All it takes is one annoying user to spoil the fun
November 15th, 2007
Do you know when old people talk about the good old days? Do you know when they talk about not having to lock their doors at night?
That’s what the Ubuntu Forums used to be like. Sure, we had the occasional crazy troll, and we definitely had lots of advertising spam (cell phones, porn, viagra, etc.). Those people were harmless, though. The people who engaged with trolls wasted only time. And most people knew not to click on spam but just report it.
Recently, though, we had a spammer who kept telling new users to type sudo rm -rf / in the terminal. For those of you who don’t know, that command basically erases your entire system. sudo (with administrative/root privileges) rm (remove) -rf (recursively for folders and files within folders and forced without asking for confirmation) / (the top-level directory of the entire installation).
About 99.999% of people who sign up for the forums are well-meaning (yes, even most trolls), but this loser just ruined everything. Now I have to change my forum signature to warn new users not to ever sudo rm anything. The worst part is that this malicious person actually thinks she or he taught these new users a lesson. That’s like going around picking up hitchhikers and then slitting their throats to teach them not to hitchhike. It’s sick, almost to the point of being psychotic. You don’t teach users not to enter random commands by giving them commands to delete their systems.
It takes only one bad apple…
November 16th, 2007 at 2:24 am
I changed my signature too. I mean trolls are bad enough. But telling new users (who trust the forums) to type a command that destroys there whole system is uncalled for.
November 16th, 2007 at 10:27 pm
UbuntuCat is right, the Ubuntu Forums has got to be the friendliest, and most helpful group of people I’ve ever come across. (Try asking similarly phrased questions to the elitists at xtremesystems.org and see where it gets you.) The UF is pretty much the reason I started using the Ubuntu distro, and why I chose to make it my distro of choice. I doubt the “sudo rm -rf troll” does any permanent damage to the forum’s reputation. I’m sure people will see this for the flash in the pan smacktard that he is. I reference the famous: John Gabriel’s Greater Internet F*ckwad Theory.
November 17th, 2007 at 1:39 pm
Without the user forums I doubt I would have ever considered installing a Linux distro. But giving someone the ability to unknowingly trash their installation is a trick more belonging to the early days of DOS and Windows than the warm fuzzy mutual help ideology of Open Source.
In fact being a hard bitten (and sometimes sucked-in) DOS/Windows campaigner, I would probably never implement anything I found in the Ubuntu forums without looking for corroboration from other unrelated sources such as the tech answers system in launchpad or psychocats linux notes (which, incidentally, is how I got here).
If I was to make one comment about where awareness in the Ubuntu distro needs to be raised it is in the implementation of the ‘sudo’ command. As Ubuntucat points out in his blog, many users do not understand that sudo puts you right on the edge of the cliff, the next step is up to you. Such a concept is familiar to DOS users, where ‘format c: y’ would usually do the job quite nicely. But my distant remembrance of working in UNIX (linux) systems was that as long as you are not logged in as root, you cannot do significant damage to the system.
‘sudo’ changes that in four letters. Don’t get me wrong, now that I understand sudo I regard it as a useful and truly elegant solution to performing administrator tasks in Ubuntu. But I would suggest, for example, in the psychocats notes, ‘sudo’ should have its own entry in the ‘just beginning’ section explaining how it works and why Ubuntu does not have or need a conventional UNIX-type root account.
Open source and Ubuntu are at a point where increasing numbers of PC novice and non linux literate people will soon be Ubuntu users. A bit of careful instruction will prevent them from being the source of gratification for microbes who think that getting a novice to trash their system is educational and fun.
November 17th, 2007 at 3:44 pm
I think part of the problem, though, Artydoodah, is that PC novices and non-Linux-literate people who become Ubuntu users do not usually find Psychocats or read the stickies before they post a thread.
They do not research the commands people give them or wait for corroboration from other sources. They just post a question on the forums, see an answer, and try it…
… at least that’s what happened to those new users burned by the rmrf idiot. They posted a question, one minute later, the idiot posted Hey, just try this command, and before the three minutes later when two other forum members responded, No! Do not use that command, the new user had already borked her system.
November 26th, 2007 at 12:47 am
The main reason I have not jumped on the “Let’s put the warning in our signatures” bandwagon is because, if these trolls keep plaguing our support forums, over time, imps try different things, which could lead to encrypted rm -rf /.
So everyone has in their signatures “Don’t run `sudo rm` !!”, so they read this and the troll has posted an encrypted version of it, still resulting in the same results.
With it encrypted, it can say anything. So it would be hard to warn against using a ‘certain’ command. I am all for educating new users about sudo, rm and what it can do to your system if you use it wrong, but if these imps get smart, it would be quite a difficult challenge to warn against a ‘certain’, predesigned command, when everytime it could be different.
So, don’t think me ill for not placing any thing in my signature about it, as it is my personal choice, but I fear later on down the road, all of these warnings in the signatures will do no good to warn new users.
November 26th, 2007 at 6:33 am
No, that’s cool. A lot of people have expressed similar sentiments, and I agree. If it’s not one malicious command, it could be another anyway.
December 2nd, 2007 at 5:29 pm
I’m a bit of a silver lining queen, and I can tell you (from my green perspective) that this trollish behaviour has done nothing to disuade me from continuing on the route I am following (i.e., I’ve switched to Ubuntu – and I’m enjoying it!). The fact that everyone got so angry and started immediately finding solutions says a LOT about the Ubuntu community. This kind of response makes people want to be part of UF and the open source movement in general. There are two really positive things about this:
1. The reaction of UF has made the community more appealing, thereby helping to create a better and stronger place for linux in the world.
2. It gave me a chance to make a contribution to UF – I changed my sig ‘don’t run any command unless you understand exactly what it will do’ (I agree with not making sudo are terrifying place for n00bs to go or to lull people into a false sense of security that this is the only really damaging thing you can do)! It is a small contribution, but I feel part of the community now. :D
December 8th, 2007 at 12:49 am
Lol, when i first got on to linux my friend was helping me, and he told me that. It did teach me a good lesson, to double check every command you enter, cause you never know what your typing in any other way, or what it could be doing.
The troll was harsh, and it is messed up, but for me it was a good learning experience, i know now to check before i enter a command im unaware of.
But yeah, its all fun and games till someone spills the mayonnaise
December 21st, 2007 at 1:25 am
Hi Ubuntucat.
I have been looking for an answer for the last couple of weeks for a problem I am having with the installation of Ubuntu. I got the CD posted got it in the computer and installed the software. When I go through my programs by using the XP, Ubuntu folder is there. However, when I start Ubuntu, a black screen comes and a message “Cannot display this video mode” appears. I can still hear the music of the start up and everything ,I just cannot see. Any ideas? I would be really really grateful if you can help. I have been using Windows all my life then I tried an open source program (The GIMP) and actualy realised that I should change. I’ve read a lot about Ubuntu and linux in general and for so many reasons I am convinced that it is much better.Idealy, I would like to use Ubuntu solaly as an operating system.Most of my work is now changed from Adobe CS to the GIMP and Inkscape. So if I can get Ubuntu to work this will be the last step. Sorry to bother you with this long story but I just really need help and I cannot find one person who knows enough about Ubuntu to tell me what I am doing wrong in plain english as I am only a computer user and not a programmer. Appriciate your help and thank you