We have seen that food for thought on new projects is very well accepted in SOPW. Most people will be more than glad to suggest different methods of handling the job whenever someone has an idea, but doesn't know how to tackle it at first. This happens mostly with perl (since this is perlmonks), but I have seen a few other issues come up as well (HTTP error codes, SQL problems, making toast, etc). I was wondering how other monks would react to questions regarding all techie stuff that is non-perl.

Examples of questions that I can think of would be in the lines of, "Does this schema look workable? (insert database schema)" or "My apache's perfomance is driving me crazy. Is it the hardware or the daemon? (insert server specs)"

I can see this rapidly outgrowing our control, and the last thing I would want to see is perlmonks turning into a tech support site for ASP, for instance. Nevertheless, I think we (most of us) must have skills other than perl that we share and can help ourselves out. What do you all think?

#!/home/bbq/bin/perl
# Trust no1!

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
RE: Protocols, SQL...(Moderation Clan?)
by Russ (Deacon) on Jul 14, 2000 at 04:20 UTC
    I think the moderation system can handle this pretty well. As long as the questions address at least nominally Perl-related issues, they will be approved.

    Under the current system, there may be many moderation-able Monks (or, should I say, Friars?), so we may have to consider different measures someday. For now, I think we are well-served by quality-conscious moderators. At most, we might consider instituting a "Moderation Clan" instead of just "all Friars may moderate." (This may be a good idea, anyway -- opinions?)

    Russ
    Brainbench 'Most Valuable Professional' for Perl

[reply]
      Russ's statement "questions address at least nominally Perl-related issues" appears to be the standing defacto rule. I see many reasons to keep this and no reasons to change it.

      "Moderation Clan" sounds like a reasonable idea, whenever current moderators see fit. I wonder about the "Clan" part though - wouldn't "Moderation Order" be more in theme?
          cheers,
          ybiC

[reply]
RE: Protocols, SQL, hardware, anyone?
by toadi (Chaplain) on Jul 14, 2000 at 15:04 UTC
    Well,
    IMHO this would do nicely... The programming languages is perl so in relation to programming questions these must remain perl-related.
    But with using DBI I sometimes have quesions about SQL-syntax or how to handle db relations. Or about have questions about Apache.
    These come as a result of using perl. Why not there must be monks here who made a website(CGI) that connect to a databse(DBI) and had to install some Apache-module. Why not make a section for these kind of questions.

    And like mentioned before the moderation of this would suffice to hold of ASP and other related questions.

    --
    My opinions may have changed,
    but not the fact that I am right

[reply]
RE: Protocols, SQL, hardware, anyone?
by Adam (Vicar) on Jul 14, 2000 at 03:51 UTC
    Its a good point, but I think we should try to keep this site Perl-centric. In other words, I wouldn't recommend flaming people who post off topic, but I'm not sure that we should encourage such questions either.
[reply]
RE: Protocols, SQL, hardware, anyone?
by BigJoe (Curate) on Jul 14, 2000 at 22:53 UTC
    I think a good solution could be breaking down Seekers of Perl Wisdom. Have the main one that holds all regular PERL questions. Then have available subcategories for specialized Perl Questions. Like CPAN, Apache, SQL & DB and OS. Then in user settings be able to shut off viewing of these sub categories and such.

    BBQ, right now we do support some ASP. That is if the ASP is written in PERL Script like shown here .

    --BigJoe
[reply]

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