The current implementation of the “Report User” feature in OSM does not appear to notify the originator of the process.
I have used it several times to report spammers, and it seems to have been effective. However, I never received any email notifications regarding the reports. I had to manually search for the conflicting comments in the original changeset and find the user ID.
I have reported the issue and a posted a technical proposal in OSM website repository:
Should I assume the messages are read internally by DWG who then take action ?
I am aware of the direct DWG email route, but I want to make it simpler and more functional for new OSM users.
If the email option is truly the preferred method, I would suggest instead that the “Report User” link launches a new pre-formatted email with a copy (cc) of the original email user included.
Last time I used the DWG account directly (given in a wiki page). Got near instant reply and follow up. This regarded spammers hooking up to very big semi-global bound box CSs. The other details I’ll not mention as you don’t want to make them any the wiser. They read too.
If you’re reporting a spammy user then it won’t be DWG that deals with it - they only deal with map data and editing related issues. Simple spam is dealt with by administrators.
That’s interesting and, if true, good to know.
In the past I quickly spun up a message to the DWG when I stumbled across spam.
But if there is a different set of people working the “report user” traffic and they are more suited to deal with spam I’ll happily change my behavior.