What I see as the major and qualifying differences between P6/Parrot and CGI/XML/DBI etc., are:

• The numbers of people that can in any way qualify as experts in the former is in the order of 10 or 20.

  For all the 'others' it is hundreds or even thousands. It may be that there are only 10s of truely expert people, for any given 'other', but the vast majority of questions that are going to be asked are within the experience of 100s or 100s.

• There are dozens(?) books available for all the 'others'.

  The one Parrot book available was (through necessity) more a statement of intent rather than a definitive reference work.

• There are FAQs for all the 'others'.
• There is a mass of example code, for all the 'others'.
• There are IRC forums, usenet forum, online tutorials, a zillion modules on CPAN. etc. etc.

  P6 and Parrot have (almost) none of these.

I happen to believe that P6 is doing something important and unique, and is the Perl of the future. I also think that PerlMonk's is the premiere site of it's type for Perl, or any language.

It seems to me that using the latter, to provide a showcase for it's popularisation and dissemination of teh former, to the wider Perl audience, is natural and desirable step.

To that end, I'd be more than happy to see one or more of Snippets Section, Code catacombs, and Cool Uses For Perl disappear or be amalgamated to provide a home for a P6/Parrot section.

The numbers of people that can in any way qualify as experts in the former is in the order of 10 or 20.

These 10 or 20 already use a very smart filter to read Perlmonks: it's called “other people.” At least, I'm pretty sure Larry doesn't always pop up in such a timely fashion simply because of an amazing capability to stay on top of Perlmonks.

Further, the number of people currently interested in Perl6 or Parrot simply doesn't warrant a section. How many SoPWs about Parrot have been you seeing per month? About Perl6?

P6 and Parrot have (almost) none of these.

They have a few central and centralized resources. That is a perfectly purposeful arrangement while the interest is mainly on the hacking (whether language or implementation) rather than using end of things.

And please don't conflate this with the long-standing issue of the cruftiness of the current section structure. That's an entirely different bag of tricks. If it is at all relevant, then only to show that we shouldn't be quick to create sections.

I've argued before on many an occasion that we shouldn't have a Perl6 section and I remain firmly in that camp. I've administrated a board, moderated at several others, and been a regular at countless more. The trend is always plainly visible: the readers of a board always ask for more forums for various things they think would make a cool topic. But the mere wish for there to be lots of discussion about a topic one considers cool doesn't mean there will be any, and where the administrators are inexperienced enough to create such forums before there is a pressing need to divide up topics to keep things orderly, these new areas usually remain barren and empty. At some boards, the administrators did such a thorough job of pre-categorizing discussion that they effectively balkanized all contribution, ending up with a board consisting of 40 dead and almost empty forums — where starting with a single forum or maybe two instead might have allowed them to flourish. Those very 40 forums might have been created during the course of the board's life to keep keep things managable, even — but doing so up front just stunts growth before it has a chance to happen.

Perlmonks isn't quite in the same boat since there's already a large established user base, but I certainly don't see that we are getting flooded with Perl6 and Parrot topics which are making it hard to navigate the site, as things stand.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Makeshifts last the longest.

Further, the number of people currently interested in Perl6 or Parrot simply doesn't warrant a section. How many SoPWs about Parrot have been you seeing per month? About Perl6?

Not many I agree, but I contend that we would see many more if it didn't feel "inappropriate" to ask them here.

Asking "How would I code XYZ in Perl6" is hardly the stuff of a Meditation, but equally, it feels wrong to ask that question as a SoPW.

And please don't conflate this with the long-standing issue of the cruftiness of the current section structure.

I'm not conflating anything. I didn't mention anything about any "cruftiness", and I won't address non-issues based on words I didn't say.

I've argued before on many an occasion that we shouldn't have a Perl6 section and I remain firmly in that camp.

And I'm firmly in the other camp.

As you point out, your experiences based on other places are irrelevant to this place.

...readers...always ask for more forums for various things they think would make a cool topic.

We're talking about Perl 6 here! Something that has been in gestation for what? 3 years or more already? This is hardly a case of a passing fad.

The major driving force behind this subject is none other than that person to which this place holds a shrine.

Perl 6 is being designed to become the language for the next 20 or 30 years. Hardly a fly-by-night ambition. This is not the same as most other requests for new sections. There is unlikely to be any one (or 10) other subject(s) more worthy of the creation of a new section here than Perl 6, and (IMO) if it's possible to do, it should be done.

The way I see it, either Perl 6 is a desirable, almost enevitable "forthcoming event", that the premiere Perl community wants to embrace, support and disseminate--or it's a passing fad that we wish to ignore. At the moment we are pretty much ignoring it and I don't think we should be.

All that is likely to have about as much affect upon the nay-sayers and head-buriers as farting in a hurricane. Still, that's my opinion.

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Examine what is said, not who speaks.

Silence betokens consent.

Love the truth but pardon error.