who was here when the hack occurred?

[spanone]

i was and it was scary as hell.

it was an impressive hack, not that i've seen a lot, but they basically took over DU.

'God Emperor' was the title of EVERY post.

who the hell were these people...???

do they leave 'fingerprints'?

[Siwsan]

1. I was. It was surreal

I was here both times. Damn.

[Still Sensible]

3. Me too n/t

[JonLP24]

2. I was

There weren't any god emperor posts in the Sports forum which I last posted before the shutdown, the post is still there.

[tavernier]

4. Me too.

When I saw God emperor I knew immediately, and then some strange faces, like an old black and white film.

It really was surreal and unbelievable.

[femmocrat]

5. I was. There was a notice on FB that DU was back up, so I hurried over.

It was frightening. I didn't understand what I was seeing at first. Hope we never see anything like it again!

[wryter2000]

38. Same here

It was awful.

[justhanginon]

6. I was there. I thought maybe it was a temporary thing but alas it was not.

God Emperor my ass!

[Island Blue]

7. I was for the second go round.

Very scary, and it seemed like a bad omen for the rest of the day/night.

[UTUSN]

8. There should be "campaign medals/ribbons" for DU historical events

"In the military sciences, the term military campaign applies to large scale, long duration, significant military strategy plan "incorporating a series of inter-related military operations or battles forming a distinct part of a larger conflict often called a war.
"Military campaign - Wikipedia
" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_campaign "

This one could be named something like "Operation Drumpf Attack" and all of you deserve the medal!1

[spanone]

9. Bwahahahaaa...

[chimpymustgo]

10. It was so horrible. Jarring.

I was there for round 2. What a demonic hack. We'll be talking more about this in the days the come.

[spanone]

11. i got out before #2.....these were some sick folks.

evil shit.

[ailsagirl]

17. Yes-- evil and hateful

Must be hard living with that venomous stuff constantly eating away at you

[Drahthaardogs]

25. As a long time poster under a few names I would nominate

The day we found out Kephra died
DU Panic Room
2004 Election win- loss
Grey warrior free the duck
Swampy Photoshop
Andy😞
The"creature from my uncles cabin" thread
The God Emperor Hack

[UTUSN]

28. excellent & our artists need to design a ribbon for each

Plus a general DU for us all. The hack ought to be like a Purple Heart!1

[spanone]

34. Kephra....& do miss Swamp Rat....

[malaise]

49. Great list

[wildeyed]

55. seventh son and Haitian Manboobs too.

The God Emperor Hack was the perfect end to a craptastic primary season. Just an epic unraveling. It felt right to me. Better than fiction.

I know others were upset and it was hard on the admins, but considering what happened later in the evening, it was just as well for me. At least we didn't have to bleed publicly.

[Mosby]

12. I was

At first I thought someone was posting dupes, but then it started spreading beyond the main forums and that video auto started.

[spanone]

13. kind of how i saw it too....

as soon as i saw that image of trump floating around in the car with a gun....jeeeebus

craaaazy

[kentuck]

14. There was a small link in the left corner of the video...

That took you to some fellow named Johann Schmitt that was in Australia... and at the end of his video, he had the same ad for Trump that showed up on DU. I don't know if it means anything or not?

[haele]

15. Me - it was like when my old beater truck was stolen 35 years ago.

I felt like I was standing in the street trying to put the door key into a lock that was no longer there...
It was a cascade effect, started in GD2016. I was thinking it was very sophisticated at the time. The local network firewall kept kicking in as soon as the hack moved into a new forum.

Haele

[ailsagirl]

16. I was-- and I knew right away we were being hacked

Esp. when dumdum's photo suddenly filled up the screen

x 100,000,000

[spanone]

22. yep, i got off QUICK....but kept coming back thinking it would only last a few seconds at most....

[ailsagirl]

44. I did the exact same thing

I even rebooted my computer (obviously made no difference)

"sigh"

So much has happened in a week

[GoCubsGo]

18. I was. Still pissed off.

If that asshole or assholes thought I was going to watch their bullshit video, they are even more deluded than I believe they are.

[octoberlib]

19. I googled God Emperor after the hack

and the Trump God Emperor thing originated on 4chan and Reddit so it probably came from there

[Lisa0825]

20. I was here. I couldn't get into any posts though.

I was on the Greatest Page, and one their lame animation popped up, I couldn't go anywhere.

[Ken Burch]

21. I haven't felt that level of pit-of-the-stomach fear since I faced the bullies in junior high.

I think I knew we were going to lose in that moment.

[KT2000]

23. Yes- had just gotten on

to the first page and the video started. Thought it would end but kept going with awful music. Saw the front pages float by that were Murdoch type tabloids. Sick stuff - hope it is possible to find out who did it and sue them for all the costs incurred by the admins.

[Drahthaardogs]

24. I was

And I thought it was just spamming. A few posts saying DU was hacked were interspersed with God Emperor

[Greybnk48]

26. I saw it, but didn't realize what was happening.

Tech dummy, here. I thought it was a troll just posting that over and over. I left for a bit and tried to come back and it was a no go. Then I realized that's what it was. It's been a looooooong week.

[spanone]

27. a twilight zone week.....

[Greybnk48]

33. Definitely surreal.

[Maven]

29. I was. It was a horrible feeling

and not having DU on that awful election night just added to the nightmare. A day where the forces of evil won.

[Elwood P Dowd]

30. I was

Came back a few times to the same shit before it was finally shut down. The night dragged on and turned into one of the worst nights of my 69 years on this earth -- DU down and Donald F***ing Trump elected.

[liberalmuse]

31. I was.

I think I blocked a couple legitimate members before I realized what was going on.

[nonpareil]

32. It felt like a waking nightmare

I was online when it happened. One moment everything was fine, then everything went crazy. Not long after DU was hacked my picture on MSNBC froze and I lost both cable and internet! I checked on the outage on my phone and found out that Comcast was expecting us to be out for hours. Thankfully it was only out an hour. But that was one eerie hour.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

35. Never saw the God Emporer

It was hard to login. Got in for a moment then everything shut down.

[callous taoboy]

36. I was. I just thought it was weird, and the "message" juvenile.

I was at work using a computer when it happened. I just went out for a beer. I thought it was a hack, but the whole "God Emperor" thing was just so juvenile.

No, I didn't get rattled until I got a call from a friend around 5:00 and he said that a very bright friend of his said that Hillary would not be winning tonight. THAT left me with a major pit in my stomach.

[Old Vet]

37. While I was on DU the page turned into a picture of trump holding a 9mm........

Pointing at me with a caption saying get in faggot, While that god awful music played with no ending.

[spanone]

41. that's what i saw. when i saw the 'faggot' caption, i knew we'd been hacked.

[gollygee]

39. I was

I didn't know DU would be gone that long!

[herding cats]

40. I was.

I then ran around checking on various devices/OS, and then proceeded to run my virus and malware scanners.


EarlG was on and had posted in MIRT, which didn't turn into "God Emperor" hell zone, that they were aware of the situation. Then they took us down.

I was also on when it came back up briefly. When we went back down so quickly I knew we were in for a long outage.

Malicious code is a dime a dozen out there now-a-days. The reality is they'll probably never catch the person who did this to us. I just hope the karma bus runs over them, backs up, and proceeds to do the same again X10 on their ass.

[gypsy11]

42. I was

It scared the shit out of me. I guess that was part of their point- take down, disrupt and terrorize.

[Hugin]

43. Yo!

Quite the attention grabber it was.

[malaise]

45. Me! I knew immediately with the video

and the Emperor God all over DU.
Hacking is a crime.

[spanone]

46. i was afraid they were going to infect my computer with some virus....

i logged off immediately....then kept coming back to see what was going on till it shutdown.

it was damned scary.....i'm sure the FBI is all over it, just like they were the hacking of the dnc.....

[malaise]

48. A few of us actually got in posts asking if we were hacked

and DU came back for a few minutes and then......

[boston bean]

47. I was here.. strangest thing I ever saw... the video with the music all threads renamed..

[independentpiney]

50. I got called for jury duty on the first god emperor post

before it started to replicate across the board. When I finished the jury and it took me back the latest page, it was everywhere and then the video popped up on my screen. I closed down my browser and ran anti-virus and malware bytes immediately. It was a really ominous sign of what was to come that night and for the next few years.

[SHRED]

51. Me

It was awful.

[William Seger]

52. I was. It's ironic that the hackers thought they were spoiling our victory party

... but instead they thwarted those who came here to gloat and feed on our anguish. The hackers should apologize to the deplorables for spoiling their hate party.

[DawgHouse]

54. Good point!

[MrScorpio]

58. I thought the same thing by the time I went to bed.

[DinahMoeHum]

53. I was.

I logged out, pronto.

[MrScorpio]

56. I was here, accessing DU on the iPod

At first I thought it was me. Then I saw that every post was changed. I figured that a hacked had occurred by then.

It wasn't long before DU was shut down.

[wildeyed]

57. I tried to log in while talking on the phone.

All that crazy music and videos. It was very strange.

[LeftInTX]

59. I was..creepy

I experienced a pop up the filled my entire computer screen.

[Raster]

60. I was. One of the first to report it.

I knew immediately it was a hack and knew who was most likely responsible: 4-chan and reddit Trump fans... I don't say supporters, because they are more "fans" than "supporters."

God Emperor is a term/title from Frank Herbert's "Dune" series... some of my favorite scifi.

I know about the Trump reddit subgroups and quietly perused to slate my curiosity. They reddit bros made no bones about using "hacks, hashtags and memes" to influence the election.

https://www.engadget.com/2016/09/23/oculus-founder-responds-to-nimble-america-political-controvers/

Last night The Daily Beast reported that Oculus founder Palmer Luckey is the "NimbleRichMan" behind a group of Donald Trump supporters pushing anti-Hillary Clinton memes, and now Luckey has responded. In a Facebook post claiming recent news stories don't accurately reflect his views (and light on references to either shitposting or meme magic), the 24-year-old claimed his support of the Nimble America group consisted of a $10,000 donation because he "thought the organization had fresh ideas," and that he did not write the posts credited to the pseudonym or delete the account.

<snip>

Unfortunately, the post also fails to answer our biggest question about the scandal -- that someone out there is actually paying for 4chan-style posts and blatantly ignorant Pepe memes. That's the kind of thing you do for the love, and seeing it commercialized by deep-pocketed private interests breaks my heart.

Update: Apparently contrary to the statement, The Daily Beast reporter Ben Collins has posted emails from Luckey earlier in the week claiming he made the posts under the NRM name.

4chan and Reddit bombarded debate polls to declare Trump the winner

http://www.dailydot.com/layer8/trump-clinton-debate-online-polls-4chan-the-donald/

You may be getting trolled right now without even knowing it.

Donald Trump supporters artificially manipulated the results of online polls to create a false narrative that the Republican nominee won the first presidential debate on Monday night.

The efforts originated from users of the pro-Trump Reddit community r/The_Donald and 4chan messaged boards, which bombarded around 70 polls, including those launched by Time, Fortune, and CNBC.

<snip, more>

Some Donald Trump Supporters Are Now Calling Him ‘God Emperor’
Things are getting really bizarre in Reddit’s largest pro-Trump group.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-god-emperor-creepy-reddit_us_579a6970e4b08a8e8b5d38b5

The messages are written, we hope, with some sense of irony. And yet they are so very creepy.

Hundreds of posts in Reddit’s The_Donald forum ― where Donald Trump this week participated in a Q&A session ― refer to the Republican presidential nominee as “God Emperor.”

The practice of using this name for Trump apparently caught on last spring. New York Times reporter Jonathan Weisman wrote in May about the deluge of anti-Semitic hate he’d received from self-identified Trump supporters, including “Nazi iconography of the shiftless, hooknosed Jew” from a user called “Trump God Emperor.”

Among Trump’s active online supporters, using the nickname is now commonplace. The post announcing Trump’s participation in the Q&A heralded “our God Emperor,” and a search of the phrase returned over 200 posts in the day after Trump’s appearance.

<snip, more>

[Mr. Ected]

61. I was. I thought it was the Russians.

I had harbored a secret fear that the Russians would somehow control the outcome of the election. Their connection to Trump was being more and more clear as election day approached. When the hack went down, my first thought was that all opposition voices were going to be muted.

I'm still not convinced that this was not the case.

[sarcasmo]

62. When you click and see God Emperor with many posts, new something was wrong.

Have to be prepared for it to happen during the midterms.