Is this a linkbuilding?

I don't see how it would be linkbuilding since there aren't any live links on the pages. The pages don't go with the actual websites so not sure how they managed that. The second domain isn't even English so you know the content is not going to be of interest to their readers.

Is there some sort of hack or software that appends pages to other people's websites? Neither top level domain is related to the topic of the pages at all.

Tina

no, this isn't link building, like Tina said, there is no live links. There actually has to be a click able link that passes link juice for it to be considered a link or vote.

They are both correct, no live links there. Also, you want to make sure that the places where your links are at have are not no follow.

It is one particular style of gaming the search engines.

Currently, one search engine 'trick' is to make it look like old newsgroups postings. Google actually places weight on those, because at "that" time (i.e., circa 2000), many search engine (spammers) didn't think of advertising via newgroups in bulk. So google (sometimes) gives extra weight to particular links, even though they are not actually 'active'. (Google doesn't need to 'click' a link to see that it is a link). There are several other factors google (and other search engines) use in determining whether to place any weight on these links, which I am sure the creators of these types of sites have probably done.

Anyways, they've designed the sites to look like 'reposts' of old newsgroups, so chances are it is helping them in the SEO rankings.

Secondly, it is also a type of 'misdirection' for regular users. Eventually, these postings will appear in google listings (i.e., long tail keywords, etc) -- so regular users, out of 'curiosity', will simply cut & paste the link in their browser to see what it is about.

So bottom line, these guys get extra traffic in two ways. 1) Enhanced listings/SEO weight. 2) Casual User/curiosity.