I’m speculating, but my guesses are:
- Gathering enough karma to post on subreddits that have a minimum threshold.
- Getting enough post and comment history to pass a casual inspection, either by human moderators or spam filters.
- Maturing the account to the point where it can be sold to another shady company.
- Generally having a lot of bot accounts ready, just in case.
Once mature, it’s usually used for spam or astroturfing. There is a noticeable uptick around big elections, wars, etc.
I saw one repost-bot that metastisized into the most vile porn-spam-bot you can imagine, but they’re usually more subtle than that.
This is the mental equivalent of Saitama’s workout from One Punch Man: 100 sit-ups, 100 pushups, 100 squats, and a 10-km run. (Repeat daily until your hair falls out.)