About Me

I am a husband, 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

My wife and 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 supermoderator 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 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 for setting up the cube and compiz in 2011.

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.

I am active on IRC in five channels, three of which are private channels and I have been very active in #ubuntuforums and #ubuntu-news, I have been on irc since March of 2012 and I have had OP's in #ubuntuforums since 2012-06-29.

On 2016-11-16 I became a supermoderator 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.

I also have an account on Ask Ubuntu where I have more than 7600 reputation points as of now,I do not answer questions regarding wireless issues very often these days when time permits I help clean up and maintain the site by reviewing first answers and questions, voting to open and close questions and reporting duplicates and poor quality answers or questions.

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 that is the person that writes all the code for the script these days.

Since March of 2017 I have taken over the Ubuntu Forums Facebook and Twitter Accounts; all Messages and tweets are managed by me.

On 2017-08-20 I was extended the honor of Ubuntu Membership Board Member where I have worked with the Ubuntu Membership Board team for more then three years to determine applicants qualifications for Ubuntu Membership, 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 am currently not an official Ubuntu Membership Board Member because I expired from the team due to the lack of a Community Council to put out a call for nominations to renew the Ubuntu Membership Board so an election could be held so I could run again for Board Member, however I am still active in the Ubuntu Membership Board meetings, we just voted on four new Ubuntu Membership Candidates October 1st 20/20.

I am currently helping publish the Ubuntu News Letter and co-admin of the mailing lists for the Ubuntu News Letter and the Ubuntu News Team, my main participation at this time is to publish the newsletter to the Fridge and Social Media .

Interests and Hobbies

Besides spending time with my family I enjoy working with computers and Ubuntu and when I have the time riding cycles.

Goals

My goal, if I am elected to the Community Council, is 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 of the Ubuntu Forums, and render assistance where needed.

To continue 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

If you would like to support me in my nomination to the Community Council please leave your comments here, you have to login to edit the wiki to leave your comment, if you cannot edit it yourself send me a pm on the forum or find me on IRC in #ubuntuforums and I will add what you have written.

As a long time supporter of ubuntu forums I have long been aware of Wild Man. He has demonstrated extensive knowledge of the operating system and always forthright in sharing his abilities at all levels. I have observed that he is just in his directives, rendering opinions as required to resolve conflicts and adverse situations; with aplomb and consideration for the feelings of all parties.

In my opinion wildmanne39 will be and is a significant contribution to any endeavor and will be a welcome addition to the Community Council; exercising his great people skills. -- Bashing-om

Wild Man (who goes by wildemanne39 in his nomination for Community Council because of a frustrating problem with using his preferred user name as a Forum Super-Mod) has been a dedicated member of the Ubuntu Forums -- as a user and as a member of the Ubuntu Forums Staff -- and an advocate for Ubuntu for many years. He epitomizes the spirit of both Ubuntu the philosophy and Ubuntu the product. He understands the commitment, dedication and sustained contribution to Ubuntu and the community required of those who seek to become members of the Community Council.

Wild Man takes on so many tasks, projects and responsibilities for the Ubuntu Forums that he is ideal for the Community Council.

Wild Man is level-headed, rational and possesses good decision-making skills. Those qualities would serve the Community Council very well. I highly recommend his selection and fully expect that he will be a valuable asset! -- QIII

Wild Man, aka wildemanne39, has my whole hearted support in his Community Council application. I have worked with him on the Ubuntu Forums, both as a moderator and as Supermoderator for a few years now and his leadership skills, kindheartedness and overall dedication to the greater Ubuntu community have always been present. His knowledge and kindness are present in each of his posts and he is also very active in IRC channels offering help and building a bigger and stronger community. -- slickymaster

Wild Man, a.k.a. wildmanne39, has a soundly-deserved reputation as a helper with wireless and other technical issues on the Ubuntu Forums, being willing to persist where others might give up. As a fellow forum moderator, I have found him helpful and supportive on those occasions when it's not immediately clear which is the best way to proceed with an issue. Not only that, but Wild Man has shown that he himself is more than willing to listen to others' opinions before proceeding.

Wild Man (wildmanne39) has my unqualified support for his nomination to the Community Council. -- irihapeti

Wild Man is a great guy who do a great job as Ubuntu Forum staff. It's good to have one on the Community Council that have humour, self control and discipline. -- artificial-intelligence

Wildmanne39 has a good overall grasp of the Ubuntu community’s various activities and this qualifies him to make informed decisions regarding Community Council decisions. -- Frogs Hair

wildmanne39 or Wild Man or, as I prefer to call him, Larry, has been, for many years, a recognized expert in networking and wireless and several other subjects at Ubuntu Forums and also Ask Ubuntu.

Far more than simply knowing the steps to help users solve problems, he is consistent. If he answers a post, he is diligent about replying to further steps promptly. He is sensitive and patient with users who may not be proficient English speakers.

He is quite remarkable in his ability to see the probable real problem that underlies the sometimes baffling original post. In my opinion, these qualities uniquely qualify Larry for the Community Council. I urge his early confirmation. -- chili555

Since I have joined Ubuntu Forums until this very moment, I've met (in the virtual digital world) many people but there are few special and unique people I can't forget and perhaps I'm still around because of them. One of the nicest persons is wildmanne39 and I highly recommend to recognize and depend on people like him to make Ubuntu Community better. We need to understand Ubuntu is powerful not because of the system itself but because of the community around it. Build better community and improve it, our system will get better. It's not the other way, trust me. Thank you wildmanne39 for everything you've done and still doing. -- amjjawad

An outstanding record of helping the ubuntu community, the perfect match for Community Council. -- lotuspsychje

Wildmenne39 is extremely qualified and I highly recommend him for Community Council. -- oldfred

CategoryTestimonial