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I got an email from a company asking me to use my established reputation to recommend their product on Stack Overflow:

Hello Oli!

 

My name is [withheld], and I’m Sales & Marketing Manager in [withheld]. I found your contacts on stackoverflow.com. We are impressed with your activity on this website. Our company would appreciate if you could help us to promote our tool and services on it.

 

We would be grateful if you could post a few answers mentioning our company’s name, tool or services. Can this collaboration be interesting to you? Under what conditions would you agree to do this?

 

I look forward to your reply.

 

Best Regards,

 

[withheld]
Sales & Marketing Manager

The comments have got somewhat bogged down in a copyright sidebar (probably totally my fault) and somebody has also reported the company on MSO so for the benefit of the network, it would be good to discuss what users should do if they're contacted like this.

• Should we yell about it on the relevant meta site?
• Isn't all PR good PR?
• And couldn't public report be abused (competing companies reporting each other for abuse, various litigation against the reporter, etc)
• Or should this be handled in private directly with SE Inc?

This isn't the first solicitation through my SE profile I've had (I've just binned them up to now) and I'm certain other people are getting similar things. I feel like there should be a well reasoned policy on what to do in the event that another person is trying to coerce you into making Stack Exchange worse.

I got an email from a company asking me to use my established reputation to recommend their product on Stack Overflow:

Hello Oli!

My name is [withheld], and I’m Sales & Marketing Manager in [withheld]. I found your contacts on stackoverflow.com. We are impressed with your activity on this website. Our company would appreciate if you could help us to promote our tool and services on it.

We would be grateful if you could post a few answers mentioning our company’s name, tool or services. Can this collaboration be interesting to you? Under what conditions would you agree to do this?

I look forward to your reply.

Best Regards,

[withheld]
Sales & Marketing Manager

The comments have got somewhat bogged down in a copyright sidebar (probably totally my fault) and somebody has also reported the company on MSO so for the benefit of the network, it would be good to discuss what users should do if they're contacted like this.

• Should we yell about it on the relevant meta site?
• Isn't all PR good PR?
• And couldn't public report be abused (competing companies reporting each other for abuse, various litigation against the reporter, etc)
• Or should this be handled in private directly with SE Inc?

This isn't the first solicitation through my SE profile I've had (I've just binned them up to now) and I'm certain other people are getting similar things. I feel like there should be a well reasoned policy on what to do in the event that another person is trying to coerce you into making Stack Exchange worse.

I got an email from a company asking me to use my established reputation to recommend their product on Stack Overflow:

Hello Oli!

My name is [withheld], and I’m Sales & Marketing Manager in [withheld]. I found your contacts on stackoverflow.com. We are impressed with your activity on this website. Our company would appreciate if you could help us to promote our tool and services on it.

We would be grateful if you could post a few answers mentioning our company’s name, tool or services. Can this collaboration be interesting to you? Under what conditions would you agree to do this?

I look forward to your reply.

Best Regards,

[withheld]
Sales & Marketing Manager

The comments have got somewhat bogged down in a copyright sidebar (probably totally my fault) and somebody has also reported the company on MSO so for the benefit of the network, it would be good to discuss what users should do if they're contacted like this.

• Should we yell about it on the relevant meta site?
• Isn't all PR good PR?
• And couldn't public report be abused (competing companies reporting each other for abuse, various litigation against the reporter, etc)
• Or should this be handled in private directly with SE Inc?

This isn't the first solicitation through my SE profile I've had (I've just binned them up to now) and I'm certain other people are getting similar things. I feel like there should be a well reasoned policy on what to do in the event that another person is trying to coerce you into making Stack Exchange worse.

I got an email from a company asking me to use my established reputation to recommend their product on Stack Overflow:

Hello Oli!

My name is [withheld], and I’m Sales & Marketing Manager in [withheld]. I found your contacts on stackoverflow.com. We are impressed with your activity on this website. Our company would appreciate if you could help us to promote our tool and services on it.

We would be grateful if you could post a few answers mentioning our company’s name, tool or services. Can this collaboration be interesting to you? Under what conditions would you agree to do this?

I look forward to your reply.

Best Regards,

[withheld]
Sales & Marketing Manager

The comments have got somewhat bogged down in a copyright sidebar (probably totally my fault) and somebody has also reported the company on MSO so for the benefit of the network, it would be good to discuss what users should do if they're contacted like this.

• Should we yell about it on the relevant meta site?
• Isn't all PR good PR?
• And couldn't public report be abused (competing companies reporting each other for abuse, various litigation against the reporter, etc)
• Or should this be handled in private directly with SE Inc?

This isn't the first solicitation through my SE profile I've had (I've just binned them up to now) and I'm certain other people are getting similar things. I feel like there should be a well reasoned policy on what to do in the event that another person is trying to coerce you into making Stack Exchange worse.

I got an email today:

Hello Oli!

My name is [withheld], and I’m Sales & Marketing Manager in [withheld]. I found your contacts on stackoverflow.com. We are impressed with your activity on this website. Our company would appreciate if you could help us to promote our tool and services on it.

We would be grateful if you could post a few answers mentioning our company’s name, tool or services. Can this collaboration be interesting to you? Under what conditions would you agree to do this?

I look forward to your reply.

Best Regards,

[withheld]
Sales & Marketing Manager

I've never used their product.
I've never previously recommended it.
They want me to use my established reputation to astroturf their product.

This isn't the first email I've had like this. As a moderator of a SE site I'm curious to know how many people actually respond to this sort of nonsense or worse actually act on it and post on an SE site.

As far as I can see, there's only one passing mention of them on Stack Overflow to date so I don't think they're a problem yet but I did wonder if there was somewhere I shouldT be reporting companies who are trying to spam the site with fake recommendations.

I know what I should personally be doing with these emails, I just wanted to know —for example— if I should be forwarding them to SE Inc so they can —again, for example— add the domain to the spam filters to catch people who do bite. SE has a lot of users, some are going to bite.

I got an email from a company asking me to use my established reputation to recommend their product on Stack Overflow:

Hello Oli!

My name is [withheld], and I’m Sales & Marketing Manager in [withheld]. I found your contacts on stackoverflow.com. We are impressed with your activity on this website. Our company would appreciate if you could help us to promote our tool and services on it.

We would be grateful if you could post a few answers mentioning our company’s name, tool or services. Can this collaboration be interesting to you? Under what conditions would you agree to do this?

I look forward to your reply.

Best Regards,

[withheld]
Sales & Marketing Manager

The comments have got somewhat bogged down in a copyright sidebar (probably totally my fault) and somebody has also reported the company on MSO so for the benefit of the network, it would be good to discuss what users should do if they're contacted like this.

• Should we yell about it on the relevant meta site?
• Isn't all PR good PR?
• And couldn't public report be abused (competing companies reporting each other for abuse, various litigation against the reporter, etc)
• Or should this be handled in private directly with SE Inc?

This isn't the first solicitation through my SE profile I've had (I've just binned them up to now) and I'm certain other people are getting similar things. I feel like there should be a well reasoned policy on what to do in the event that another person is trying to coerce you into making Stack Exchange worse.