Yeah, you make a good point and I shouldn't have glossed over that. Those sites, for the most part, are irrelevant and opaque to a beginner. (I don't think perldoc.com existed when I started or I would've glommed right onto it but only if I'd know what "perldoc" meant to begin with; I use it today to keep version differences straight b/t work and home.)

Few of the major docs or sites are aimed at beginners or newcomers to programming; after all, how do you explain pack to a non-programmer? Again, I think this is testament to what a wide and open appeal Perl holds; as well as how approachable it is. I've tried teaching myself some C and Lisp, among other things, from public docs and tutorials and Perl is a cake-walk by comparison. The docs are opaque and slippery for beginners, though, and people who come to Perl from C or Java or whatever don't/can't really see it. I'm not criticizing--the quality of the docs you get for free is immense--just giving the perspective of the BA side of the fence.