I just had an odd occurrence...

[Think. Again.]

I hit "reply" to post on this thread...

https://democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=19519445

When the Reply Text box came up, it was noticably different than the usual reply text box in 2 ways, the gray background text said "Reply Text" instead of the usual "Title is Required" and the text input box did not have the usual control bar for bold, italic, etc.

I posted my response anyway thinking it was just a change the admins made for the election period or something.

As soon as I posted, my post got an immediate response from a troll which has now been removed.

My concern is that somehow my reply function was hijacked? I just don't know enough about hacking to understand if this is an important thing to look into, but I thought I should bring it to everyone's attention.

Edit to add: there's more..

After posting the "highjacked" reply and seeing the troll response, I tried to sign out and could not, the buttons up top did not work, so I closed my browser and rebooted my phone and now everything seems back to normal.

[John1956PA]

1. My posting this morning is proceeding just fine.

You describe an interesting glitch. You could try putting up more posts in order to see if the glitch recurs, or could try posting on another device if you gave access to one.

Good luck!

[Think. Again.]

3. I have tried and after shutting down and restarting...

...things seem okay.

However, the trolling on that one OP is continuing with a new username.

[John1956PA]

4. It is disturbing to think that a troll could have caused the glitch.

Your experience with the odd presentation of the title window sets off an alarm in me that DU is being hacked. I hope that this is not true.

[Think. Again.]

5. That's my concern too..

...and I'm wondering if I should sign out and abandon my current user account and start another since it seems to be connected to my account somehow?

Is it possible for an admin to jump in here or mail me?

[BumRushDaShow]

9. That "troll"

was once a DUer from back to 2001, was eventually banned, and has come back over and over, literally thousands and thousands of times since (with occasional breaks). So far she has had 123 returns just since 7/24/24. She apparently has some serious mental health issues that are not being addressed.

IOW, it's not you, it's the subject matter that she seeks out and you unfortunately got slimed, and she's known to "return to finish an argument".

[John1956PA]

10. You are from Eastern PA. I am from Western PA.

I hope that the disruptor is not from our Commonwealth.

Best wishes.

[BumRushDaShow]

11. The disrupter

is happily disupting from the Land of Lincoln!

[Ocelot II]

2. I don't know what happened, but the troll is back.

Maybe not for long, though.

[John1956PA]

6. If what you experienced was the product of a hack or virus . . .

. . . it does not seem that the goal of the hack or virus is to take down DU, but, rather, to generate instant pre-worded trolling posts designed to disrupt the discussion in the thread.

[Think. Again.]

7. I see, hopefully that's all they'll be trying to do.

[John1956PA]

8. Of course, we all fear that "The Big One" will occur in November. n/t