This smells extremely fishy. I did some digging, and I discovered that it's a small world. Not only do many of these users answer each other's questions, they also have a similar style of coding.
(Update: I have flagged for mods on CR and SO. Brad Larson says that the SO mods are already very familiar with this group. They are already dealing with the accounts and their posts and I suggest that we do the same here on CR.)
Here are the fruits of my investigation:
"robert the bruce"
Excerpt of code from here:
/****************************************************************************************************
invokeTest
****************************************************************************************************/
Another excerpt:
// note
// - on a func truthy match returns true and on no match returns false
// - on a func or obj validation fail will returns false
var Pub = {};
Pub.someKey = Pub.forSomeKey = function (obj, func, con) {
var key;
if (!Pub.isFunction(func)) {
return false;
}
for (key in obj) {
if (obj.hasOwnProperty(key)) {
if (func.call(con, obj[key], key, obj)) {
return true;
}
}
}
return false;
};
Answered this question: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/36728820/. But do you want to know who asked this?
That would be...
"a. b1c1c1d"
Excerpt:
// on a truthy match returns true and breaks from loop
Pub.someKey = function (obj, func, con) {
var key;
if (!Pub.isFunction(func)) {
return false;
}
for (key in obj) {
if (obj.hasOwnProperty(key)) {
if (func.call(con, obj[key], key, obj)) {
return true;
}
}
}
return false;
};
Pub.forSomeKey = Pub.someKey;
Excerpt of code from here
/******************************************************************************************************************(120)
** TitleMaker
** - Dependency - DOM
**
*/
Answered this question https://stackoverflow.com/q/37040111. But do you want to know who asked this question this time?
"arc.slate .0"
Excerpt of code:
/******************************************************************************************************************(120)
** Storage
** - Dependencies - None
** - Basically creates a namespace for Storage facilities
** - Used to manage local and session storage for login purposes
** - Note - underscore each() will error on web storage because of the length property
*/
But I found something else. There's ANOTHER user that I found on SO, but they're deleted. But they may be the most important piece there is.
"user3293653"
// *Pub is released to $A.
// does not extend through the prototype chain like similar underscore version
Pub.extend = function (obj) {
// loop through elements beyond obj
Pub.someIndex(nativeSlice.call(arguments, 1), function (val) {
// extend it
Pub.someKey(val, function (val_inner, key) {
obj[key] = val_inner;
});
});
return obj;
};
/***************************************************************************************************
**CArcmarks
*/
var CArcmarks = $A.Class.create({
I may have a lead to what the mysterious "private library" is. Given the information that I found in their one post, I found these links:
https://github.com/arc-frame/arcframe
http://arcmarks.com/
The domain appears to be owned by a "Chris Aacker" looking here
"Chris Aacker"
Code excerpt:
Pub.prettyTime = function (server_time) {
var MINUTE = 60, // 000060 seconds in a minute
HOUR = 3600, // 003600 seconds in an hour
DAY = 43200, // 43,200 seconds in a day
NORMALIZE = 1000, // 00.001 seconds in a millisecond, flipped due to the .1 inaccuracy rule
https://stackoverflow.com/a/37125182/6083675
and at
https://github.com/arc-frame/arcframe/blob/844fc8b5e3dccf42f2995fb547ca0bf1745a64c7/web/source/js/arc.js
"the man"
Clearly there is an account somewhere that was deleted, but I might have found it:
https://stackoverflow.com/a/36146211/6083675
If you scroll to the top there, guess who's accepted! (It's arc slate .0)
I am thinking that this conspiracy may extend to several other accounts that I have not mentioned. See here for more possible culprits:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/28355055/
https://stackoverflow.com/a/37126520/
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/37217047/
https://codereview.stackexchange.com/questions/95246/
This library can be tied directly back to all of these posts, and the people who made them.
Compare this file: https://github.com/arc-frame/arcframe/blob/844fc8b5e3dccf42f2995fb547ca0bf1745a64c7/web/source/js/object.00.Storage.js
To this one: object.Storage.js - creates a namespace for Storage
Then compare this file: https://github.com/arc-frame/arcframe/blob/844fc8b5e3dccf42f2995fb547ca0bf1745a64c7/web/source/js/object.002.Menu.js
To this question: https://codereview.stackexchange.com/questions/125828
And this https://github.com/arc-frame/arcframe/blob/844fc8b5e3dccf42f2995fb547ca0bf1745a64c7/web/source/js/object.000.Body.js
To this: https://codereview.stackexchange.com/questions/125722
And we can also tie this back to the other account, as if anyone had any doubts. This: https://codereview.stackexchange.com/questions/127853 is very similar to this: https://github.com/arc-frame/arcframe/blob/844fc8b5e3dccf42f2995fb547ca0bf1745a64c7/web/source/js/object.000.Animator.js
This question, which seemed to be the most unique: My favorite privacy settings is actually just a variant of this: https://github.com/arc-frame/arcframe/blob/844fc8b5e3dccf42f2995fb547ca0bf1745a64c7/web/source/js/object.002.Settings.js
This list goes on. Looking at the linked SO accounts, I can see that it is is the same as:
https://github.com/arc-frame/arcframe/blob/844fc8b5e3dccf42f2995fb547ca0bf1745a64c7/web/source/php/class.FaviconFinder.php
