From my own experience, I started using Perl about five years ago. Found this site almost immediately, but didn't join at that time because (1) it's slow, and (2) I read some replies to posts and was turned off by some of the contributors who have a 'God' complex thinking that everyone's questions are inane or beneath them (there are a couple of those in this thread - don't have to look far).

However, this site did not turn me off of Perl, and here I am 5 years later, a member, and absolutely loving the wonderful community here (just have to ignore the grumpy people, and realize that sometimes it takes forever to refresh).

My point is, I doubt that a large percentage of new Perl programmers look at PerlMonks, then decide that PHP is a better way to go because PM is cloogy. Developers typically use a language because they get a job where the language is already used (forced into it), or because they learned it in school and go get a job that requires it. I seriously doubt that this site is ever going to make someone run screaming for PHP. It's the content, functionality, and the contributors that matter. I am constantly amazed at how many Perl experts paddle around in the PM pond, and that will keep me coming back almost every day until I get a job where I have to use C# or some other less-desirable language!

Very long story just plain long, make the site as spiffy as makes you happy - we could get a few extra shallow users who are easily impressed by bling, but the really important work should be to improve the site's usability/functionality.

In reply to Re: Site facelift? by petecm99
in thread Site facelift? by locust

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