I haven't been around here very long, but over the last couple of days I've seen a few rants, etc. in the chatterbox along with a few nodes that have either ranted on about something or contained something that someone was ranting about in chatter. They all had something in common. They all discussed things that ran contrairy to what seems to be the ethics of this community.

As daveorg pointed out in this other node, a good portion of this stems from the fact that some people are comming from a different background than some of the more seasoned "Perl Hackers", and seasoned technical people in general. As many of us know, there's no magic to learning Perl, or any other technical topic with some depth. There's only time, practice and mistakes. For me, mistakes being the thing I learn from most. Spend 2 hours (or 2 days sometimes) figuring something out and you're not likely to forget it.

Anyway, all of this thinking (I know.. no good comes from thinking) gave me an outline of an idea that may help curb some of what people have been ranting about.. along with help the people who may have a different background better understand how a more technical community operates.. and what should be expected.

Disclaimer: This is just an idea. It may be good. It may be bad. But I thought I'd throw it out there.. even if it get's beaten down like tent stake.

My idea was to have some sort of requirement when a person moves from one level to the next. Maybe some required reading and a short quiz that would in some way show that they at least looked at what was presented to them. Until it was completed, your level would not change, and you would not get any additional benifits from reaching the next level (more votes, etc..). In the earlier levels (where I am :) ), there could be some brief information on how to post appropriate questions, how doing your own reasearch is important, presenting them with the information on voting (since it's been apparent that some haven't read it), etc.. Later on, possibly some Perl specific stuff. The whole "completing a challenge" before you can reach your new status ties in well also I think.

I don't think it would be too restrictive because it wouldn't disallow anyone from posting or participating. It wouldn't deal with Anonymous Monk, but I think it would be a step in the right direction to helping the community as well as those who wanted to be part of the comunity.

Anyway, it's something I thought I'd throw out there.

Rich

In reply to Thoughts on Rants by rchiav

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