Easy - monks wasting Votes to get some late-night XPs, and where is the easiest place to waste them ? Well, front-page of course, the first page a monk reaches on PerlMonks.

Whoa, slow down there. I haven't seen the front page in ages and I'm sure many of the frequent regulars haven't either. Most of the "vets" around here browse from Newest Nodes or a client for its ticker.

Why should that SoPW question you point to not have been upvoted? Someone new to Perl is being attentive to detail - I would be delighted to hear such a question from someone I just started onto learning the language.

Much like you about yours, I didn't think very of a a certain node of mine either. When I put forth that concern however (at the time it was my 2nd highest ++'ed node), people told me they actually found it very well worth of a ++. What was obvious and trivial to me, wasn't necessarily to others.

What all this means is, just because you don't see a reason to upvote it doesn't mean noone else does. Everyone votes for different reasons.

For some more accurate conclusions about the frontpage and a more up to date guideline on what the frontpage is (rather than should be) about, see tye's notes on the topic as well as the entire thread it's part of.

(And to be honest, I don't think a rep of 20 is anything to write home or get excited about.. 30++ upwards tends to indicate a more than average but not spectacular post, in my experience, and I wouldn't call less than 40 rep "high".)

Makeshifts last the longest.

There are other reasons to front-page other than how well they are written and whether they are impressive - for example, questions that may be asked freqently will be front paged to raise awareness that this question has already been answered, and so that another monk may be able to find it quicker; or a question that has yet to get any response may be front-paged lest it be overlooked completely, as does occasionally happen.

--
Rozallin J. Thompson
The Webmistress who doesn't hesitate to use strict;

IMO this node is one of the more interesting node to go through PM this week. That you don't recognise it as such could be an indication that you don't understand the subtlety of the post. If anything, I think that it should have received a higher rating than it currently has. It has all the hallmarks of a good post.

It identifies a question that, whilst known to the guru's around here, is there to catch every new generation of Perlists that come around.

It has reduced the problem to it barest definition--the author did their homework first.

By raising the problem in the form of a simple challenge, it encourages everyone to have a go at answering it by inspection before trying it for real. I'm betting that I wasn't the only one that was caught out.

Not that the front-page XP phenomena isn't a real one, but your choice of example (IMO) was not the best. Maybe the answer to the front-paging problem would be to automate the process of front-paging. If a node isn't considered, and some proportion of the first 100 or so people that view it are affected enough by it to vote for it, then it automatically gets front-paged?

The fact that front-paged nodes get more votes convinces me that we have a lot of visitors (it seems, most of our visitors) that primarilly hit the front page. This means that if you don't front-page a node, then most of our members likely won't even know about it. I think only a small fraction of our nodes deserve such obscurity.

Most nodes should be front-paged. We don't want a static front page. The front page size is such that about one day's worth of nodes will fit on it. If we (again) return to rarely front-paging nodes, then we'll (again) have a front page that hardly changes after a week. For more details, see the other threads on front-paging.

I think you are way too worried about XP. Besides, if we front-page nearly every node, then they'll all get lots of XP and we'll all be happy. If we only front-page a few, then the disparity will just get bigger and make you worry more. (:

So why have a front page? This is a serious question, but I don't expect someone to redesign the site in response.

Update: Corion pointed out the obvious differences between Newest Nodes and The Monastery Gates, and the fact that users may well prefer one over the other. If enough people shared your view that most nodes should go on the front page, then you could consider making life simpler by automatically front-paging every approved node. It wouldn't upset me if I never saw another complaint about the front page.

I could go for that. Ending the controversy (how do the British manage to pronounce that like they do?) certainly is appealing. Unfortunately, it would likely spark a new controversy (and there is some point to being able to approve nodes but not FP them, especially for poor-quality anonymous nodes).

I think part of the problem is that the help pages still reflect the "front page is for special nodes" idea that was the original intent but doesn't match the reality that came to be. If we correct that so the "front-page most nodes" idea can keep hold, then the controversy should decrease.

BTW, I'm happy to note that it has been a long time since I've heard arguments about approving one's own nodes, so the "effort to reduce the recurrent moaning and gnashing" appears to have worked.

                - tye

As a classic example see this node.

In general, I tend to ++ questions that I consider good questions — I frontpage very good questions. This is, IMO, a good question. I think many people respond in that manner. BTW the rep of that node was already at 15 at the time I frontpaged it. So you're not correct that all of its rep comes from it having been frontpaged.