in reply to New to Perl Link

Actually, the "Guide to the Monastery" and (especially) "Tutorials" links do a remarkably good job of introducing people to the monastery and to Perl. As an experiment, go to the front page and see how long it takes you to find them (hint -- way down on the right-hand side, under "information", or buried in the upper-right jungle).

As a Perl newcomer, I imagine myself coming to the front page and mainly seeing a Q-and-A forum with a bunch of questions I don't understand. I have no way to distinguish between these obscure questions and the more basic questions I have about the language, so I believe that any question is fair game. If I need my problem solved by 5PM today, I don't have time to lurk, either.

Maybe putting a "newcomers' guide" link -- and not a link to the "RTFM" thread -- at the top of the front page, or promoting "Tutorials" from the jumble on the upper right, would help. I'm not arguing it's not polite to lurk before posting (it is), or that these things can't be found with a few minutes' diligent search (they can), but that the interface doesn't make it obvious that this is a place where such things exist, rather than a jumble of Q-and-A.

/s

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Re: Re: New to Perl Link
by hossman (Prior) on May 20, 2002 at 05:00 UTC
    Actually, the "Guide to the Monastery" and (especially) "Tutorials" links do a remarkably good job of introducing people to the monastery and to Perl. As an experiment, go to the front page and see how long it takes you to find them
    A lot of Monks forget: if a person isn't logged in, the top of the front page has a the line...
    If you're new here please read Perl Monks Site FAQ
    Perhaps the real issues are:
    1. the FAQ should start with the the verbage at the top of "the Perl Monks guide to the Monastery and more links to generic info about Perl (ie: the Tutorials)
    2. The FAQ link should be even more prevelant on the front page for people who aren't logged in (maybe the whole front page should be replaced with the FAQ for people who aren't logged in ?)
[reply]
      A lot of Monks forget...
      That would describe me. It's been awhile since I toasted my cookie file. I'd rather not go to great extremes of RTFM -- the frontpage becoming a FAQ seems a bit hostile -- but something more prominent for anonymonks might be good. Mentioning more prominently the tutorials' aspiration to become "an online textbook" would help. Maybe something like "if you're new to Perl, you may want to check out the Tutorials section, which contains both a gentle introduction to the language, and answers to frequently asked questions."

      Bottom line -- you can encourage people to read FAQ's and tutorials either by making these things more accessible (as in well-organized and informative), or by making them afraid to ask questions. I'd rather see us do more of the former, since a lot of the work has (I think) already been done.

      /s

[reply]

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