I do support the idea of somehow outing the major problem I mentioned, however, I'm not sure there's an easy way to that without a) learning things I really don't want to know and b) disrespecting those that participate normally.

I know, I know. If people are participating normally, then there should be nothing to hide. Since most of us are human, though, I suspect some of us (me included) would rather not be reminded of previous actions we're not necessarily proud of.

While the current system isn't necessarily perfect, it does seem to work 99% of the time. Consider the extreme case I mentioned. Even taking the effects into account, that person still manages to contribute and still (I think) gains other benefits from participating.

Another example can be seen in the side of personality voting that's rarely commented on, specifically, the XP gained when someone votes your nodes because they simply like you. It may happen more rarely than bad personality voting, but it does happen.

Since this community is chiefly devoted to a computer language designed to be more functional than perfect, then I think it's fair to expect a few flaws in its community. After all, we are human. Tempers fray, patience is tested, and bad things happen. However, if that's all you look at, then you're missing the good things that happen. Most of us have directly benefited from the advice and code posted on this site. Personally, I've learned a lot about Perl, a lot about programming, and even a little bit about being a better person. That's the real beauty of the Monastery and it's happened with the current setup in place. (Granted, the system has evolved over time.)

Sure, we're periodically invaded and we sometimes have to clean up a certain amount of graffiti. Yet, there's a great deal of good information found here, as well as a number of good, smart, and helpful people. Certain notorious monks have even changed their ways (or claim to have, anyway).

For every "useless" thank-you note we see, I suspect there many others that could've been posted but weren't. I'm reasonably certain that many have received privately /msg-ed thank-you notes or other comments. In other words, some people really appreciate the efforts made to make the Perl world a smarter and safer place.

I would rather see us invest our limited time in contributing to these benefits. I believe much success of Perl and its community can be directly attributed to the generosity of a few key people. To my mind, generosity requires a certain maturity, which in turn (I believe) requires an awareness that people aren't perfect.

In other words, let's learn from the things that've led to the success of Perl and its community. Let's not focus (or reward by paying attention to) those that would abuse the Monastery, the larger Perl Community, or even the success of Perl. If, as has been said, the best way to deal with schoolyard bullies is to ignore them as much as possible, then perhaps it would be best to simply expect and live with a certain amount of unprofessional and unreasonable behavior. We do have several ways of limiting those effects. Ignore the bullies and, hopefully, they'll move on or learn to participate more appropriately.

A key question might be "Then, how do you ignore 40 downvotes a day? That's totally unfair." I agree; it is. Completely unfair. Life is like that. Move on. There are bigger fish to fry.

Considering the number of memes, poor coding practices and bad Perl code currently in circulation on the 'Net and in bookstores, I our time is better spent by improving the knowledge of the people using Perl. That rewards the people that should be rewarded and is, I think, part of the sprit of Perl and its leaders.

For example, I understand someone is helping to rewrite a certain set of freely available scripts using better, more secure coding practices. I applaud those efforts (though wonder what the status is). However, there are many other bad scripts floating out there and there's a large amount of incorrect and/or confusing information available. Let's get those memes and CC practices dealt with. Let's create a written body of knowledge that dispels the rumors and helps people get their jobs done.

That's what led to Perl in the first place, isn't it? There was a job to do it and Larry wrote Perl to help get it done. Most of you know the rest of the history better than I. There are many other jobs that need doing. Let's work on getting those done.

In Llama3, we're told:

Perl is kind of ugly. This is true. The symbol of Perl has become the camel, from the cover of the venerable Camel book (also known as Programming Perl), a sister to this one. Camels are kind of ugly, too. But they work hard, even in tough conditions. Camels are there to get the job done despite all difficulties, even when they look bad and smell worse and sometimes spit at you. Perl is a little like that. -- page 5

Many of us like that aspect of the language. It seems reasonable to expect the Community (and the Monastery) to be a little ugly from time to time. I don't believe we can prevent that. But, we can clean up the messes and keep trying to contribute helpfully. That's why we're here, isn't it?

--f