Re: Is the front page change too quickly?

One can look at the issue either way.

Suppose a note is submitted that has been dealt with in SoPW just a few days ago having an almost identical title there are two options:

tell the second seeker of wisdom to do some research before submitting a question (or if one is more "lenient" deal without without front paging it.
front paging it since apparently several monks have trouble with this issue.

Both approaches have their pro and cons. On the one hand, if such questions get on the front page, experienced Perl programmers might be put off thinking this is a site for newbies. On the other hand, a lot of experienced seekers of wisdom already know about PerlMonks and are not even accessing the front page anymore (personally I hardly look at it).
If the former is the case, one should concentrate on bringing those notes to the front page that attract the "elite", where if the latter is the caes, the front page should be representative for the site's purpose/contents.

This leads to an interesting question: how do the "experienced" monks improve their skills? By attracting those to the site that are their peers, or by reflecting on more basic stuff and hence gaining a more thorough understanding where Perl is concerned, but also on how to communicate ideas?

I wouldn't want to be the judge in such a matter, but it seems to me that a healty compromise would be ideal, even if it doesn't suite all (a compromise hardly ever does). Everyone from friar upwards should think carefully what to front page, but I think we should trust one another's personal judgements (and if in doubt, communicate those feelings). After all, an online community such as PerlMonks exhibits a very interesting dynamics that is (probably) self-regulating.

Apart from this, I think the front page contains too many items at the moment. I'd say some four notes in SoPW and two Meditations along with the other categories should be enough. Otherwise one simply looses overview, probably also as a newbie and that would diminish the attraction of the site and hence harm the community.

Just my 2 cents, -gjb-

Comment on Re: Is the front page change too quickly?

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Re^2: Is the front page change too quickly? by Aristotle (Chancellor) on Dec 24, 2002 at 01:48 UTC
Good points. My thoughts are that SoPW posts should be selected by size of potential audience - and there are far more inexperienced programmers than magicians around. In the other sections nodes should be chosen by "brilliance" (for some value of brilliance that is up to everyone for themselves to define) - a mundane meditation or plain puzzled discussion doesn't really warrant frontpaging. Makeshifts last the longest.	[reply]
Re: Re: Is the front page change too quickly? by rir (Vicar) on Dec 24, 2002 at 02:49 UTC
Good points. I disagree about the front page containing too many items presently. People wading through the web to PM can certainly handle a long page at the gate. Some think of the front page as, uh, the front page. Others think of the Monastery Gates as the, uh, gates to the monastery. These are two different functions. A front page should change fairly often, the welcome mat at the front door has a longer usable life. Residents never pay much heed to their welcome mat, but to clean it now and then. If PM is not first a community which attracts and keeps the exalted, the mundane will find no blessings here. So I'm willing to oblige those who treat it like a front page.	[reply]