bruenig harrassing "newbies" and others trying to help on the #ubuntu channel

[dugh]

There is a recent (since may 2006) ubuntu user by the name of bruenig. The same person as here I imagine:
http://ubuntuforums.org/member.php?u=111813

He has been mistreating beginners and harrassing me on multiple occasions while I am trying to help them on the #ubuntu channel. The operators of the channel merely defended him.

Last week someone who had never compiled anything wanted to get the very latest verion of wine because the one in ubuntu has a bug in it. I pointed him to instructions for compiling, but told him an updated package would probably be available soon, and that compiling wine would be difficult. This user had never ran "make" before at all.

bruenig suddenly took offence to the suggestion that compiling anything might be difficult and went off on me, explicitly calling me a liar and not stopping. I put an /ignore on him and don't know what he said after that.

So perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised that he pulled the same stuff again yesterday.
Another brand new ubuntu user was asking which linux distro was easiest to use. Others said ubuntu is very easy, and another suggested suse also. I pointed him to distrowatch.com to check out different distros, and said though that ubuntu is the most popular linux distro right now. I know that distrowatch's "rankings" of popularity have been controversial, which is why I added that second point.

bruenig apparently didn't understand that you can make two points in one sentence. He combined the two in his mind and thought I had just suggested that ubuntu is the most popular linux distro because distrowatch says so:

<bruenig> ubuntu gets the most hits per day, that is not a measurement of popularity

and again he went on and on even after I repeatedly asked him to stop harrassing me and stop talking to me. He would not quit, so I called the "operators" of the #ubuntu channel for help. I don't know who the ops were, but a couple of people such as "vocx" merely piped up that bruenig was a regular there, which is completely irrelevant.

I have been using Linux for over 10 years, ubuntu for over 2. I've been developing software for over 15 years. I am a teacher and a programmer, it is my profession. I'm well aware of this kind of behavior on usenet and irc groups. That's why I would not recommend any beginners or even regular users looking for help to use the #ubuntu irc channel for support. Use this forum instead. That's also why I know that exposing this kind of harrassment of beginners is the only way to deal with it, otherwise it will only get worse.

[nonewmsgs]

i share your experience dugh. the people of the irc rooms are different animals than the ones in the forums. it's as though that is the absolute expert room.

[BlackMeTaL]

I haven't been that much to the IRC room, but I do recal bruenig, so I guess that counts for something. There are a lot of good people there but also some that are just there to correct everyone and contribute nothing.

[matthew]

I'm sorry you experienced this. We, in the forums, have no authority to do anything about this, as it is outside of our jurisdiction. I wish there were.

You could try to contact the irc team and see what they might want/be able to do about it.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/IrcTeam/AppealProcess

Also, this doesn't really fit in Absolute Beginners, so I'll move it to the Forum Feedback & Help, even though it doesn't really fit there, either...I can't think of a better place to put it.

Finally, to keep from allowing issues from outside to spill into the forums, I'm going to close the thread. Please do not take this as a comment on the validity of your comments in any way--it's simply a recognition that there is nothing we can do on the forums about issues on irc, so we would rather redirect those issues to a place where real help and resolution can take place.

Please let us know immediately if you ever experience anything like this around here, though, by using the "report post" button. We work hard to keep the forums a friendly, enjoyable place to hang out, get help, and give it as well.

See you around.

[PriceChild]

Hey there, I'm a member of the Ubuntu IRC Council, the team that manages #*buntu* on irc.freenode.net

We caught your !ops call this morning after which you very quickly /quit leaving us no way to discuss the situation with you.

If you think that "bruenig", or any other user has violated the Ubuntu IRC Guidlines then please come into #ubuntu-ops on irc.freenode.net where we can discuss the situation, I should be around under the nick "PriceChild" or "Pricey" so please get in touch with me

Harassing the other user by slandering him in !ops calls or posts like this on an unrelated site does nobody any good.