It seems that brevity and obfuscation in perl code are inseparable

Further to shmem's insightful observation that obfuscation and abbreviation are different concepts, I feel obliged to point out that composing works of deliberate obfuscation in programming languages is a legitimate art form that long precedes Perl.

claiming code is "readable" on a website that has a section devoted to "Obfuscation" is not a good look

How about a section devoted to "Poetry"? ;) To me, it's a great look. The Perl culture of having fun is what attracted me to Perl in the first place - a refreshing oasis in the dreary corporate IBM/Microsoft desert that surrounded me twenty years ago. Crafting compact, readable and well-documented production code for customers is a completely separate activity to the artistic recreation of composing Perl obfus and poetry. Please take a look at:

• The Top Ten Perl Obfus
• The Top Ten Perl Poems

and let us know if you've changed your mind.

See Also

• The Lighter Side of Perl Culture (Part IV): Golf (Competitive Brevity)
• Drunk on golf: 99 Bottles of Beer (Competitive Brevity in Perl, Python, Ruby and PHP)
• The Lighter Side of Perl Culture (Part III): Obfu (Artistic Obfuscation)
• The Lighter Side of Perl Culture (Part V): Poetry (Artistic Poetry)
• Obfuscated Python (recreational obfuscation is not specific to Perl)
• Ressources for Acme namespace cultural implications by Smonff (CPAN Acme joke modules)