...I'm in agreement with Paulster2 here. My initial reaction was that this response does contain accurate and sound advice. But the fact that it came from an AM, and the fact that it ultimately offered no direct practical positive suggestions really stepped out of the spirit of PM for me.

I gave up on clpm a long time ago because all questions there were pretty much greeted with a cheerful RTFM, and I could get that by just hanging around with my geek friends. (Many of whom learned Perl from me.)

Simply telling someone to read the documentation that came with the package isn't really practical as significant good advice. A pointer to the specific section, and perhaps a small example of the sort of thing that is involved in the problem would be best (IMHO).

I do agree with the reaction that this question didn't reflect much prior effort on the part of the poster, nor did it show any evidence of experimental attempts to solve the problem. On the other hand, a reasonable response would be to offer a couple of experiments to try, and encourage the poster to return here with her results for further discussion.

When we keep them in the game with us by encouraging them cheerfully, they learn and then return here to answer questions for others. The community can live on. And that's why we do this. It's why we sign our names to our work.

My initial reaction was that this response does contain accurate and sound advice. But the fact that it came from an AM, and the fact that it ultimately offered no direct practical positive suggestions really stepped out of the spirit of PM for me.

I must say, these statements have me boggled. You make three primary claims about the preceding post:

1. it contains accurate and sound advice
2. it was posted anonymously
3. it offered no practical positive suggestions

Not only do I find it difficult to reconcile points 1 and 3 --- accurate sound advice has always seemed of practical and positive value to me --- but that the anonymity of the post plays a decisive role in your finding it to be outside the spirit of PM is, in my mind, shamefully disappointing.

Anonymous monks are welcome here.

But the fact that it came from an AM, and the fact that it ultimately offered no direct practical positive suggestions really stepped out of the spirit of PM for me.

I don't see the connection between the anonymity and your criticism (IMO, unfounded) of the content.

Let me say it again: anonymous monks are welcome here.

Indeed, the OPs question was immediately and succinctly answered by an AM.

It's entirely possible that that same AM was troubled that the OP didn't provide enough info to allow a response to give meaningful tips on where in the documentation to look, what tutorials would be helpful, etc. and followed up later with the suggestion for how to post a question that would indicate enough to allow a responder to give meaningful advice for further learning.

I would have a problem with AM's response if the actual question wasn't answered, but in this case, an answer was posted almost 2 hours before.

Gee, maybe if you didn't log on as an AM it would show a little effort on YOUR part. I really hate when AM's only offer negative feedback.

Gee, maybe if you didn't log on as an AM it would show a little effort on YOUR part. I really hate when AM's only offer negative feedback.

Yeah, that's only a few steps above someone making a negative appraisal of a post based on identity (or non-identity as it were).