How can the new monks learn if they don't have access to certin links, Q&A, within the Monistary?
No one is proposing that new monks not be allowed to access the Q&A section. I am only suggesting that new monks not be allowed to post new questions to that section. I'm not even suggesting that new monks be banned from posting answers -- indeed, I want even new (and anonymous) monks to be able to post answers in Q&A. [Did you read the title and not any of the postings?]
This is not meant as a punishment and is not suggested out of frustration or impatience with new monks. It is hoped that the greatest positive impact will be for new monks, not us old codgers.
So you can learn by reading and even answering questions in that section. And you can learn by posting questions into Seekers of Perl Wisdom (and lots of other ways).
One way I don't want you to learn is by posting "uncategorizable" questions to Categorized Questions and Answers, getting "answers" that say "Please post this to SoPW", not seeing the answers because no second monk notices to vote the answer up (I'm guessing that this is how Q&A works these days), posting again, getting voted down, losing XP before you even know what it is, having your first 3 nodes deleted, etc.
As others have said, new monks will be drawn to Q&A because of the nice name. I think this is great. That might lead them to an answer to their question without even having to ask (which is the fastest way to get an answer if you can swing it). If you come here seeking help, you aren't likely to "just hang out" for a week seeing how the site works and are quite likely to not read, to overlook, misunderstand, or misinterpret parts of the site documentation.
And most of this doesn't bother me much most of the time. New posters not figuring out how to use <code> tags was a real pain. It hurt the new posters more than anyone else. The "forced preview" has greatly reduced that problem to the benefit of all. I think the natural draw of Q&A is a similar, though less serious, type of problem.
To address some of the other responses so far...
I don't want the only way to create Q&A questions to be to have Q&A Editors move SoPW questions over. I see some practical problems with moving from SoPW to Q&A but those can probably be addressed. I think that even fairly new monks have done good jobs coming up with good categorized questions and think that should continue. I think we need an ongoing "recruit new Q&A Editors" process to make sure that group keeps up.
Back to your comments...
I completely agree that everyone should be patient with everyone. I agree that more experienced monks should mentor new monks. I don't see how pairing up monks would work in a practical sense (Do you wait around for your assigned mentor to show up? Is there some enforcement to get new monks to actually notice that they have a mentor and to seek guidence from them before they "make a mistake"?). I think new monks often get good mentoring via the chatterbox, and I think we should encourage that. If you've already posted a question to the wrong area, then I consider it a bit late for guiding you to the right section, considering the probably resulting mayhem.
But I do think we could do better with dealing with the newest members. I have some vague idea of a "new user area" where things are "kindler and gentler". That is, the chatterbox is local to that area so no smart remarks from people not volunteering to be new-user oriented. The posts can't be voted on and perhaps auto-expire. An official "there are no dump questions" policy, even "so, should I read the FAQ?".
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tye
(but my friends call me "Tye")