Except for the fact that she should absolutely _not_ have engaged and/or acknowledged the stalker, I don't see a problem at all with the formulations/rhetoric in this response. She kept the vocabulary clean[1], and the content should not bother any grown-up at all.
I don't know the demographic of her project, but if this connects with them, the wording of this seems perfectly okay to me.
It may have been "clean" in the sense that little profanity was used, but it was also full of sexual slang and drug references, and clearly intended to shame Frank (not saying he didn't deserve it, but on the other hand I think a bit more tact is in order). So I could see Kickstarter considering it a violation of the "Don't post obscene, hateful, or objectionable content. If you do we will remove it and suspend you." guideline.
If she did think informing her backers was a good idea, she could have said something along the lines of:
"Hello, backers, you may have noticed that some guy named FrankSinatraWhatever has been posting spam on my threads. Unfortunately, Frank has been cyberstalking me for a while due to a failed relationship from college. If you see Frank posting anything on my project, please just ignore him. Sorry about this, and thank you all for funding my project!"
Still gets the point across without being vulgar, tactless, or ego-stroking.
> So I could see Kickstarter considering it a violation
> of the "Don't post obscene, hateful, or objectionable
> content. If you do we will remove it and suspend you."
> guideline.
I hate speculation like this. If Kickstarter considered it in violation of that part of their TOS, then why not explicitly state so rather than saying that she was 'encouraging spam' and that spam is in violation of the TOS? Chances are that they did not consider it a violation of those terms.
What's your reasoning? Nowhere in the KS guidelines does it say you're not allowed to receive spam, only that you're not allowed to generate spam for your project. Please advise?
You should never engage a troll/netstalker. Ignoring them is the best approach, always. They feed on your engagement and get frustrated and go away looking for other targets if you ignore them.
If they become real-world stalkers, get a restraining order.
I don't know the demographic of her project, but if this connects with them, the wording of this seems perfectly okay to me.
[1]: I guess that depends on opinion. YMMV