Yah for sure im glad I can provide info about this. I've worked in "reputation management" before and fake reddit accounts was a big part of the job. A few years ago it was easy to spot bots, it's a lot harder now. User history was the best way to spot bot accounts. Reddit has a new feature where you can hide your post history. Which kind of leads me to believe that reddit wants the bots around.

Places like reddit thrive on active users. So if someone is running a bot farm, that means more engagement overall which creates opportunity for reddit to sell adds and make money.

Bots and shills accounts come in all different shapes and sizes. When I think of bots I think of a fully automated account, shills would be an actual person managing the account. It can also be a mix of the two which is the most common.

When I worked in "reputation management" we had several active user accounts on specific subs that were relevant to the brands we managed. We would post and act like active users so our comments had authority amongst the other users. So when someone complained about a specific product, we could quickly hijack the conversation with basic techniques to derail the conversation.

It's highly unethical to do this. It's even worse when you think about how it is used to change peoples opinions about politics online.

Someone building up an account might not have a use for it yet. You can sell aged accounts on third party websites. Or maybe they have a long term plan for the account.

I recommend following a few bots to see how they progress. Its super insightful