>even the formerly hands off platform owner devotes most of his attention to him now.
This for me is the biggest indicator the site/board is compromised now. The previous BO forgot to log in and Jim gave the board over to the people who ran /comms/ ?
Was the previous BO no good?
Why was change of ownership such an easy choice to make?
Did Jim even give previous BO a heads up of what was happening? Probably not since he was apparently blindsided.