yet some people seem to think that every module release -- initial or in some cases even update (of theirs, of course) -- deserves a manual entry on the site as a newsworthy development.

Uh... Strawmen? Did somebody move all of these release announcements to some other section? I don't see a single person doing what you describe, much less "some people".

I found one person who posted twice about the same module. Neither of those postings was simply "I released a new version" (so your "Isn't this what http://search.cpan.org/recent is meant to be?" doesn't apply). The first included "A few days ago I released version 2.10", the second "I have just uploaded version 3.13". There were several uploads to CPAN of that same module between those two versions so your "every module release" also doesn't apply.

It's a freakin' forum site. The point is for people (even "little people") to post stuff to it. If you post uninteresting stuff, you get little out of it. If you make a habit of that, you lose XP. The AP does not have to be interested in any of it, even if the word "news" is applied to some of it.

http://search.cpan.org/recent does not provide "Here's some discussion about what went into the new release of the module and here's the type of feedback the author is looking for" nor a place to have a conversation with the module's author.

The section was called "Perl News" because it originally just aggregated other news feeds. No, posting to it does not (and should not) require anything be "newsworthy". "Interesting" is good. One common use of that section is posting pointers to stuff written by other people, but that isn't the only use for it. It makes perfect sense to me for that section to be used to point at stuff I released somewhere else, especially when that "somewhere else" doesn't provide features to allow me to try to start a discussion about the release.

To my eyes, that makes self-promotion of module authors in Perl News here look [...] (and tacky).

It is so tacky for people to upload their own modules to CPAN (a world-wide network of computers). Such blatant self-promotion. If the module is worth something, some interested third party could be found to upload it for them. Surely famous module authors have better things to do with their time than manually uploading their own code to have it promoted to the Perl community.

I would love to see Tim Bunce post to Perl News about a new release of a module of his. Because that is (even if he does nothing other than mention the new release) an invitation to take part in a discussion. Even beyond that, I'd expect a release announcement written by Tim Bunce to be much more interesting than one written by a third party. A release announcement from a third party is less likely to include insights that I couldn't get myself by looking at the release.

I think your eyes should stop looking for "self-promotion" and trying to intuit motives (especially if the next step is "take offense at the motives"). If I'm forced to guess at motives, my first guess is going to be "seeking feedback" over self-promotion.

Most people do a pretty bad job at seeking feedback. The best way to get feedback about a new release of a module is to write some interesting commentary on what you did in the new release and why and what about it you are most interested in getting feedback on and why. However, the typical method used is closer to "I did this (*points over there*). I'm looking for feedback."

So I'm not going to discourage people from announcing their own module releases to Perl News. And I'm not going to encourage them to have a third party do the announcement. I encourage authors to post interesting release announcements, when they have something interesting to share about a release. And if you really want some feedback about a release, the best way to get feedback is to say something interesting about the release.