We are getting SPAM issues (Why Cybersecurity Risk Management Is No Longer Optional for Modern Businesses · Issue #158 · exercism/odin · GitHub) on the Exercism Track. I had to close three of them already. I tried to block the account but that only blocks it on my individual repos. Can somebody block it at the exercism organization level?
GitHub is really quick in closing spam accounts. Try “Report content” in the dot menu at the issue:
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This is a common thing on the Python track. I almost always report the accounts to GitHub, and they are pretty quick in investigating and then shutting them down. I typically don’t ask for banning at the Exercism level unless the spam is egregious or there are a group of accounts that GitHub won’t deal with.
The Python track also has a bot that closes both PRs and Issues and directs users to the forum. That helps reduce noise, but also creates issues with new contributors, so using it depends on what you think is best for the track at this stage.
Finally, I have started editing the titles of spam PRs and issues, adding [THIS IS SPAM] to the title. This shows up on a user’s Git Hub profile under activity, so it discourages users that aren’t bots.
Edited to add - I also use the “lock conversation” button to prevent the issue from being updated by the author. “Lock conversation” limits comments and changes to repo collaborators/maintainers only:
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I did report it to Github but they are not very responsive. I may not have use language strong enough so I’ll repeat my request.
I like the suggestion of adding [THIS IS SPAM] to the issue title. It also help when looking through the closed issues.