Since we're relying primarily on perldoc, maybe the link in the sidebar could go straight to perldoc's faq page. This has the disadvantage of hiding the mountain of potentially useful (if old) information that already resides here, though.

If updating the local copies is out of the question for the time and utility, I wouldn't object to the "link to perldoc" solution. Maybe then we would need a special perldoc-linking bracket format, to answer the FAQs that show up in SoPW, though.

Every perlfaq node I've seen on perlmonks has linked to perldoc.com's page for the same doc. Perhaps an auto-forward there instead of the page with the link on it. This would accomplish the goal of not giving out-of-date information, while still maintaining the integrity of the links pointing to the current page. Just an idea...

The problem (in my mind) is that some of the perlfaq pages both have links to perldoc as well as old documentation from the site here, which may be what's actually referenced by the link. These are often answers somebody just came up with, and I've found some of them very useful. Removing them could make some links less useful or confusing, and any useful extra information they contained would have to be destroyed (or moved).
--

Love justice; desire mercy.

Maybe PerlMonks could do a better job, and provide a neat list of questions that do link to the answers?

But I think a Monastery does not discard its archives. How about putting up to date stuff in there *and* a link to the great perldoc.org resource too. You would think a place like Perl Monks would do great docs.. but I guess it really must be a big job, and everyone has them locally plus perldoc. Consider what is the Monastery's value-added?

At least if you want to remove the link to the perl faq section, leave the old nodes so links don't break.. That's the lazy (=good,hackerish) way.

But I have a couple ideas I'd like you to consider (please pardon my length).

1. PM could attempt to organize the burgeoning perl faqs with a wiki.

Perldoc.org is already a great distributor. The point would rather be to direct people to specific docs and make their structure and interrelations more transparent. It could link also to perldoc.org, so people who like the hyperlinks can use them.

A wiki (I hope) would not be a big load on the Editors, and also is good because this is something that would benefit from more hands and eyes (i.e. a network effect). Maybe write privileges after attaining some experience level.

I for example constantly forget whether regexes are in perlop, perlre, perlfunc, or perlvar. (Guess!) And there are more faq files in each new version, I'm sorry to say I'm behind on those and Larry's/Damian's writings. Wouldn't mind a resource list on that page by the way.

2. SuperSearch might be another interesting way to search the information, or a new way might be found in the future. For example a grep-like output.
This might put weight on the server though, if it is too good.

3. It might be neat to try our own hand at cross referencing or (gasp!) annotation (quite monkish!!). I'm thinking of the annotated Mysql online manual, which to me is very sexy/compelling - just needs more comments. Perhaps answers to RTFM could be referenced by a new kind of PM hyperlink to a given line number with a few lines of context above and below it, or an auto-quotation of a specific range of lines, within limits.

4. Tons of broken links might be created in the future if something happens to perldoc.org. Or is that worrying too much? Not familiar with who runs perldoc.org.

5. We are going to need some place for parrot and perl 6 faqs too, and a powering up of the faq section is overdue to shield us from the mass of people coming from other languages when .Net gets written in Perl. I think this is a unique opportunity to 0wn the Net! Let's leverage this neglected but still relevant part of PM with our minds and works. TIMTOWTDI.