Are DU Administrators Ready for Next Week? In 2016 you were shut down by outside attack

[KatyBR]

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]

1. Did they ever find out who did it?

[NameAlreadyTaken]

6. Is good. Now you have glass of best vodka.

[CurtEastPoint]

8. 'wodka' pleessss say it right

[NameAlreadyTaken]

9. wodka

[CurtEastPoint]

22. da...ees beddur

[Amishman]

42. WODKA! WODKA!

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]

55. No. I studied Russian for several years, and that's not how it's pronounced.

I think the "wodka" is a Star Trek TOS artifact.

[ProfessorGAC]

63. That's What I Thought

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]

64. It's been a long time, but I'm pretty sure that's right.

[rzemanfl]

10. There's one thing here I always read. n/t

[cwydro]

16. Yes indeed.

However, I’m wondering if I’ve missed an assurance from the powers that be about this.

[NameAlreadyTaken]

2. They should do hourly backups

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]

11. I think they know what they are doing! Nt

[NameAlreadyTaken]

14. They didn't 4 years ago

[USALiberal]

15. LOL, nice try! Nt

[MineralMan]

18. Since you appear to have come here after 2016,

I wonder how you know that.

[KatyBR]

31. I have been on DU since 2004

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]

50. Been here since 2004, under a different username

Previous username was too much a reference to GWB's reign of terror

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

51. And now, GWB's reign of terror seems almost quaint.

Those were the days, my friend.

[rzemanfl]

3. There's one thing here I always read. n/t

[grumpyduck]

4. Well, for one thing, they have disabled

new member registrations until after the election.

I'd say that's a good start.

[rzemanfl]

7. That's news to me. MIRT must be pleased. n/t

[LiberalFighter]

57. That seems to be a smart move.

They would had signed up earlier if they were supporters.

[cwydro]

17. Wow, really?

I didn’t know that. Great idea!

[grumpyduck]

19. I just found out when I went to log in.

[cwydro]

24. Good.

That makes me feel a bit better.

[MineralMan]

21. Perhaps they will close the site to non-star members on election day.

If it were my site, that's what I would do. Yes, indeed.

[cwydro]

25. I think they usually do that, if I remember correctly?

Don’t they?

[MineralMan]

30. Your memory is not faulty, although the damage was already done.

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]

43. Cuz anyone looking to take down a site won't pay a couple bucks.

[MineralMan]

46. Hard to say, actually.

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]

49. Yeah I sometimes forget to renew

And then I re-up when I get the notification.

[rzemanfl]

60. They may not use our currency. n/t

[RandiFan1290]

37. That is why they make 'zombie' accounts

They come back to life right around election time

[Totally Tunsie]

39. Interesting...good.

[sfstaxprep]

5. Well, They Never Did Come Clean About What Happened

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]

33. Why do you think the owners of this site have any responsibility to

"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]

45. yep!

I own a vps server and run a forum site and would never divulge particulars about an attack.

[Hekate]

52. TY for saying this

I get so tired of this line of attack

[MineralMan]

53. Yes. I'm tired of it, too,

especially from people who can't be bothered to chip in and support DU. It's annoying.

[LiberalFighter]

58. Totally agree

[MineralMan]

12. Do not be concerned. I can see that you are concerned.

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]

20. Well I understand your concern about that person's concern, but I've been here awhile.

If you know of changes that will reassure us that won’t happen again, please tell us.

[MineralMan]

29. Actually, I followed the changes made following the

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]

32. Thanks MM, I have no idea about website design, so I appreciate your reassurance.

I guess we’ll all find out.

The site gets too crazy on big nights so I don’t post then, but I do read, thanks again!

[KatyBR]

48. Thanks for reassuring --

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]

59. I can vouch for that. A few months back hotlinking outside images was turned off...

...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]

23. Hell, even Susan Collins is concerned!

[USALiberal]

13. Wrong forum, post in ask the admins forum! Nt

[NightWatcher]

26. Use #DemUnderground on your tweets if you're a twitterer

Or some other hashtag that we can all follow together.

[Hekate]

27. Ask the Admins

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=ata

[grumpyduck]

28. Not to worry.

The Antifa Ministry of Computer Security is probably on it.

[dustyscamp]

34. Maybe the Admins should make a Democratic Underground Discord

https://www.howtogeek.com/364075/how-to-create-set-up-and-manage-your-discord-server/

[Buckeye_Democrat]

35. Here's an old thread from Skinner about it.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10137748

[crickets]

62. Thanks, Buckeye.

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]

36. It would be nice if all the little gifs were turned off to save bandwidth

for the day.

Those little wiggly moving images at the bottom of some folks' posts make me dizzy. Inner ear nerve damage.

[Ptah]

38. You can turn them off.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=myaccount

[Wicked Blue]

40. Thank you, dearest Ptah!

You just made my day

[Sogo]

47. Oh, thank you!

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]

41. All Of Them, Katy (nt)

[GentryDixon]

44. We were all startled when that 🍊 effer tRUmp pointed a gun at us before DU went down.

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]

54. It was down for two effing weeks.

I certainly hope that they're prepared this time around.

[dustyscamp]

56. I think the site also got shutdown briefly in 2019

[SMC22307]

61. Where on Twitter and why didn't you stick to legit outlets like the NYT, WaPo, or Guardian?

Those three, plus DU, are my go-to on election nights.

[KatyBR]

65. I went to trending Twitter feeds at the time

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.