Jeff: as an old SEO guy, I can tell you that Ryan's story is all too real. But also as an old SEO guy I can tell you that the "correct" response , is to just shore up your defenses against such things, not to engage the perpetrator. Remember one of the first lessons you learned about dealing with SPAM? "Unsubscribe" was just acknowledgement that the spammer had reached a working mailbox, and until tools like we have today (MailChimp, MailPoet, et.al.) were widely adopted, you needed a different strategy than the obvious/"easy" one.

As for the Super-angle on this article (The WordPress Community calling someone out): I did a small promotional thing for http:/thewordpresshelpers.com pre-launch, via our Twitter accounnt, @WPHelpers. I'm sorry to report that the community very much called me out, on several fronts, for doing so. Just sayin'.