I received the following message from d.o user Alex Bukach http://drupal.org/user/1958006 via the drupal.org contact form:

Would you like to let users try out your "Date" module for free with a few clicks?

If so, just include these links on your module page:
http://webenabled.com/try-drupal?ref[]=http://drupal.org/node/1539362 (for 7.x-2.5)
http://webenabled.com/try-drupal?ref[]=http://drupal.org/node/827200&ref... (for 6.x-2.9)
and users will get a fresh drupal installation with "Date" module.

We can also generate one-click installation links for your patches. This will let users test out your patches very easily and will get you more feedback sooner.

Please let us know if you want more info.

Cc: KarenS

Best regards,
Alex Bukach,
WebEnabled team.

While the website/service being offered does look like legit, interesting, and possibly beneficial, I am not sure this is an appropriate use of the d.o contact form (advertizing / soliciting).

Is there a policy or something regarding the use of the d.o contact form for cases such as this?
Can / should action be taken against this user?

Comments

WorldFallz’s picture

WorldFallz commented
Status: Active » Postponed

send the following email to the user (will keep this issue open for a bit to monitor):

Alex Bukach:

I am contacting you regarding your user account (http://drupal.org/user/1958006) on drupal.org which has been used to send email spam via other users' drupal.org contact forms. See http://drupal.org/node/1592660 for more information. Please stop sending such unsolicited emails to drupal.org users via their contact form.

This e-mail is being sent as a warning in the hopes that you'll respect our community and change your behavior. This is the only warning you will receive. If you continue to abuse drupal.org contact forms or spam in any manner, you will be banned from the site.

Please comment on the above linked webmaster's issue if you have any questions.

WorldFallz
drupal.org site maintainer
alex.bukach’s picture

alex.bukach commented

This is NOT spam... nor is it a scam. Each email is personally addressed and the links I provide in each email are manually constructed and tested before I send them out.

I'm sending messages manually to some of the maintainer so that they can include these links on their project pages. The proper way to contact maintainers is through their contact page, right?

The links allow d.o users to try drupal with that module and its dependencies pre-installed... We DO NOT charge for these instances and user gets full SSH and SCP access to their sites.

This we see as a service to d.o users and maintainers.

WebEnabled has been part of the Drupal community for over 3 years and we offer tools to developers to make them more productive.

However, if you still think that these messages are SPAM, then please let me know and I'll stop sending them out.

Regards.
Alex Bukach
alexbukach@webenabled.com

arlinsandbulte’s picture

arlinsandbulte commented

I realize this message was not 'mass' spam, and it may fall under a gray area, which is why I called it 'inappropriate use.'

When I received the message, I did some investigating.

  • I clicked the links and visited the website.
  • I did NOT watch the "Watch this" videos.
  • Clicking the "Try Drupal" button led me to a login/signup page, so that I did some more digging (I do not sign up for anything I don't have to, I have enough logins & passwords as is!).
  • I checked out the pricing tab, where I saw this service is free for only 30 days.
  • After that, I checked out the http://drupal.org/user/1958006 user profile. Alex has only been a member of d.o for 5 or 6 days. This sort of sealed the deal for me about reporting this as inappropriate use.

Now, digging a little more, it occurs to me that Alex might not actually be selling anything (still have not watched the video), but advertising a free service.
The pricing information might not apply to the Try-Drupal service, but that is the impression I got (not watching the videos).
This might be a very useful resource for drupal module maintainers. It sort of looks like Alex is offering a free 'demo' site for any supported module. If so, THAT'S GREAT!

However, regardless of the intentions & cost (free?) of the try-drupal service, I think this sort of solicitation using the d.o contact form should be discouraged.
There are similar free services such as aquia, pantheon, etc. that do not solicit through the d.o contact form (to my knowledge).
Instead, posting this offer on your website, or blog, or drupal planet might be more appropriate, IMO.

greggles’s picture

greggles
he/him
Primary language English
Location Denver, Colorado, USA
commented

I agree with arlinsandbulte in #3. As well-intentioned as this may be, it struck him as being inappropriate. I know WebEnabled has been doing great work in various ways in the Drupal community and this seems like another creative idea, but the execution could use some improvement.

From my perspective this could be marked "fixed" since the problem has been brought to the attention of WebEnabled folks and I don't think a user block is appropriate.

WorldFallz’s picture

WorldFallz commented

Had I noticed the 'webenabled' in the links, I probably would have sent a friendlier email. Sorry about that.

As it was though, I noticed, as the op did, that the user was days old with little profile info and keyed off the 'for free' in the email as well as its unsolicited nature. drupal.org has been under siege from spammers lately and most of the webmasters patience, including mine, is growing quite thin with little tolerance for spam in any form.

We routinely block users for this type of unsolicited email via contact forms all the time. Just because the service may be familiar and belong to a community member doesn't really make it acceptable.

As greggles pointed out, I'm fairly sure the email was well intentioned but unsolicited email is just that-- unsolicited and generally not an acceptable use of the drupal.org contact forms.

greggles’s picture

greggles
he/him
Primary language English
Location Denver, Colorado, USA
commented

I think some level of unsolicited mail is appropriate. After all...the contact form is there for people who don't know you enough to know your email address. By definition that means the contact is not expected.

The problem is with abuse of the form to promote services that people are unlikely to want or use of the form that is too frequent. It doesn't seem to me like either problem has happened in this case.

arlinsandbulte’s picture

arlinsandbulte commented

I think some level of unsolicited mail is appropriate. After all...the contact form is there for people who don't know you enough to know your email address. By definition that means the contact is not expected.

I agree, and I am sorry for probably coming down too hard.

I think there are a few little problems that snowballed a bit:

  1. The tone of the email seemed a little 'off' to me. It just smells spammy to me. Especially after I saw the age of Alex's d.o account.
  2. The information on the try-drupal website is not very complete. Is this a 100% free service? Is it related to WebEnabled's other services? What exactly is the purpose? Is a demo drupal site created only so users can kick the tires? What happens after that? Can this service be used to develop a full-featured Drupal installation? Can it be exported to WebEnabled's hosting services or any other host? Even after watching the video the real PURPOSE of try-drupal is not clear to me. So, it smells like a bait-and-switch scheme to me. But, I don't think that is really the case.
  3. I saw the pricing link at the top of the page which displayed a 30 day free trial... again 'bait-and-switch' came to mind for me.

I honestly think that Alex's & WebEnabled's offering looks like a great service for Drupal. But I think it should have had better documentation about the purpose and how it works.
Also a little better tone in the original message would be nice (but I admit, tone is in the eye of the beholder). Something more like "Hi Karen & Arlin. We are working on a way to better provide demo functionality for modules on d.o. Check it out and give us your feedback. With try-drupal, you can just add a link to your project page and users can kick the tires of the module without you needing to arrange and maintain a demo site."

Sorry for the confusion & sorry if I offended Alex & WebEnabled.
I think it would be appropriate to close this issue, but I will let someone else do that.

WorldFallz’s picture

WorldFallz commented
Status: Postponed » Fixed

definitely didn't mean to say that all unsolicited email through the contact form is unacceptable. However, we do have to be careful-- i don't think it's fair to differentiate between sales spam. imo sales 'opportunities' are not an acceptable use of drupal.org contact forms. And if it is, please let me know so I can disable my contact form asap, lol.

Again, it was the 'click here for free' email from a days old user with no other drupal.org activity that was the indicator.

Status: Fixed » Closed (fixed)

Automatically closed -- issue fixed for 2 weeks with no activity.