About Me

I am a widower, father and grandfather of four. I live in Texas in the United States. I love spending time with my family and enjoy going to Church; where I also was officially licensed as a Minister, I did out reach programs like hospital Chaplain, nursing home and prison ministry before I moved out of State.

I first used a computer in 1987 when I was in college where I received a bachelor's degree in Sociology. My first computer was a Tandy, it did not even have a hard drive just a floppy drive, and it ran dos.

I am a veteran of the Armed Forces where I served mainly over seas. I supervised 15 people and was responsible for maintaining 135 pieces of equipment.

I first started trying to use linux around the year 2002, but I did not have much luck at first then I came across OpenSuSe and was able to install and use it. A few years later I found Ubuntu and I have never used any other distribution since, except for testing purposes in virtualbox.

The help I received in the Ubuntu Forums and the ease of use of Ubuntu is what kept me using Ubuntu all these years.

Professionally

I own and run a small vending machine business.

Ubuntu Contributions

I began using the Ubuntu Forums for help with issues like wireless and boot problems. I loved the community so much that when my schedule changed and allowed me the time to help others I started learning as much as I could. I was then able to help new people resolve issues so they are able to keep using Ubuntu.

I have helped family and friends install and use Ubuntu on their computers for about twelve years now.

I started out contributing in "New to Ubuntu" and "General Sections" of the forum but I found a home in 2011 with some great people in wireless and networking where I contributed for many years, but with time constraints and as a super-moderator most of my contributions on the Ubuntu Forum is behind the scenes these days where I spend several hours a day with other team members making the forum a pleasant and effective platform to come to for Ubuntu support.

I also have tested the development version of Ubuntu and reported bugs in the past and plan to begin again as time permits.

I created a wiki and blog for setting up the cube and compiz in 2011 located here .

On 2011-10-7 I became an Ubuntu Member through forum contributions and I would like to thank the many people that supported my application for membership.

On 2012-06-29 I became a staff member on the Ubuntu Forums; my duties include upholding the Forums Code of Conduct, removing spam, moving threads, watching for posts that need moderation, merging threads, and sending pm’s to forum members when necessary.

In 2012 I wrote a wireless script for gathering information to help diagnose wireless issues. It is now hosted on the Ubuntu Forums Council github account and today it is used in many forums. It is also posted on Ask Ubuntu here and has helped thousands of people get their wireless issues fixed over the years. I still help test it and maintain it though I have a friend by the name of krytarik is the person that writes all the code for the script these days.

On Ask Ubuntu I have more than 8200 reputation points as of now for helping with wireless issues, I do not answer questions on Ask Ubuntu anymore due to unfriendly environment in my opinion.

I have been on irc since March of 2012 and I have had OP's in #ubuntuforums since 2012-06-29. When Ubuntu moved to librechat I setup the channels for the membership board, the Staff channels for ubuntu forums and admin channel, it was the first time to do that so it was a learning experience which I enjoyed.

On 2016-11-16 I became a super-moderator while I continue with the same duties that I mentioned as a staff member. I have additional duties of helping other staff members with such things as giving advice, recommendations, guidance, and answering their questions when I can. I am presently training to become an Admin on the Ubuntu Forums which duties include changing user names, disabling accounts and helping people get back into their original accounts that they have been locked out of.

March of 2017 I took over the Ubuntu Forums Facebook and Twitter Accounts; all Messages and tweets were managed by me through about May of 2021.

On 2017-08-20 I was extended the honor of being an Ubuntu Membership Board Member where I have worked with the Ubuntu Membership Board team for more then seven years to determine applicants qualifications for Ubuntu Membership, I am one of the Board Members even though there was no community Council at the time continued to have meetings and kept encouraging the other members of the Board to continue long after some of us expired.

I have chaired several Ubuntu Membership Board meetings, updated the Ubuntu Membership wiki page, added new Ubuntu Members to the team on launchpad and written and submitted the new members names to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, I have given advice and instructions to many people over the years on becoming an Ubuntu Member to include encouraging them to do so. Recently I have mainly just voted for the applicants after reviewing and collaborating with the other members of the board due to my wife being so ill which as stated before is no longer an issue, as a side note if we do not have a quorum we move the vote to the mailing list so we can still vote on the applicants application.

I recruited bashing-om, guiverc and Krytarik to help revive the Ubuntu News Letter after it had stopped being written, unfortunately my wife was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer and I had to stop helping so I could take care of her and our business which sadly she has since passed but I now have considerable more time for community participation.

After helping restart the Ubuntu News Letter I mainly published the Ubuntu News Letter to the Fridge, Ubuntu Forums and Social Media and I am still co-admin of the mailing lists for the Ubuntu News Letter and the Ubuntu News Team, bashing-om and guiverc still run the Ubuntu News Letter and I asked bashing-om recently if they needed help publishing the Ubuntu News Letter so I do believe I will be helping again very soon.

Currently I am an Ubuntu Board Member, Super-moderator on the Ubuntu Forums and a Discourse Moderator working as part of the transition team to set Ubuntu Discourse up for the transition of Ubuntu Forums to be able give support and help, we recently have support and help for Ubuntu live on Ubuntu Discourse and plan to make the official announcement on the Ubuntu Forums that support and help is live after Thanksgiving. I have personally initiated contact with Staff Members of the forum to encourage them to make the transition to Ubuntu Discourse and I have personally messaged several of the main members of the forum that help answer support questions to encourage them to come to Ubuntu Discourse because many of them are apprehensive about the change and I have always found that the personal touch makes all the difference in the world.

Why do I want to be an Ubuntu Board Member

I always encourage everyone that I know that meets the criteria to apply for Ubuntu Membership, as an Ubuntu Board Member I love and enjoy to contribute to the process of applicants becoming Ubuntu Members from encouraging future applicants to apply, explaining the process to apply and giving advice along the application process if needed which is a lot less needed these days since the process has been simplified however, I do believe the process will be easier and simplified even more by moving the actual scheduling of the meeting from the wiki to an Ubuntu discourse wiki and I also want to be an Ubuntu Board Member to continue to improve the membership process.

Future Goals

I am going to contribute to making the Ubuntu Community an even better place than it already is. This can be obtained through building good will throughout the entire Ubuntu Community by serving the entire community's needs equally and participating in shaping a new vision for how community interactions are handled.

To work with the Ubuntu Community in a broader sense by helping on boards where needed and to get more into development testing.

To continue to be a friendly and helpful Staff Member on Ubuntu Discourse, and render assistance where needed.

To continue to convert as many people as I can to Ubuntu, provide help when needed to them and have as much fun as I can while doing it.

Testimonials

Bashing-om

In my opinion wildmanne39 will be and is a significant contribution to any endeavor and will be a welcome addition to the Ubuntu Membership Board; exercising his great people skills.

27nov2024: In a long term association with Wildman I have always observed his knowledge, willingness to help, and going that extra mile to render aid. He is forthright,honest, and adheres to the high standard of the Ubuntu Code of Conduct. He does indeed put forth a tremendous amount of effort in supporting Ubuntu in all the domains. -- Bashing-om

Irihapeti

I have worked with wildmanne39 for a number of years as a fellow Ubuntu Forums moderator, and more recently as a colleague on the Ubuntu Forums to Discourse Transition Team. I have found him helpful and supportive, dedicated, and willing to go, not just the extra mile, but two or three of them. He is willing to listen to others' opinions before proceeding, and I don't recall ever seeing him anything but patient and considerate. He has my unqualified support for Ubuntu Membership Board membership. -- Irihapeti

Ian Weisser

I have watched wildmanne39's work for many years on UbuntuForums, and worked closely with him during the UbuntuForums transition to Discourse. He has years of demonstrated good judgement on the Membership Board. Recent experience shows that he remains very active. He should remain on the Membership board. -- ian-weisser

Miles Sharpe

Firstly I agree with everything the others have said about Larry. He has helped me with many problems I have had , and we have been in the membership board for years together except when LIFE interfered. He chaired many membership board meetings over the years and is a genuine gentleman when dealing with new applicants. It will be a great loss to lose him from the board. -- Miles Sharp

ajgreeny

I have worked with wildmanne39 for several years as a fellow moderator in Ubuntuforums. He has worked extremely effectively over those years and it has been a pleasure to work with him discussing items that I, or others, have felt unable to act on immediately without further information with a lot more detail than was available to me. Working with wildmanne39 for this long time certainly means that I feel he will continue to be a valuable addition to the membership board. -- ajgreeny

coffeecat

I have worked with wildmanne39 for several years on the ubuntuforums staff. He has always been a keen and highly effective member of the team, and as a super-moderator a truly valued support to the Forum Council. Apart from the routine and mundane work of the moderating staff, there are frequent occasions when confidential discussions have to be conducted about problems, either technical in managing the forum, or when dealing with "difficult" forum members who provide a challenge to the moderators in their behaviour. His contributions in such situations have always been constructive and much appreciated.

I have no hesitation in recommending that he remains on the Membership Board, where his good judgement will be much valued. --coffeecat

oldfred

Also worked with wildmanne39 on Ubuntu Forum's staff. He has always stepped up to resolve issues. And now has further stepped up to help on the forum shutdown and start up of Support on Discourse. Highly recommended. --oldfred