I guess my approach to the issue doesn't work for everyone. My f1rst pr0st was a response to a fairly simple regex question. I like to think that the fact that there were no more responses after mine means that I solved the problem so definitively that nobody else felt the need to say any more. The fact that my post was written just over 24 hours later than the OP's "thanks, I've got it working now" post is immaterial.

My next post, and the one that counts as far as a debut goes, was a pretty neat question about $[. After that followed a few which were kinda dumb, and others that were kinda good, but once I told myself "Self, you're pretty good at this Perl stuff, and you have something to say. So say it and to hell with anyone who poopoos you," I started writing more.

Now the only thing that might possibly stop me from writing something would be XP factors -- and I'm taking care to remind myself every now and again that even though it's fun to see a "you have gained 7 xp" message when I log on, it's really not that important.

So, I'd say that the main thing that will get you out of your shell would be getting out of your shell. And when was the last time you saw a monk chastise another for giving a "poor answer?" Most "your answer sucks" posts I've seen have been reaped pretty quickly.

LAI