I tried to find out how "Total time logged in" is calculated.

Here is what I did


This is exactly what I expected. But according to Bitcointalk Statistics Center, there are some users that have been online more than the time they've been a member of the forum.

Here are the accounts.
hmblm1245
btcnfan
froastie
keewee
randomie
bcfan
micey
liliam
randomnessie
papperbag

I logged in my account on two different devices simultaneously. Refreshed a page by both devices continuously. Both was contributing to "Total time logged in". In every minute, my "Total time logged in" increased by 2 minutes.
So, it seems that those accounts with that long time logged in are using several devices simultaneously. They are always online and never post. What are they doing? Except hmblm1245 all of them has been created in August 2018.

Is there any browser which keeps refreshing the pages for every few seconds when no actions taken on that page automatically?

If yes then those accounts using this method to increase their total login by following it on multiple devices.

What is the benefit of increasing "total time logged in" While your rank and merit is zero?

I tested this. I refreshed a page manually about 10 times in a minute. In this case "total time logged in" increases 1 minute per minute. I guess they are using several devices. I don't think they are only trying to increase that useless time. They have other purposes which personally I am not aware of.

I meant they'll be using several devices to keep stuff up to date or one device with multiple IPs. I assume if you use 2 browsers on the same IP it'll still increase (not that that's particularly helpful on its own) but a bot configured to get a new vpn identity every 10ms and pull data could be a tactic employed by a bot.