IMO this node is one of the more interesting node to go through PM this week. That you don't recognise it as such could be an indication that you don't understand the subtlety of the post. If anything, I think that it should have received a higher rating than it currently has. It has all the hallmarks of a good post.

It identifies a question that, whilst known to the guru's around here, is there to catch every new generation of Perlists that come around.

It has reduced the problem to it barest definition--the author did their homework first.

By raising the problem in the form of a simple challenge, it encourages everyone to have a go at answering it by inspection before trying it for real. I'm betting that I wasn't the only one that was caught out.

Not that the front-page XP phenomena isn't a real one, but your choice of example (IMO) was not the best. Maybe the answer to the front-paging problem would be to automate the process of front-paging. If a node isn't considered, and some proportion of the first 100 or so people that view it are affected enough by it to vote for it, then it automatically gets front-paged?