it, they can vote -- for it. They shouldn't be able to enforce their opinions with a heavy condescending hand. I don't appreciate the idea of revoking voting priviledges or much worse, physical brutality ... a little of the ol' UltraViolence (even if cynical and literarily and emotionally included for emphasis and impassioned conveyance of experience) waged against any fellow Monk. I don't doubt that merlyn has coded longer than I've lived, nor that he's got his name and work in a book that we all exonerate, however, I can't say I like his methods for "helping" many of the threads here.

Sorry to rant. I'm actually even disappointed that I'm finding myself seemingly screaming into the wind considering my relative inexperience when it comes to general coding and specific Perl hacking. Do I stand up for the way I want this forum to be run and risk my own ability to participate because I've been critical of a figurehead, a guru, a hero of Perldom? I think I must because... I care about this place. I've lerned things here and I hope that I've helped others and I want to do much more of both in the future and I want this to be the most conducive environment possible for such participation. Wall seems to have an impecable grasp on language theory when he relates the "no wrong way to hack Perl" type discourses. Some people don't know very much about certain topics or syntax or problems or applications or operating systems or anything. If they aren't bitten or ridiculed (myself included) when they have the courage to ask for help, they'll be much more likely to actually lern the things that they needed the courage to overcome in the first place. Maybe I'm being way too philosophical or sentimental or even lame about all of this. Back me up if you care to or shun me if you don't. Maybe nobody will see