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, removing spam, moving and merging threads, monitoring posts requiring moderation, and sending private messages to members when needed.
I have been active on IRC since March 2012 and have held operator status in ubuntuforums since June 2012. 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, 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 eight 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 replacing outdated, spam-heavy mailing lists with secure alternatives for teams that still require them. 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, working as part of the transition team that prepared Ubuntu Discourse for the upcoming migration of Ubuntu Forums. I have provided support and participated in the excellent training offered by @ian-weisser.
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.
Why do I want to be re-elected?
I want to continue contributing to important ongoing work, including:
- Helping modernize and consolidate our mailing lists.
- Supporting the retirement of The Fridge and Planet Ubuntu where appropriate.
- Improving Ubuntu Discourse to make it more up-to-date and user-friendly.
- Continuing to update policies and guidelines to make all platforms more welcoming to all users.
- Working to unify Canonical-managed Discourse sites under a single Ubuntu Discourse instance where possible, reducing resource overhead significantly.
Thank you for considering my application. I remain committed to supporting the Ubuntu community and ensuring a smooth and sustainable future for our platforms.