Forum or Knowledge-Base ?

Recently I started a discussion with an intended-obvious recreational purpose (golfing stuff), but it became quite serious along the thread involving for instance efficiency as a programming principle.
I have never taken golfing nor obfuscation seriously, but just as "programming fun", things to be done during spare time so I got quite puzzled seeing there are people that take these things far too seriously than I thought... so I came back on the thread with an entirely serious post presenting some "real" code on the subject.
Grinder shed some light to me in a private conversation telling me that My main concern was that people might take the solutions presented and apply them to real world solutions. I just wanted something on the record as to why it's a bad idea. The very next moment I realized that was the reason why more than a year ago I was getting kinda sick of PerlMonks, because the humorous articles (I should also include the ones that reiterate for the thousandth time the same weary subject) outnumbered those in which I have had a real interest reading/studying them. So grinder is very right! (*bow*)
Even if others still use to raise the noise level, I think that is still a good thing if at least one of the fellow monks knows how to keep his mouth shut when necessary, leaving funny stuff for the Chatterbox or for other online (or IRL) discussions that are suited for such things :)
I still (and hopefully will always) think at PerlMonks as a sublime "interactive Knowledge Base" that keeps my "improving-light" on, so it doesn't worth spoiling it with noisy stuff that obviously raise big stone before people that want to learn something from us.

--
AltBlue.

Comment on Forum or Knowledge-Base ?

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Forum or Knowledge-Base ? by Aristotle (Chancellor) on Nov 16, 2002 at 00:28 UTC
Actually, I quite enjoy the funny stuff and wouldn't want to miss. I'm not really concerned; in general, there always seems to be a more than sufficient amount of serious discussion. It waxes and wanes - if there's not much you find interesting right now, you usually don't have to wait more than a day or two. And I certainly find I still even get things out of the fun discussions - there has been more than one occasion where I picked up a neat concept from a golf. Golf touches on two areas, brevity and conciseness - where the former is more syntactical, but the latter tends to happen more on a semantic level, and occasionally even further up on the algorithmical plane. In those latter times, there is often something to be picked up and put to good use in more verbose form in production code. I also find myself intentionally adding bad ideas to serious posts, just to mention that that's also possible and to make sure the person has seen it and had explained why it is a bad idea to them before s/he picks it up elsewhere. Golf doesn't differ much in that respect. And even when I'm golfing, I'm always careful to mention any design limitations I've introduced in the quest for brevity. So while I do agree with your concern, I don't follow your conclusion that we have to pay (much) more attention than we already do. Makeshifts last the longest.	[reply]
Re: Forum or Knowledge-Base ? by BrowserUk (Patriarch) on Nov 19, 2002 at 17:03 UTC
I really like the balance of PM. I'd hate to see it become another /. with all that goes with it. I'd also hate for it to become so single-minded that a little humour, fun and related OT discussion wasn't tolorated. As someone who got into programming because I discovered I really enjoyed being at one with and against the machine, and who for too many years allowed corporate and financial criteria to squeeze my enjoyment and purely academic thirst for knowledge of the subject to the point where I quite literally hated computers and everything to do with them. Perl, and the fun side of perl, obfu's, golf, JAPH's and the like, have in large part been responsible for a complete rebirth of my interest and enjoyment of the subject. I'd hate to see that go away in the interests of 'purity', 'correctness' or in-human infallability. Okay you lot, get your wings on the left, halos on the right. It's one size fits all, and "No!", you can't have a different color. Pick up your cloud down the end and "Yes" if you get allocated a grey one they *are* a bit damp under foot, but someone has to get them. Get used to the wings fast cos its an 8 hour day...unless the Govenor calls for a cyclone or hurricane, in which case 16 hour shifts are mandatory. Just be grateful that you arrived just as the tornado season finished. Them buggers are real work.	[reply]
Re: Forum or Knowledge-Base ? by heezy (Monk) on Nov 19, 2002 at 16:34 UTC
interactive Knowledge Base I'll second that! I use Perl Monks as a resource to help me solve a problem when I find I am unable to resolve a Perl-ish question myself. The knowledge and wisdom contained within the various postings and online users is immense! However as a user of Perlmonks I try to give something back to the community whenever I can. I only started Perl 4 months ago so I may not have the XP of some other monks on the site but I can help out those who only started 2 months ago! And in many ways I can relate to their problems better then others who have long moved on past the beginner-intermediate stage and forgotten why it isn't obvious that you can't sort a hash directly. Personally I am not a Perlmonks user to make friends or join an online chat-community, some people are and that is their choice, but I do like to see serious postings and humor/ non Perl related postings kept separate. Okay I'm going to stop waffling about random crap and do some work! Thanks for reading this far. M I give and I take from the Perlmonks offering plate and I think thats something everyone should do	[reply]