Hi all,
unfortunately I have few time to visit this wonderful website. I'm sure I'm talking about someting that was discussed several other times, but I'd like to undestand more XPs.. I wanted to go to my homepage here, and I wrongly clicked on the name close to mine in the list. I found a user that made just one post and had more than 200 points. at first I thought: this is going to be a real smart posting! I read it but it was not a 200 point posting, (just) a valid suggestion where to look for some documentation on the internet. I voted it to see the reputation and it was five. I assume the user got all those points because he/she is a frequent voter or visitor (I'm getting some points whenever I get here, fun).
I'd like to have the XPs as an indication on experience on Perl (the user I'm referring to can be a real expert, but I don't know since he just got 1 posting with 5 as reputation), so that I might first work on things that people with high XPs suggest, or read their stuff in the short time I (unfortunately) might have to browse the site. Maybe an average reputation (XPs/posting) shown beside the XP for frequentation would help. It could an average from 5th lower percentile to above, for cutting the negative tail for top-skilled guys that are sometimes downvoted for their way to state things :)
ciao
roberto

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: XPs and real experience
by perrin (Chancellor) on Nov 21, 2001 at 00:08 UTC
    XP is an indicator of someone taking the time to participate in this site, and the relative value that others give to this person's contributions. It's not about level of Perl skill, although some highly skilled coders do have high XP because of their contributions.
[reply]
      I thought that XPs should be used to vote for quality of postings. Or better I'd like to see distinguished votes for quality of postings and participation to the site.
      I personally don't care about getting/loosing XPs, it is really the last of my thoughts. If I can donate them as I do for frequent flyer miles, I'd be happy to :)
      I'd like to know what is the interest for other users to get them, if they are not intended for rating the skillness or the quality of their comments, technical and on general things.
      I'm missing something, or I'm just not involved enough into a community, where it seems that always a ranking sooner or later pops up.
      Yes, that is probably the "value": if you are involved enough into a community then you need a rank. And getting higher in the rank might be the scope to stay there... just thinking by myself...
      But it is in general confusing me that people can be downvoted (why just don't vote) for what they say in particular on general things, like discussions and meditations.
      I get "sad" :)) when I see that I was also downvoted for what I proposed as discussion. As long as one person is reasonably polite (was I? sorry if I was not) in stating things, why censoring them? Thoughts should be free, and just ignored or discussed. Not only in Perlmonks...
      One last thing on XPs... I remember a long ago I came here for some days and there was a guy, I don't remember the name, that was downvoted for some unpolite comment than he made, after his work was criticised.
      He first got some minus and then he complained. So others downvoted him for his complain. t was like one started to throw a stone, and other did the same just because they saw those doing that. and the guy just got crazy and started to offend people... The node reaper removed him and he tried to get in again and offending in the chatterbox... I was curious and went to see his postings. He had been correct and "normal" until the time he was criticized with downvoting. he just went crazy like those guys who enter the school with a gun and shot their mates... I really got that feeling :)
      So it is better to ignore people and just give them a + if you agree! here and in real life :)
      ciao!
      roberto
[reply]
        I thought that XPs should be used to vote for quality of postings.

        Yes, that's what I said. You vote ++ on something if you think it's a good contribution. I think your confusion comes from your belief that a highly rated comment should demonstrate some amazing perl skill. A simple comment that many people find worthwhile might get a higher rating than an amazing perl trick that wasn't as generally useful or just didn't get seen by as many people.

        I get "sad" :)) when I see that I was also downvoted for what I proposed as discussion.

        You were probably downvoted because we're all sick of talking about XP and would prefer to talk about Perl.

[reply]
Re: XPs and real experience (boo)
by boo_radley (Parson) on Nov 21, 2001 at 01:35 UTC

    Here is the meaning -- the real meaning -- of XP :

    Juzan, the zen disciple, was in the habit of taking on students. When travelling through the land, he would stop in some particular location, and lecture about the meaning of zen, or how it may be found throughout nature. As he concluded these lectures, he would raise up his pointer finger, and thrust it upwards.
    After a while, he noticed that one student began punctuating his speech with this same motion, and cautioned him against the practice. The student nodded vigorously and promised to stop. Juzan noticed that the student's promise was short lived as he resumed the mimcry of his teacher.
    Annoyed, Juzan took the student aside and asked him to give his opinion on an issue of the day. As the student spoke, he began to raise his pointer finger, and in one swift motion, Juzan lopped it off.
    After the wound healed, Juzan again took the student aside and asked him to speak. The student spoke, and began the familiar motion once again. When he realized he could not extend his finger, he was enlightened.
[reply]
Re: XPs and real experience
by japhy (Canon) on Nov 20, 2001 at 22:59 UTC
    If you're interested in a monk's qualifications, just ask. In the end, it's up to the monk to tell you what they want to tell you. I've actually been considering putting my resume up on my home node so that monks who run businesses might see it and strike up a job-offer conversation.

    _____________________________________________________
    Jeff[japhy]Pinyan: Perl, regex, and perl hacker.
    s++=END;++y(;-P)}y js++=;shajsj<++y(p-q)}?print:??;

[reply]
      I know that it's up to the monk to tell what he/she wants to tell. And from there should be the "Experience" evaluation. Not points because someone is hanging here(assuming that it is the reason for 200 and more points and 1 posting, but I might be wrong and the reason is another).
      Or probably I'm missing the real meaning of these points...
      I was just curious about this evaluation that is called "Experience", while I guess is not, at least not completely.
      Thanks for your reply
      roberto

[reply]
        Personally, I view XP as a measure of a person's involvement with the PM community, not necessarily a measure of their Perl knowledge.

        Most of my XP came from voting. Why don't I post more? Because I'm still learning Perl, so either I don't know the answer, or someone else has already provided one, and I have nothing to add (The posts where people re-iterate what someone else has already said really annoy me). So I vote instead, and make my small contribution to the PM community, and get my small reward in the form of an occasional XP point.

        I would also imagine that if you take a look at how long that person has been a Perl Monks user, you'd probably find that they've been here a while. If someone's willing to 'hang around' that long, I think they should be given some XP. Without these people, PM wouldn't be such a strong site.

[reply]
Re: XPs and real experience
by petral (Curate) on Nov 21, 2001 at 03:45 UTC
        "(I'm getting some points whenever I get here, fun)"

    That last is the part to look for.

      p
[reply]

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