The main Web site for the Douglas County Fair looked a little different Saturday.

Hackers claiming ties with an activist Turkish Muslim computer-hacking community used the home page of the fair’s Web site, dgcountyfair.com, as a billboard over the weekend.

The message: “Dont (sic) War!”

“The timing of it could have been better,” said county fair board member Tara Flory.

The fair’s events wrap up today.

A hacker posting as “Crackers_Child” posted the message along with contact information at a Web site called sibersavascilar.com.

The Web site links to activists in Turkey and on several pages explains in detail how to hack different kinds of Web sites.

Another page on the site displays anti-Israeli propaganda alongside Muslim imagery.

Several other Web sites hacked by sibersavascilar.com members display political and religious messages, including anti-U.S. and pro-Islam slogans.

“It’s called ‘hacktivism’,” said William “Chuck” Easttom, of the Texas-based Chuck Easttom Consulting. “And it’s becoming fairly common.”

Easttom, an author and expert on computer hacking, said that groups who have a political message to convey often hack into the home pages of certain Web sites to make a point. For example, he said, if someone wants to hack into the U.S. Army Web site, they typically attack the recruitment home page rather than internal army sites.

Then, Easttom said, hackers tag a Web site with a message – much like the county fair site.

“Tagging a Web site is the most common kind of hacking,” he said.

But the hackers who attacked the fair site seemingly post at random, choosing Web sites promoting various things from all over the world.

“The randomness tells me one thing,” Easttom said. “This is some kid. This is not a serious hacker.”

And, Easttom said, these kinds of hacks are typically harmless, as most Web sites holding sensitive information – banking records, medical histories – have plenty of security to protect them.

Flory said her brother, Trent Flory, was already working to repair the site, and that the hacking incident wasn’t a big deal.

“Hackers get in there,” she said.