Join the fight against malicious commands given to new users

[the yawner]

Mmm.. I tried to put in as much info as well on my sig, but due to size limit I can't make it explicitly recommend the link for more info.

Edit:
Uhh... Sig's not appearing. Anyway, I'm trying to put something like this:
sudo - run as root
rm - remove files or directories
-rf - option to remove directories and their contents recursively and do it without further warning or prompts.

[K.Mandla]

You could try trimming the text of the signature to make space for the link. Or run the link through something like tinyurl.com, which will shorten it considerably.

[Atreus12]

Sounds like a good idea. I remember the days of blindly copying and pasting commands from the forum.

[PartisanEntity]

Thanks aysiu, done.

[koleoptero]

I just love the rm -fr command. It is always useful when you want to remove that blasted "Examples" folder from the home folder after a new installation.

But I must confess I accidentally destroyed the installation of a friend. I thought he knew even more than me about linux (he was saying in a chat how he edited the fstab and such stuff) so when he asked me how to fix something I told him for fun "sudo rm -fr /bin" and he went ahead and did it... you can figure out the rest...

So even though I'm only a community cafe regular I'll add it to my signature too.

[Cochise]

done see below

[Linuxratty]

I'll be sure to report any malicious commands I see to you mods so you can ban their @$$es. But hey... let God deal with those people, for karma is a *****, and may their hard drives crash the next day.

If you wait for god to do something,nothing will EVER happen..
I'm astounded people could be so malicious to others...However,ive added this to my sig. and if i see anyone doing this crap to a newbie,I will report it as well.

[Nunu]

Sign me up. Editing my profile as we speak. Stop the BUFH (******* User From Hell)

[helliewm]

I have changed my Signature.

Helen

[kebes]

May I suggest that, in addition to warning users about suspicious commands (like "sudo rm"), that everyone explains commands when providing them to new users. Yes, even safe commands, like "ls" or "find."

If users see (quick, simple) explanations provided with helpful post (rather than just a terse "type this in a terminal"), they will be more suspicious when they see a strange command without any explanation. They will also learn what the commands do, which is very important.

And if trolls provide "fake explanations" for what a command is doing, it's still easier for users to detect the trickery (if a troll says "rm" installs software, a quick search will contradict that, and make the user suspicious...).