I would have to agree that the community has changed a little lately and a poll regarding age might shed a little light on it.

We might also gain some understanding if we did a poll on the importance of XP. From what I've noticed lately, there seems to be a growing interest in XP and many nodes are dedicated to this subject alone. I'm not saying that we should do away with the XP system, or even that we should change it. I just think we shouldn't worry so much about it. As I see it, perlmonks is about giving and receiving help, community spirit, a little fun, and most importantly, gaining knowledge of perl.

Who knows, we might even find a connection between age/experience and the importance of XP. Age and experience rarely go hand in hand but I think the notion that a label stating you have experience is more important to the less experienced.