I agree with the "on point" focus on volunteer service work, but experience points, node reputation, and anonymous posts are not the problem. The real problem (in my opinion) is lack of leadership. I tried to draw attention to this in Better Days? but clearly toned that node down too much. Though the Anonymous Monk in Re^5: Better Days? did understand: "I think the OP's point about how members reacted to the troll last summer didn't help either."

And that right there is the problem. Prominent members, including some of the gods, encouraged a troll for several months, inflicting significant amounts of friendly fire and collateral damage on PM as a whole.

Others have said that forums decline over time, but that's taking the easy way out. The reality is that when leadership actively works against the best interests of a site other undesirable behavior will be encouraged, or at least will not be discouraged, and the site will begin to fall into decline.

And sadly, just mentioning the representative from The Perl Foundation covers that front....

Of course, yet another post by you complaining about XP and Anonymous Monk does not exactly make this a better place either. Though I salute you for posting as yourself and upvoted your node for the "staying on-point" commentary.

Elda Taluta; Sarks Sark; Ark Arks
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In reply to Re: (Toward a better PerlMonks) Who do we serve, and why, and how can we do it better? by Argel
in thread (Toward a better PerlMonks) Who do we serve, and why, and how can we do it better? by locked_user sundialsvc4

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