Dear jesuashok,
While I'm completely favourable to the occasional slipping in of OT discussions (especially as long as they're not 100% OT but have some connection with actual [Pp]erl stuff) this forum is for discussing about [Pp]erl, not [Pp]eople, and maybe it's just me being overly paranoid, but I see potential risks about ad personam arguments, even if they're favourable comments - so definitely that's the kind of OT content that I do not appreciate and do not approve.
OTOH if you lurk for some time you can form an idea of who are those whose contribution will be most valuable for your own tastes and interests.