Shorts need greedy people and panic buying to jump in and run the price up... They can do this by creating momentum each day buying enough shares when the price is down to get the ball rolling. (you remember in july when it was jumping 15% a day for a week or so? I believe the first day or two was mainly coordinated purchases by shorters taking 'long positions', and then incrementally selling off those positions as the feeding frenzy they created played itself out) They could have also sold off the remaining shares they owned the day of the short attack knowing they were going to short the stock once they cleared their long positions... They created the upward momentum, fed the boards with articles and wild price speculations and then collected money selling their stocks they purchased and then made even more shorting after those stocks were sold and putting out disinformation. The articles they publish arent just hit pieces, they can be fluff pieces too.
One other thing I have noticed in the last week is when I log on (once a day usually after midnight) There are three pages of new post for me to read as opposed to the half page/ one page for the past month or so... I remember this was happening before the selloff in July too. Not everyone is as they seem. Buyer beware and never gamble more than you can afford to lose.