Who am I?
I go by Wild_Man in the Ubuntu community, and my name is Larry.
I am active daily on Matrix and Ubuntu Discourse, and I am generally reachable at almost any time—even when I’m on my phone—through messages on either platform. I make myself available to participate in discussions and decision-making whenever needed.
I joined the Ubuntu Forums in February 2008, initially contributing in the New to Ubuntu and General Help sections. In 2011, I found a home in the Wireless & Networking area, where I contributed for many years. As time went on and my responsibilities grew—especially after becoming a super-moderator—much of my work shifted to behind-the-scenes efforts to help maintain the Forums as a pleasant and effective support platform.
On 2011-10-07, I became an Ubuntu Member through my forum contributions, and I remain grateful to everyone who supported my application.
On 2012-06-29, I joined the Ubuntu Forums staff. My responsibilities included upholding the Forums Code of Conduct which I did most of the time with a gentle private message with no further action needed, removing spam, moving and merging threads, monitoring posts requiring moderation, and sending private messages to members when needed.
I was active on IRC for about a decade and held operator status in ubuntuforums that whole time. When Ubuntu moved to LibreChat, I set up the channels for the Membership Board, Ubuntu Forums Staff, and the Admin channel. It was my first time handling this setup, and I genuinely enjoyed the learning experience.
On 2016-11-16, I became a super-moderator, continuing my previous responsibilities while taking on additional duties such as advising staff members on the proper course of action in handling posts and users that require moderation.
I always recommend the least action needed and if it is possible to avoid action completely except a gentle private message thus always attempting to deescalate the situation, providing guidance, and assisting with questions. I was also trained for administrative responsibilities on the Ubuntu Forums, including handling username changes, disabling accounts, and assisting people who were locked out of their accounts after the transition to SSO login.
In March 2017, I took over management of the Ubuntu Forums Facebook and Twitter accounts, handling all messaging and posting through around May 2021.
On 2017-08-20, I was honored to join the Ubuntu Membership Board. For more than nine years, I have worked with the team to evaluate Ubuntu Membership applications. Even during periods without a Community Council, I continued encouraging Board members to meet regularly and maintain continuity.
I have chaired several Membership Board meetings, updated the Ubuntu Membership wiki page, added new Ubuntu Members to the Launchpad team, and submitted new member announcements to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter. I have also provided guidance to many community members over the years on how to pursue Ubuntu Membership.
In 2018, I helped restart the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter by recruiting three excellent volunteers. My main duties were publishing the newsletter to The Fridge, Ubuntu Forums, and social media, along with occasional editing.
Currently, I serve on the Communications Council, where I have helped transition forum- and IRC-based Ubuntu Members to the standard Ubuntu Membership Launchpad team. I informed affected forum members about the transition and clarified how the renewal process differs.
I have also assisted with the discussions to replace outdated, spam-heavy mailing lists with secure alternatives for teams that still require them, however that it is still a work in progress. Additionally, I initiated discussions on retiring The Fridge and participated in the conversation about retiring Planet Ubuntu.
I am also a current Ubuntu Board Member and Discourse Moderator, I worked as part of the transition team that prepared Ubuntu Discourse for the upcoming migration of Ubuntu Forums. I am thankful for the excellent training of how to navigate discourse offered by @ian-weisser.
I spend my time behind the scenes helping with administrative decisions on discourse and as a Communications Council member in our bi-weekly meetings I spend time prodding the community team to talk to Canonical to keep discourse updated and I have also been a part of the new wiki discussions and testing.
I personally reached out to Ubuntu Forums staff to encourage them to join Ubuntu Discourse, and I contacted many of our most active helpers to assist them in feeling comfortable with the transition, especially those who were apprehensive. I believe that personal outreach makes a meaningful difference.
The reason I believe I am qualified to assist with deescalating conflict is because I have compassion and empathy when dealing with difficult situations and because that is what I have been doing as a moderator for the last fourteen years and as a Communications Council Member for the last year and a half.
I also have a bachelors degree in Socially which taught me how to better understand the diverseness of a community and help me to recognize the causes of issues in a community and understand the need to be compassionate with everyone at all times when dealing with conflict.
I am also pursuing a masters degree in theological studies it is a thirty-six hour degree then when it is completed I am transferring the credits into the masters of Divinity degree that is seventy-five hours so when I am done I will have two masters degrees which I will use as a chaplain, this gives me the proper heart/humbleness as a servant to help deescalate situations and resolve them with compassion.
Why do I want to be elected?
- I want to help improve communications between the community and Canonical.
- I want to work with the Community Council to help with initiatives to make it easier for new people to participate, collaborate and become leaders themselves.
- I would like to use my interpersonal skills to resolve conflicts and bolster collaboration and teamwork among the community.
- I want to work with a team that is working for the betterment of the whole Ubuntu Community, that make fair and just decisions and have the foresight to see a better future for the Ubuntu Community and have the ability to make plans for that future and readjust as necessary.
I want to thank the Community team and the members of the Community Council who I have had the pleasure to work with for almost two years since the Ubuntu Forums moved support to Ubuntu Discourse.