How to Tell Your Community, Project or Company is Being Infiltrated by Saboteurs
Catch and punish vandals (to deter or discourage future attempts). Make sure they pay for what they did.
How to identify nefarious social engineering. Here are some symptoms:
- Intentionally provocative (and/or divisive) issues are being raised inappropriately in unrelated contexts
- People ask for more responsibility (or power) in exchange for something that does not merit that
- You're offered things for free (or funding) with some conditions, either stated upfront or made apparent later
- Existing members are being split into "good" and "bad", based on the whims or tastes of a non-contributing actor (who typically bases "good" and "bad" on matters unrelated to the community, project, etc.)
- Harassment directed at family members and/or colleagues
- Demand/s of new rules, hinged upon some ultimatum or veiled "consequences"
- Badmouthing from the outside, based on a short inwards expedition (or instigation)
- Hypocritical accusations against established figures, stirred up by provocations and deliberate time-wasting
- Sabotage (in the technical sense) and threats
- Proliferation of sock-puppet account to obscure/disguise the source of the abuse
Anything else? Let us know. █