"Gathering intelligence on enemy activities is critical to the success of the Slog. We need to know who their allies are and what differences exist between them and their allies (there are always sources of tension between allies), so that we can find ways to split ‘em apart. Reading the trade press, lurking on newsgroups, attending conferences, and (above all) talking to ISVs is essential to gathering this intelligence."

--Microsoft, internal document [PDF]

Summary: Fake 'friends' of free/open source software are trying to crack the community and mock anything that's associated with Microsoft's competition; they use borderline "spam" tactics to achieve this

A

small group of disruptors is hijacking discussions in GNU/Linux-oriented forums, mass-mailing journalists, abusing the Free Software Foundation while pretending to be pro-FOSS, lobbying for software patents while pretending to be against them, and is now attacking LibreOffice too. To avoid personifying this issue we shall use the collective term mobbyists, which the FFII uses to combine "mob" with "lobby". We no longer bring much attention to mobbyists because that it precisely what they want (and the reason they flood forums and journalists with nearly identical messages that contain lies).

Techrights encourages people not to feed the mobbyists because the more they are fed, well... the more they will probably be fed ($$$). Some mobbyists come from a career of paid-for lobbying, which is a euphemism for policy corruptors. ⬆