Unfortunately I did not have to look far to detect some wolves in sheeps clothing and vice versa! The 'worst node' doesn't quite pan out as such given the lack of reasonable argument to support that conclusion. If I were the author of that node I might feel (as Woody Allen put it:)

Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you!

-S

One world, one people

How would this Dark Temple be any different from the flame wars and endless heaps of rubble of usenet and/or dark hacker lairs that already exist?

No, this is an oasis of knowledge in a fairly desolate desert that is the World Wide Web. Sure the knowledge you're after is usually out there, but finding it is also not usually an easy task. For Perl, and general algorithmic questions, this place is awesome.

-Scott

Um ... no thanks. When i was recently job hunting, my association with Perlmonks proved to be quite an asset. I really doubt a place of "evil" would have been as productive to me getting a job in the "professional world." If you see what i mean -- while we do have fun here, the Monastery has many many more "practicle" uses than merely being "dark and mysterious." Besides, the existence of evil is recognized here after all. :P

L-LL-L--L-LL-L--L-LL-L--
-R--R-RR-R--R-RR-R--R-RR
B--B--B--B--B--B--B--B--
H---H---H---H---H---H---
(the triplet paradiddle with high-hat)

The thing about things that aren't work related -- it doesn't show up blatently if you don't list it.

For instance, if you don't want to mention that you worked at a particular job, there's an obvious hole in your work history that you might get asked about.

There's always plausible deniability (someone else uses that alias, too ... there must be someone else with that name ... someone is trying to damage my reputation ... etc)

I've always made sure in any job interview or application form that I use one of my more 'professional' looking e-mail addresses (login based on my name, and not a host in my personal domain (annoying.org)), and there are a few things I've done that I don't bring up (like that I was one of the 4 admin on fark.com until June 2000), or many of the other things that I've done in non-work time, except maybe the GW solar car project, leaving out the bit about how I was thrown off the team in 1996 and threatened with expulsion after informing the dean that the faculty advisor was doing some less than ethical things (not knowing he was overseeing a US$3M grant, so the university wanted to get rid of me, rather than him), but the government caught up with him.

A: No area of the monastery is safe from the NodeReaper!"