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The following account looks like some kind of SEO trick. https://mathoverflow.net/users/106607/nilead-web-design-company It doesn't seem that I can flag accounts for moderator attention, hence this post on meta.

Which raises the question: are companies allowed to create accounts on mathoverflow?

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    $\begingroup$ Why wouldn't they be allowed to? $\endgroup$
    – Kyll
    Mar 27, 2017 at 9:06
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    $\begingroup$ @Kyll. Spam prevention. Note that when the account was created, a badge with the company name appeared on the front page of mathoverflow. That's how I noticed it. $\endgroup$
    – coudy
    Mar 27, 2017 at 9:45

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There aren't any rules against it.

However, that doesn't mean that your company profile can go around posting links to your website/product in all your answers: the rules outlined in the help article on How not to be a spammer still apply. This means that you shouldn't link to your company website unless if it contributes to the answer, your affiliation is disclosed and a summary of the contents of the link is presented in the answer so that people don't have to visit your site to find the actual answer.

If you're afraid that these companies will have their SEO boosted by posting on Mathoverflow, don't worry. All links generated by users on the SE network are nofollowed, meaning that search engine bots won't follow links to their website. Note that this restriction is lifted once you reach 2000 rep, when any links to the URL in your profile are un-nofollowed.

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The SEO trick won't work; for users with a reputation less than 2000, the link has a nofollow attribute, which makes Google ignore it for SEO purposes.

According to this answer, you're allowed to create a 'company account' as long as you're the only one who is using it.

The general stance of Stack Exchange on this kind of 'spam' seems to be that you can decide what you want to do with your profile, as long as it isn't offensive to other users. This includes promotion of your company. There has been no official response to this question, which basically addresses the same problem.

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    $\begingroup$ Note that MathOverflow, as a research-level academic site might well take a different stance and decide to handle such issues different than what SE generally does. Many people might see it higly inappropriate for companies that do not intend to contribute research-level mathematics to create an account on MO for self-promotion. I personally would agree with them and therefore downvoted this answer. $\endgroup$
    – Dilaton
    Mar 27, 2017 at 9:49
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    $\begingroup$ Indeed, on PhysicsOverflow we face indeed exactly that issue with "User-Profile-Spammers" who register an account with the sole purpose of promoting links to their service or company that has nothing to do with the topic of the site. So I would give the MO community the advice to use this meta thread or create another one to list such suspicious user profiles for inspection by the MO moderators, as there is no way to flag user profiles. $\endgroup$
    – Dilaton
    Mar 27, 2017 at 9:58
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    $\begingroup$ The tricky part is "do not intend". Until they act, we do not know what they intend. I use one of my profiles on MathOverflow to advertise a proofreading service. If I play by the rules, I should be able as a company to offer anything that I think is of interest to the clientele. Here , 'playing by the rules' means behaving as a good member of the community. Of course, others who do not play by the rules should be treated accordingly, regardless of their motivation. Gerhard "Sometimes Does Proofreading For Himslef:)" Paseman, 2017.03.27. $\endgroup$
    – Gerhard Paseman
    Mar 27, 2017 at 16:21
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    $\begingroup$ @GerhardPaseman ok yes, your proofreading service is certainly highly valuable. I was rather having in mind blatantly inappropriate links in user profiles, such as London escort services etc ... $\endgroup$
    – Dilaton
    Mar 27, 2017 at 16:50
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    $\begingroup$ Not that I would normally promote escort services, but if it were a sideline, I could imagine offering it on this forum and several others. For each forum, I would still need to play by the forum rules. Gerhard "For Me There's Always Math" Paseman, 2017.03.27. $\endgroup$
    – Gerhard Paseman
    Mar 27, 2017 at 17:00

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