in reply to Re^2: Open sourcing perlmonks
in thread Open sourcing perlmonks

It's not only what chromatic says, but that of all the major Perl websites out there, there are actually very few people involved with the design. The same people seem to do all of the work, and as chromatic says, there are plenty of volunteers whom we never hear from twice.

People can blame me it they like, because www.pm.org, www.perl.org, and your "one famous person" website were or are my fault. It has nothing to do with Perl programming though: non-designers tend to suck at design no matter what they do.

--
brian d foy <brian@stonehenge.com>

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re^4: Open sourcing perlmonks
by jacques (Priest) on May 29, 2005 at 05:17 UTC
    there are actually very few people involved with the design

    Do you remember the fellow who gave a presentation at a Perl conference about improving search.cpan.org? I remember it. People started interrupting him. Sometimes I have thought of submitting a suggestion in the suggestion form, but then I keep remembering that poor guy.

    Please see my comment at alpha-geek, Jeremy Smith's journal, about this very subject. My opinion there remains unchanged.

[reply]

      If you want to get things done, you don't give a talk about it at a conference. You make the right friends, find out who's involved with it, and then make the improvements. It's just like anything else, and it has nothing to do with programming, programmers, or any other technology.

      Which major Perl site have you run, by the way? It's really easy to snipe from the sidelines, but when you actually do it you'll find out things aren't so easy. If you are using something like Pair.com, for instance, you can't just do whatever you want with the server. Other people have responsibilities beyond the free services they are giving you. A lot of these people are doing a lot more in the Perl world, and you'll have to choose between them working on perl, or making some website have a spiffy feature or a different color.

      So, it comes down to this: you can start your own site and do things anyway that you like. Stop complaining about what other people aren't doing and get to work. Join the club of people who do things. If you're afraid to even have a suggetion shot down, you don't have the stomach for what you'll have to endure once people get to talk about what you're trying to do rather than the other way around.

      --
      brian d foy <brian@stonehenge.com>
[reply]
        If you want to get things done ... You make the right friends ... It's just like anything else

        Perhaps your experience is different than mine, but I haven't gotten where I am in life by making the "right friends".

        Which major Perl site have you run, by the way? ... when you actually do it you'll find out things aren't so easy.

        I don't expect it to be easy, especially when there are so few involved.

[reply]
      Well that's a stupid comment if I ever saw one. amazon.com/perl doesn't take you to a search of perl books. google.com/perl doesn't take you to a search about perl. AnyRandomWebsiteDoesntNeedToMeet.com/YourStupidExpectations

      Constructive criticism doesn't begin and end with sucks!

[reply]

In Section Perl Monks Discussion