What does 12 Unique cloners in github mean?

The number of separate people who have cloned your repo

Thank you!, but I found that quote:

It’s very common to have 6 or 7 unique cloners on almost every public repo, because there are several projects out there that routinely clone all public repos. Some organizations do it to scan for API keys or other credentials accidentally made public.

There are also projects that clone everything for archival purposes