress the share price, you short it at a lower level and then buy it back. There were trades that certainly looked like that.

I don't think they're adding to short positions. In fact I think some of the rats are abandoning their sinking short ship, and in the meantime they are telling their followers to stay short, so that the primary gang members can cover their position while leaving the followers as bagholders.