Having previewed this message, I want to clarify that I am not after sympathy. This is supposed to be more philosophiocal

To clarify, I put the Perl in brackets because I suppose my question applies to all sorts of communties. But in this particular case, I am refering to Perl. That is because I spend more time with online groups of people interested in Perl than any other community.

And here, suddenly, differently, is an area devoted to people with pondorous questions like the one I have put to myself many times.
Which leads me to my point.

I wouldn't say that I was a God at programming perl. I wouldn't say that I was a particularly bad programmer either. But, I never feel that I contribute significantly to any of these Perl communities:

  • I solve nearly all my problems my own way, in my own time.
  • I always feel (and am proven right) that my answer to a question is never the best. And within hours (or even minutes) somebody else has responded with a better more complete answer. So mine is never really needed.

    If do go searching for answers to something I don't know, I look in manuals, search specific web sites, and then (back to my original point) I trawl through the archives of a Perl community and find my answer.

    So; all my questions have been answered before; none of my answers would be original or as useful as the next person's.

    So, what am I in this community? Where do I fit in?
    --
    Graq

    In reply to One's place in a Perl community. by graq

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