Zed was a recipient of drive-by-collaboration back in 2011: https://web.archive.org/web/20110603111859/http://sheddingbi...

The intent was a bit different, followers were not the target, the user being added was, but the core problem was the same: you don't get to confirm if you want to become a project's collaborator (and can't squelch such requests), you just get added.

> The question then comes up: How is it that someone can just add you to a project on github without your permission? Well, github will just let you unilaterally add someone else. You can just pick a random person and give them commit rights to it. It's under the assumption that you wouldn't do something as stupid as adding someone who hates you to your own project. In this case, it's a project the person doesn't care about, so adding them is just intended as an insult.

> […]

> It took Nick Martini two days to fix his repo. Despite what Martin says on his blog it actually was very little effort from me and most likely considerable more for Nick. You would think that would be the end of it. Nick would leave me alone.

> Then today, he added me to the dongml project again.

> Since there's no way for me to remove myself, and since github won't create a way for me to block him, or report his project for abuse, I'm mostly left with leaving it there.

> Of course, I have another option, which is to continually destroy his project until github bans me from their servers. But now I have my code on there...or do I?