Ha ha, didn't think of aliens. My first thought was a prank of some sort, checked the date, didn't want to get caught out like poor old zetetes from Switzerland ... maybe kcott's birthday will become a new PM prank day. :)

Perl Monks History

• The First Ten Perl Monks
• The First Ten Perl Obfus
• The Top Ten Perl Obfus
• The Top Ten Perl Poems
• History of the Perl News section by jdporter

Perl Monks Level System

• Voting/Experience System

• A Level Playing Field by Petruchio (2005) - new level system announced
• I Was a Saint (sung to the tune of "I Will Survive") by sauoq (2005) - Perl poem composed in response to Petruchio's new level system
• Translation of the Perlmonks levels ... by ZlR (2005) - translation of PM levels into French (and other languages in replies)

• Re^2: The First Ten Perl Monks (vroom gives himself a million XP)
• We Have a New Pope by kcott (2013) (Corion tops 100,000 XP; at 12-June-2023, the Patriarchs are: BrowserUk 171828, Corion 159650, ikegami 139669)
• Re^3: We Have a New Pope (Spooty and khayos are saints with zero posts! AdamQuark and RavingGoat with 4 posts, cguevara and roke with 5)

• Demotions of monks by syphilis (2022) - when and why were BrowserUk, Corion and ikegami demoted from Pope to Patriarch?
• Re^2: Demotions of monks by me - we need more levels between Patriarch and His Eminence
• Re^4: Demotions of monks by me - concerned for the super-elite top three, striving for vroom's unreachable one million XP target

• Levels of Monks: missing a row by kcott (2023) - pointing out an inconsistency between Voting/Experience System (29 levels) and Levels of Monks (28 levels)

Perl Monks Node Reputation Changes over the Years

• Re: Selected best nodes - nothing recent, why? (Node Reputation Ranges Over the Years) (contains historical Best Nodes reputation ranges: 2007-present)
• Re: Is PM more active or less active than X years ago?

• Nostradamus Five Year Node Reputation Prophecy Expires Today! - five year XP prophecy by davies (2011-2016)
• Selected Best Nodes: 2011-2015

• Perl Monks in numbers?
• Re: Perl Monks in numbers?
• Terminal decline?
• Re^4: Terminal decline?

XP Nodes Added Later

• Googlish approach to voting/XP? by ajdelore (2003) - lots of replies (including a 2023 necropost by Bod)

Bizarre/Interesting Experience Point Anecdotes

• Weird anomaly in brian_d_foy experience points (as it was unfolding, it was like reading a gripping mystery novel; it remains an unsolved mystery today)
• Re^6: Peculiar hash behavior (brian d foy) (was brian_d_foy a Perl 3 user? Doubtful. He bought "Programming Perl" from Clerk No. 28 at Barnes & Noble, Auburn MA, for $29.95 on Saturday the 24th of June 1995 at 1:45 pm)

• Let's make BBQ a Saint! (heart-warming community effort to upvote enough of BBQ's historic nodes for him to finally and deservedly be listed at Saints in our Book) (2023)

• planetscape and me: 1282 nodes apiece - planetscape and me tied (29891 XP, 1289 Writeups apiece) on Saints in our Book on Jul 8, 2015 (see also many interesting replies from chacham)
• Re: planetscape and me: 1282 nodes apiece - adjacent Saints in our Book with the same number of posts

• Re: Twenty laborious years -- and I'm glad to be here - epic duel between talexb and jdporter, with talexb reaching Chancellor first (by just 3 XP) on Dec 19 2021
• Chancellor of the Exchequer - talexb and jdporter are joined by afoken in this race to the top 50 Perl Monks of all time (2023)
• Re^7: Chancellor of the Exchequer (Target Reached) - LanX predicts the exact date for afoken to win this race (2023)
• Re^3: Chancellor of the Exchequer - afoken and talexb tied on 2264 posts apiece (2023)

• Re^6: When can the character length of a Perl Scalar become an issue? (Easy Lover) - LanX is Nostradamus, predicts the exact date philipbailey will become a Saint (2023)

• The Highest Rated Node of All Time (kcott pranked by jdporter aka erzuuli) (2022)
• Notification of XP increase has gone wild (maybe) by davido (seeing big bumps in XP, recently congratulated for +92 XP on login!) (2022)

• Automatic downvote by harangzsolt33 (like SunnyD, asks if he's being downvoted by a BOT) (2023)
• Re: Do we ever want to freeze threads? by harangzsolt33 (replies to a twenty year old talexb thread and talexb is still here to respond :) (2023)
• Re: A small step...and a giant leap for Bod by me (compares the XP of some monks after making about 1000 posts) (2023)

• Re^2: When can the character length of a Perl Scalar become an issue? by LanX (warns philipbailey that eyepops will soon be taking bets on your sanctification) (2023)
• Re^5: When can the character length of a Perl Scalar become an issue? (Easy Lover) by LanX
• Re^4: Larger profile pic than 80KB? by LanX (congrats on your 2222nd post) (2023)
• Re^5: Larger profile pic than 80KB? (2222 posts) - me 2222, karlgoethebier 2239, talexb 2264, afoken 2272

Other Anecdotes

• How to use the -T file op as a one-liner - kcott responds to new post by kwolcott - both Ken and both with cott in their surname :) (2023)
• Re^4: How to use the -T file op as a one-liner (kcott's relatives at Perl Monks) - joined by clscott and dcscott
• Re^5: first stumbling steps in PDL - jo37 promoted to Deacon on Feb 08, 2024 ... next level Saints in our Book!

See Also

• Re: Add "Image Miniatures" to your HTML (Fun References)
• Re^2: Controversial!! - Get rid of the -- vote option (Downvote References)
• Re^3: Strawberry Perl can't find a module installed at a non-standard location (Perl Monks Boo-boos References)

Updated: The list of References above were added much later, long after the original reply was made

"... maybe kcott's birthday will become a new PM prank day. :)"

I'd be happy with that if the rule is you can prank anyone on 22nd January whose username isn't kcott.

— Ken