It's been suggested quite a number of times, but (unfortunately, in my opinion) never found enough supporters to be adopted. Use Supersearch to find other discussions on monk levels, e.g A Proposal for Additional Levels.

As for the level statistics, take a look at the Perl Monks Statistical Page.

Is there a way to determine how many people of each level there are on Perl Monks?

Yes. Have a look at Number of Monks by Level.

It seems like every second person is a level 10 Saint.

That's because, as you can see from the above link, saints are such because they work hard at the Monastery.

As for your proposal, crenz has already told you where to look.

From looking at that list, the only trend I'm seeing is that higher level monks have higher odds of having logged in within the last 24 hrs:

lvl   24hr  total   pct
---   ----  ----- -----
 1    82    26500  0.3%
 2    33    1729   1.9%
 3    46    1023   4.5%
 4    50    676    7.4%
 5    105   870   12.1%
 6    108   583   18.5%
 7    99    330   30.0%
 8    56    187   29.9%
 9    47    100   47.0%
10    190   386   49.2%
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I'm guessing that there's probably a difference in the number of post per capita, as well.

So, my real question, about the issue with the quantity of saints (and I say this, after having only hit that level within the last week) -- why is this a problem? Would you rather have a community of people who don't contribute, and thus tend to stay at a lower level?

I'm also going to assume that it's easier to get levels now (my second login was less than 5 months ago), as with a larger community, there's a greater number of people to upvote posts. There's only level inflation if by the time you hit saint, you actually care what level you are. You may care about reputation within the community, and XP may be a measure that has some vague correlation to it, but they are in no way the same.

On a completely unrelated tangent -- as you can get XP for logging in, and then get XP from voting, I'd be interested to know who the highest XP lurker is (ie, never having posted anything)

...I'd be interested to know who the highest XP lurker is (ie, never having posted anything)

khayos? See Saints in our Book.

the lowliest monk

I'm guessing that there's probably a difference in the number of post per capita

See Distribution of Levels and Writeups.

Note: This is not true for other heavenly creatures (Hierarchy of angels)

• B*tch
• Lover
• Child
• Mother
• Sinner
• and then continuing with the present Saint....

... I think apologies are due to Meridith Brooks.
why I know that, that's a different (and disturbing) question.
- j

Yeah, that sounds more right, but a google for the keywords gave the Alanis version higher pagerank. Weird.

-- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker
Be sure to read my standard disclaimer if this is a reply.

merlyn, you're just not taking this seriously. I just can't talk to you when you get like this.

-Andrew.

PS. :)

---

Andrew Tomazos  |  andrew@tomazos.com  |  www.tomazos.com

Hmmm...

So, as a long term saint, which of these levels do you feel you should be promoted to?

Maybe it should be a poll. {grin} I think I know what would win.

-- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker
Be sure to read my standard disclaimer if this is a reply.

Alanis hasn't covered that to my knowledge so apologies should go to Meredith Brooks. :)

And I thought I was the only other person in the states that ever saw that show.

Useless trivia: In the 2004 Las Vegas phone book there are approximately 28 pages of ads for massage, but almost 200 for lawyers.

Yes please! I've been wanting some gods to decide there's enough support for a level releveling.

Ow.

                - Ant
                - Some of my best work - (1 2 3)

There is top level... it's just a bit higher curve ;)

This one goes up to 11...

XP is useful to a point, but it is imperfect in pretty fundamental ways (i.e. it would be very difficult, if not impossible, to fix it). That's why I am against any change that would lure monks into paying any more attention to it than we already do. If anything, I would vote for fewer levels:

• Suspect (XP < 200)
• Candidate (200 <= XP < 700)
• Novice (700 <= XP < 2000)
• Monasterian (2000 == XP)

Upon hitting XP == 2000, I'd freeze the XP and forget about it; plus I'd add a second statistic: Average Post Rep. The two stats serve entirely different purposes. XP measures one's ability to function as a trustworthy monk, while the avg. post rep measures the Monastery's opinion of one's contributions.

This is still very imperfect, but I think it's a small improvement.

But, realistically, I expect the system to remain unchanged. It works pretty well, IMO.

I think this is a great solution! tlm++!

then this would be an infinitely scalable solution...

I think you've missed the point that's been made above & so I'll try to make it with a bit less subtlety:

Infinitely scaling the XP system is like infinitely scaling everyone's ego.

One of the things I really like about the metaphor of the Monastery is the aspect of Humility that it infers.

A Saint, above all, should be humble.

If you've contributed to the site to the extent that you've achieved the rank of Saint - you have been honored for your efforts with the highest award available. Your ego is served, and you can accept it gracefully & continue to do what you've done all along - contribute to the community.

In the USA we have a thing called the Congressional Medal of Honor. If you do something conspicuously worthy there's a possibility that you might be honored with it. It's the highest award there is. There doesn't need to be multiple levels because Jane saved a bus full of children from certain doom, but Mary saved two. Nor is the honor conveyed lessened because of this.

Why do you need a constant 'reward' for participating? I find the concept that 'XP-Whoring' could continue 'infinitely' to be pretty scary.

I think the system as it stands is imperfect, but has the lasting benefit that it Works! And what I mean by that is - if you're lured into the community by the fame & notariety of titles - you'll be bored & discouraged long before you become a Saint. Persons of this ilk are more likely to lose interest & go away. If OTOH your interest is based on the community - both in how it can help you and how you can contribute to it, then "levelling" is just a pleasant happenstance.

I have personally always been more impressed by Saints who post only when they have something they find important to contribute & thus have very few posts. Who would argue that Erudil's contributions are of little value? Only a fool.



Wait! This isn't a Parachute, this is a Backpack!

And why do we want to call all the saints Dan?

I'd suggest the English word degree instead of the Japanese term.

$h=$ENV{HOME};my@q=split/\n\n/,`cat $h/.quotes`;$s="$h/."
."signature";$t=`cat $s`;print$t,"\n",$q[rand($#q)],"\n";
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Like murderers rather than marshall artists?

Is a marshall artist someone who is skilled at shunting wagons around?

Many top universities have grading system rather than ranking system for producing better students.