in reply to a place for other monks?

You can discuss any topic you want, any time you want, in the Chatterbox. It is not limited to Perl-related topics: politics, dog grooming, carpentry -- we've got it all in the CB.

Unlike the Sections, there is no permanent record of CB discussions. But, I see no need to keep a record of non-Perl topics at a Perl site.

I certainly don't spend much time on the internet, other than at PerlMonks and a couple other technical sites, but isn't the net overflowing with non-Perl forum sites? Don't Monks who crave non-Perl discussions gather at other sites?

Are you asking for a dedicated non-Perl Section? I frequently search this site for technical information which helps me be more productive at work. Perhaps the maintainers at this site could comment on the affects of opening it up to all topics (rather than restricting it to mostly Perl-related). I fear it would dramatically reduce the "signal-to-noise ratio", and slow down the site.

You do have the option of declaring a post as "Off-topic". But, I think keeping those to a minimum is desirable.

Personally, I don't agree some gurus' reply.
I don't understand the relevance of this comment to your main question.
Hacking, writing modules for CPAN or even program in perl ought not to be a requirement for join perlmonks.
There are no such requirements to joining PerlMonks. In fact, there are no requirements, other than choosing a name and password.

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Re^2: a place for other monks?
by Gavin (Archbishop) on Nov 16, 2008 at 13:30 UTC

    You can discuss any topic you want, any time you want, in the Chatterbox. It is not limited to Perl-related topics: politics, dog grooming, carpentry -- we've got it all in the CB.

    Unlike the Sections, there is no permanent record of CB discussions. But, I see no need to keep a record of non-Perl topics at a Perl site.

    That is also one of the big disadvantages of the CB.

    Its transient, unless you are following the topics you will not be able to keep up with the discussion even with the help of the CB history.

    Many Monks who have a lot to offer in the way of experience in other areas switch the CB off, at least with a specific area they would have the opportunity to contribute if they wanted to.

    As to the comment that it would "attract quite a bit of attention and newcomers (along with quite a bit of trash, I'm sure)"

    There's nothing wrong with attracting newcomers, after all that's what PerlMonks is all about and any unwanted material could be dealt with in the usual way.

    UPDATE

    For example a discussion like this could never happen in the CB.

[reply]
      You say, "For example a discussion like this could never happen in the CB.", but there's a section for discussing Perl Monks itself. Seekers of Perl Wisdom, Meditations, Tidings, Obfuscation, Poetry, Perl News, and Tutorials are each a section for a different type of discussion, too. Perhaps you just mean that a longer conversation is more difficult to carry on in the CB, and that's true. There's a permanent place for anything that is topical which needs deeper discussion than the CB offers.

      Diluting a topic-specific site with permanent completely off-topic discussion threads defeats the very purpose of having a topic-specific site.

      The Chatterbox being transient can be a drawback, but it can also be a positive thing. I don't really care to have "Good morning. What's up?" taking up disk space, showing up in searches, and otherwise being a pain in the posterior. For on-topic discussion, there are many sections. Our scratchpads and home nodes can be more permanent than the CB and less permanent than discussion nodes. Your scratchpad and home node don't even need to be topical to PM if you don't want to use them that way. The CB is for chatter that doesn't need to be saved. I'm sure you don't document everything you say during the day offline. Why do so online?

[reply]

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