General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAre DU Administrators Ready for Next Week? In 2016 you were shut down by outside attack
Just wondering if the Administrators of Democratic Underground are "ready"
for next week. I remember distinctly in 2016, I went to DU to track election
results and the site went black and then some bizarre video played. Your site
was crippled --inaccessible--for many days, which was so disheartening because without DU, I turned to
twitter, and so many of those hashtags -- well -- ended up being driven by
what we now know was a Russian social media disinformation campaign.
Let us know you have shored up for election day!
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,761 posts)NameAlreadyTaken
(978 posts)CurtEastPoint
(18,652 posts)NameAlreadyTaken
(978 posts)CurtEastPoint
(18,652 posts)Amishman
(5,557 posts)Wipes away your tears
(Vodka) Removes your fears
(Vodka) Everyone is gorgeous
(Vodka) Yeah vodka
(sorry, probably not too many metalheads on here other than me)
Crunchy Frog
(26,587 posts)I think the "wodka" is a Star Trek TOS artifact.
ProfessorGAC
(65,085 posts)I took Russian 2 years of HS, and 1 semester in undergrad.
I thought it began with the Cyrillic character for "V".
Thanks for confirming that.
If I recall, there is no "w" in russian, or at least not a character that triggers that sound. Am I recalling that right?
Crunchy Frog
(26,587 posts)rzemanfl
(29,565 posts)cwydro
(51,308 posts)However, Im wondering if Ive missed an assurance from the powers that be about this.
NameAlreadyTaken
(978 posts)Or even every 30 minutes. As I recall from 2016 the database was attacked. They should set up cron tasks (automatic scripts) to back up the database every 30 minutes. Then they can restore it to the most recent backup if necessary.
USALiberal
(10,877 posts)NameAlreadyTaken
(978 posts)USALiberal
(10,877 posts)MineralMan
(146,318 posts)I wonder how you know that.
KatyBR
(183 posts)I have been a fan of DU since 2004-urged to join by someone from the John Kerry campaign; I joined because at the time it was an emormously refreshing source of of information that the main stream media does not cover.
In particular, I found it super useful on election day because people report in on what they are seeing locally.
And that's why I was devastated in 2016 to see the site knocked out and even more bizarre to sit there and see some bizarre video playing on the site instead. I'm not making this up, I just hope the ADMINS are ready for this and I'll go post over there, now having seen that that is where I should have posted this.
NameAlreadyTaken
(978 posts)Previous username was too much a reference to GWB's reign of terror
JustABozoOnThisBus
(23,354 posts)Those were the days, my friend.
rzemanfl
(29,565 posts)grumpyduck
(6,240 posts)new member registrations until after the election.
I'd say that's a good start.
rzemanfl
(29,565 posts)LiberalFighter
(50,980 posts)They would had signed up earlier if they were supporters.
cwydro
(51,308 posts)I didnt know that. Great idea!
grumpyduck
(6,240 posts)That makes me feel a bit better.
MineralMan
(146,318 posts)If it were my site, that's what I would do. Yes, indeed.
cwydro
(51,308 posts)Dont they?
MineralMan
(146,318 posts)However, since becoming a star member is so simple and costs very little, I suppose anyone who had designs on hooliganism would have become a star member in any case.
SlogginThroughIt
(1,977 posts)MineralMan
(146,318 posts)Some people might not want to use the payment options offered for contributing to DU. I have no idea.
I'm always puzzled by people who don't bother to contribute to DU, even after being on the site for months or even years, you know. Can't figure that one out at all.
I'll be here on election day, though. Of that I'm certain.
SlogginThroughIt
(1,977 posts)And then I re-up when I get the notification.
rzemanfl
(29,565 posts)RandiFan1290
(6,239 posts)They come back to life right around election time
Totally Tunsie
(10,885 posts)sfstaxprep
(9,998 posts)I would think it was serious enough that the FBI should have been involved. I mean, the site was not just down for an hour or even a night. Wasn't it down for almost a week?
I always figured it was connected to the election theft, and since it was never explained, I figured it was so serious (involving Russians?) they could not actually tell us what happened.
MineralMan
(146,318 posts)"come clean" about their security preparations? Certainly I would not do that for any website I owned and operated. Revealing security measures is not something anyone concerned with security would ever do, really.
Again, you appear to have become a DU member just this year, so you might have missed all of the discussion of this that took place late in 2016 and thereafter.
SlogginThroughIt
(1,977 posts)I own a vps server and run a forum site and would never divulge particulars about an attack.
Hekate
(90,734 posts)I get so tired of this line of attack
MineralMan
(146,318 posts)especially from people who can't be bothered to chip in and support DU. It's annoying.
LiberalFighter
(50,980 posts)MineralMan
(146,318 posts)Changes have been made to prevent a recurrence of what appears to concern you so much.
Since you appear to come here exceedingly rarely, you may not know about the changes made after 2016.
Please calm yourself.
cwydro
(51,308 posts)If you know of changes that will reassure us that wont happen again, please tell us.
MineralMan
(146,318 posts)2016 election day problems. Based on what I saw, it appears that they have corrected the flaws that allowed whoever broke in here to gain access. You might not notice what was changed, and they did not divulge exactly what the changes were, but security on the site has been improved in subtle ways that you might never have noticed if you weren't involved with website design, etc.
Quite a good number of people were looking for ways to help the admins on election day 2016. Important clues were found and passed along by those nice people. DU Admins, very wisely, did not talk about how the problem happened, but make changes that were needed, before opening the site again. Those changes continued to be made thereafter, as well.
Is DU now invulnerable? I have no idea, but I feel quite certain that is much less vulnerable now than it was four years ago.
I can understand why some new DUers or some DUers who almost never post here might be concerned, though. So, I'm trying to allay those concerns, as best I can.
cwydro
(51,308 posts)I guess well all find out.
The site gets too crazy on big nights so I dont post then, but I do read, thanks again!
KatyBR
(183 posts)I was only trying to make sure that you guys remembered what happened and are ready for it.
That DU would be seen as relevant to knock out on election day was really a back-handed compliment, but
it was devastating nevertheless.
JHB
(37,161 posts)...when the Admins discovered a potential security vulnerability. That lasted a few days while they developed a patch to fix it.
Put the kibosh on my TOONs posts during the turn-off, but no complaints from me! Anything that plugs holes keeps the DU ship aloat.
CurtEastPoint
(18,652 posts)USALiberal
(10,877 posts)NightWatcher
(39,343 posts)Or some other hashtag that we can all follow together.
Hekate
(90,734 posts)grumpyduck
(6,240 posts)The Antifa Ministry of Computer Security is probably on it.
dustyscamp
(2,224 posts)Buckeye_Democrat
(14,855 posts)crickets
(25,981 posts)That night was incredibly upsetting in so many ways, especially with DU being taken down. Skinner, Elad, and EarlG worked hard to fix things, and to make sure they would stay fixed. I don't think any attempt to bring down the site this time around will be successful. Fingers crossed.
Wicked Blue
(5,838 posts)for the day.
Those little wiggly moving images at the bottom of some folks' posts make me dizzy. Inner ear nerve damage.
Ptah
(33,032 posts)Wicked Blue
(5,838 posts)You just made my day
I agree that all those gifs and animations at the bottom of posts are annoying!!
I'm so glad I can turn them off!!
muriel_volestrangler
(101,326 posts)GentryDixon
(2,953 posts)Skinner, EarlG & Elad did a wonderful job fortifying DU after the incursion.
EarlG has now taken up the mantle, & with his team, including MIRT at his side, we should be OK.
Let's do this! I found out my vote has been counted. 🤩
#BidenHarris
Crunchy Frog
(26,587 posts)I certainly hope that they're prepared this time around.
dustyscamp
(2,224 posts)SMC22307
(8,090 posts)Those three, plus DU, are my go-to on election nights.
KatyBR
(183 posts)And they were bogus. THings like #electionresults, although I can't remember specifically. I figured the top trending were reporting the results. But they were bots saying Trump had already won etc. and feeding on each other. Just like the investigations later laid out. All inter-connected so able to show trending, when the info was bogus
I went to NYTimes, and they had some horrible meter showing a pointer that kept pointing at more Trump wins. I was so shocked I just turned to other websites, knowing something was seriously wrong.