264211 - terminate spreadfirefox account of user sending spam

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Marketing :: General, task, P1)

Description

[David Baron :dbaron: (⌚️UTC-4, no longer working on Mozilla)]

spreadfirefox spam has been seen on developer lists:
  http://article.gmane.org/gmane.text.xml.svg.devel/28807

This gives a bad impression of the Mozilla project.  Please close the
spreadfirefox account of the person sending this message.

(spreadfirefox also needs better administrative contact info.  There's no admin
email on the site, and it's not clear who should own this bug.)

Comment 1

[tor]

The same person has spammed the list again:

  http://article.gmane.org/gmane.text.xml.svg.devel/28822

Comment 2

[bart decrem, not checking bugmail]

contacted this person and asked him to stop spamming.  then forwarded him this
bug URL and asked if he will promise to stop spamming.  if he agrees, will leave
the acct active.  if not, we will consider de-activating his account (not sure
how the sfx admins feel about that).  

Comment 3

[bart decrem, not checking bugmail]

Added a Report Abuse link on the homepage (in the About box).

Comment 4

[David Baron :dbaron: (⌚️UTC-4, no longer working on Mozilla)]

Leaving the account active isn't acceptable.  Spreadfirefox seems to have some
element of being a competition -- who can spread the most.  Unless you terminate
the account, there's a competitive advantage to spamming.

Furthermore, not terminating the account does not express mozilla.org's
disapproval in a strong enough way.

Comment 5

[Asa Dotzler [:asa]]

I disagree. If the guy wants to make another account he can, under another name.
Terminating his account accomplishes next to nothing and might even drive him to
further abuses as revenge under a new account. I think bart's approach was
perfect. Honey rather than vinegar and all that. 

This has already wasted far more time than it's worth.

Comment 6

[David Baron :dbaron: (⌚️UTC-4, no longer working on Mozilla)]

Right now we're rewarding him for sending spam by showing him as #75 on the top
affiliates list (assuming I'm correctly understanding what the links in the spam
do):
  http://www.spreadfirefox.com/?q=affiliates/top250

For people who take this competition seriously, that's rewarding him for sending
spam.  We should not be doing that, and the id sent out in spam should not be
allowed to appear in the top affiliates list, etc.

Comment 7

[Asa Dotzler [:asa]]

I've got no problem with dropping his affiliate status back to zero. That's a
wholly different thing than cancelling his account. 

Comment 8

[bart decrem, not checking bugmail]

Great idea.  Let's do that.  I'll ask Daryl to do so and will update the Content
Guidelines page to make this clear.

Comment 9

[bart decrem, not checking bugmail]

this user acct has been deleted (not by me, not sure what happened).  

Comment 10

[Asa Dotzler [:asa]]

I believe this was blake after the account holder was unwilling to shape up.