My Journey So Far: Confessions From a Reluctant XP Whore.

I first joined Perl Monks as a novice Perl programmer. I had a bit of experience with scripting languages, but had never used Perl. Then I happened to get an opportunity to learn Perl and use it at my job. The group I was in was given the task of converting a number of Korn shell scripts to Perl and combine like functionality into parameter driven scripts, instead of the hard coded Korn we inherited.

After some initial success at converting these Korn scripts to Perl, I mentioned my new knowledge to a long-time friend and former cow-orker. Cow-orker had been involved in PM for a number of years, and suggested I create a user and join. At the time, we both worked at places where IM style chat programs were banned, so it was his idea to use the Chatter Box to chat during the day. I thought it was a good idea, but couldn’t think of a user name. He suggested, “Why don’t you use that fake you always use at restaurants?” Thus, Lazlo was born.

( Trivia: my real name is one syllable and is easily lost in the noise of a restaurant crowd. Lazlo is distinctive, has two syllables, and is very easy to project. )

I started using the Perl Monks CB to chat with my friend, so I was logging in every day and eventually, without any effort on my part, rose to the rank of Novice. “Nice”, I thought, “But what do I do with my votes?” The same question every Novice asks. My friend told me the purpose of voting system (simplified) is to reward writing good nodes and discourage bad ones. The actual uses of the voting system are far more complicated of course, but why scare somebody new to the system?

At this point, I began paying attention to the nodes, learning from some, and up-voting, or occasionally down-voting something I didn’t agree with, especially if the Monk was saying *never* do something. I thought about posting nodes, but when I went to post a response, I found that some else had already responded, and with a better answer than I had. When I thought about posting a question, I took the advice - “RTFM, or do a Super Search to see if some has already asked the question” - very much to heart, so I usually found my answer before I ever got around to posting a node.

I was logging in every day, and using all my votes on a regular basis and soon noticed that I was sometimes getting XP, just for logging in! I got curious as to why that would happen, and started looking at the nodes describing the Voting/Experience System. I learned that the system was designed to reward exactly what I was doing. Then I noticed something *really* interesting.

The first time was probably by accident, but I have to admit I noticed what happened and liked the results. I used some of my votes on all the responses to a node, and got some XP. I used the rest of my votes on another node and got more XP.

I was hooked.

I started experimenting with ways to get maximum XP. There were some days when I managed to coax as many as 10 points out of the XP Fairy for just one day. The idea of actually writing nodes was gone. I played my game for a while, but then left my job, and I got out of the habit of logging in every day, and soon whole weeks would go by without me logging in. Eventually I went back to work, and being bored and being in front of a computer every day sent me back to my wicked ways. I knew I was doing something the community frowned on, but I wasn’t hurting anyone, and I was being rewarded, so I thought nothing of it. Then something truly amazing happened – I became a Friar.

I had no plans to become a Friar. Logging in and voting became a morning chore that I did without thinking about it. I collected my XP and gradually rose in rank, without noticing anything more than my number of daily votes kept increasing. I kept experimenting with ways to maximize XP, but soon found that using all my votes between just two nodes seemed to have the best effect.

So, here I am - a Monk with no writeups, who has become a Friar. It’s happened before. When it was about to happen (I think I only needed 20 votes more at the time), I mentioned it to my friend, and he quickly looked it up on MonkStats. Six Monks Before me had become Friars (or higher). I was number seven. It’s an interesting fluke in the system. A person who has never written a node now has the ability to Approve nodes, Frontpage nodes, and even Consider nodes.

I joined Perl Monks on a whim to be able to use the Chatter Box for personal use. I became a Friar, with no plan to do so, but now I have a goal. It is my hope to become the second user in Saints in Our Book – with no writeups. It will be a test of my patience and tolerance for repetitive work.

I haven’t got a chance.