Currently users can request accounts be unblocked through the DA's zendesk ticketing system. When they get a request, they post an issue in our queue asking if that user should be unblocked, since there is usually no report as to why that user was blocked, which can take a while to get an answer. In order to streamline the process and get user's accounts unblocked I propose the following:

"If a user requests their account unblocked, and there are no issues filed in the queues, and their profile, nodes or comments don't give any indication of spam or trolling behavior, their account can be unblocked and an issue filed in the Webmaster queue."

Although the webmasters can block dozens of accounts a day, most of them are the Obvious Spammers who simply create new accounts and wouldn't bother submitting support tickets; they already have dozens of accounts to use or just create more. There's not enough time in the day (nor is our time worth it) to create issues for each and every one.

It's our responsibility to create issue for accounts we block that fall outside of the obvious spam or for users who have had accounts for a while or real content.

Comments

dddave’s picture

dddave commented

+1 on the reasoning and the proposed process.

Perhaps we should make it a rule of thumb that any user with some real history on drupal.org or company association should get an issue when blocked. I guess most webmasters already handle it that way. Of course there is no need to document all new Indian or payday loan spam.

lizzjoy’s picture

lizzjoy
she/her
Primary language English
Location Ann Arbor
commented

Thank you for posting this issue @silverwing. Is it a possibility that users get blocked via a spam report in GDO that is not documented in the webmasters queue so there is no record to figure out why they were blocked? Regardless, your proposal makes my life easier so I would like to go this route.

WorldFallz’s picture

WorldFallz commented

Seems reasonable and as dave mentioned, afaik, most webmasters take this approach already.

but lizzjoy makes an excellent point... with login integration across sites, someone may get blocked somewhere else (not even just GDO) for something that isn't even visible on drupal.org. We should probably communicate the policy across all sites and make the issue queue where the issue should be created this one.

nevets’s picture

nevets commented

By observations the "report spam" button only adds the node being reported to the issue, it would help if it would also add a link to the author (user) of the reported spam.

dddave’s picture

dddave commented

+1 for #5

That would save a lot of clicks and page loads for me.

tvn’s picture

tvn commented

I like the suggestion in the issue summary. Since there are no objections, let's document it somewhere like: https://www.drupal.org/drupalorg-site-maintainers-guide

The following bullet point under ''Blocking vs deleting of users":

File a webmasters' issue with a link to the user name for the site admins to block more easily

makes not much sense, since people who are the audience of that page can most likely block users themselves.

We can change that text to say something along the lines of

It's our responsibility to create issue for accounts we block that fall outside of the obvious spam or for users who have had accounts for a while or real content.

tvn’s picture

tvn commented

Re: #5, great idea. Can someone, please, open feature request in https://www.drupal.org/project/drupalorg

nevets’s picture

nevets commented

As per #8, I added the issue https://www.drupal.org/node/2332171

lizzjoy’s picture

lizzjoy
she/her
Primary language English
Location Ann Arbor
commented
Status: Active » Fixed

I added notes to https://www.drupal.org/node/1886228 and https://www.drupal.org/drupalorg-webmasters-guide for this issue.

Status: Fixed » Closed (fixed)

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