Is there anything out there that is like a SourceForge for Perl? Does the Perl community leverage sites like SourceForge at all?

There are quite a few Perl modules hosted on SourceForge and CPAN -- Log::Log4perl comes to mind as one such dual-hatted module. A number of Perl-based apps are also hosted on SourceForge. A quick search there will pull up a few, although the Search appears to be down currently.

However, SourceForge will not seriously aid the "abandonware" issue, nor ensure additional documentation -- and neither will any other similar setup. The problem exists in both Open and closed Source apps, and has much more to do with the nature of humans and communications than anything to do with any system. The only solution would be to somehow ensure that every CPAN program had a constant update, and was forced to do certain docs, and that would be an undertaking, as well as distasteful to a number of programmers, for hopefully obvious reasons.

One possible solution is to "flag" modules where the user has not responded to either a manual or a (yearly?) automated "check in with us, please" email. Yet that's not really a solution, and the potential for inaccurate information (say if the automated email was dumped into a spamtrap) is high.

All in all, I'm not certain what kind of solution you propose to this kind of issue. From a personal standpoint, I use tons of modules on CPAN for mission-critical code. There's a risk, yet it's a similar risk to what I run into when I utilize .NET-based code from the web -- or, frankly, even the .NET stuff that comes from MS, which isn’t always well-documented, or stable from version to version. At least with Perl, when it's Open Source, I have the chance to dig in, or ask for help, and I've done it myself on more than one occasion, with good results. I cannot force anyone to fix their code, but I can ensure I have the chance to fix it myself, or ask others (such as the good people here) to help me fix it, if it's Open Source.

Does that make sense?

Consider the following situation: either you write a module yourself (which takes a lot of time, effort and bug-hunting) or you can use a "works-right-out-of-the-box" CPAN-module? What will you do? And even if the CPAN-module stops working after some time (for whatever reason), you can either re-write it so it works again or write your own module after all and you are not worse off.

Update: (Because it felt mean-spirited.) Yes, the above is unfair. But you are saying that you won't use the library because the modules (books) aren't labeled well enough. Think of CPAN as a layer, just like a traditional library. It is a repository for modules. When you go to a library, you find what you want by either browsing or using some external rating system (best sellers, book reviews, word of mouth, references, ...) It is not the responsibility of the book author to provide all of the metadata needed to make your selection; in fact, you wouldn't trust the author on most attributes anyway. CPAN works the same way, with mailing list discussions, references between modules, cpanforum, etc.

You could go to a library, run through the stacks blindfolded, pick a book at random, and immediately sit down and read it cover-to-cover. But it would be unlikely to change your world or solve the exact problem you're having. Similarly, CPAN is unlikely to be useful if you pick a module completely at random, and using the module name (book title) is obviously a huge improvement but still won't get you where you need to go.

Books do have a better-developed system for doing this sort of thing. Which isn't surprising, considering how many more books there are to sort through (the need is higher), how many people use the mechanisms (the demand is higher), and that most books are produced by publishers trying to make money (the incentive is higher). But CPAN does have constant pressure to evolve in this direction -- the number of CPAN modules is steadily growing, many people are running into the same problems with tracking down what they need, and CPAN authors naturally want their stuff to get used (or they wouldn't have published in the first place.) So please, use the existing mechanisms (better described in other posts here), and complain about specific problems you're having -- preferably by first making an effort to understand why that problem exists, to avoid unproductively complaining about something where there is a very good reason why it hasn't been "fixed".

Hints: Module authors are unpaid. Any additional burden to releasing modules will reduce the number of modules released, and that doesn't just mean reducing the number of low-quality modules. CPAN maintainers are unpaid. CPAN maintainers have heard many people complaining about these issues already, but few willing to undertake the effort to do something about it. CPAN reviewers are unpaid. Usually, writing a review will result in a larger positive impact than complaining about something.