Although there is no auto responder currently implemented in the perlmonks (almost :-) Everything Engine all that you need to do is add some code like this:

my $mail_prog = '/usr/sbin/sendmail';

# now assuning $new_user_email is the new user's email
# and our text is in a file /welcome/message.txt
# all we need to do is trigger this code concurrent with 
# the creation of a new user (when we get the email address)
 
if ($new_user) {
    open TEXT, "</welcome/message.txt" or die "Oops $!\n";
    local $/;
    my $welcome = <TEXT>;
    close TEXT;
    open MAIL, "|$mail_prog -t" or die "Oops $!\n";;
    print MAIL "To: $new_user_email\n";
    print MAIL "Reply-to: <nobody\@perlmonks.com>\n";
    print MAIL "From: Pelmonks\n";
    print MAIL "Subject: Welcome to Pelmonks\n";
    print MAIL "$welcome\n";
    close MAIL;
}
[download]

Have edited the opening text to be more accurate of docs current status.

I agree 13 is totally arbitrary, chosen only because I liked all the biblical conotations: 13 at the last supper, Adam, saints, monks.... Of the nodes listed some are IMHO far more useful than others but to avoid causing offence I just globbed a few in current rank order and linked to all the others. I would pick merlyn's and Ovid's home nodes as amongst the most useful to someone new to perl. By highlighting a few the idea was to incite a bit of interest. If you click on the first one merlyn you should be duly impressed and hopefully inspired to explore further.

Chipmunk (14) has also noted that the list will change ;-) Practically it would be quite easy to have a short script with an SQL query auto-update this text, just as it does on the saints in our book node. Add it to the crontab and...there is no problem. Alternatively you could bite the bullet and nominate the best home nodes for New Monks (whatever you think that means) or do as you suggest and drop the personal glory for the current top 13 by just linking to Saints in our book

cheers

tachyon

Right, I realize there's no autoresponder in the Everything engine, and I realize that it's a simple matter to send mail from Perl.

I guess it just seems to me that because of the fact that there isn't any such autoresponder and that Fearless Leader hasn't indicated that any such functionality is going to be added, you might be putting the cart before the horse, worrying about the wording of the document. Then again, I'm also of the opinion that a /msg to the new user with a link to a node with this same information would be more useful and less intrusive than sending them email.

I've changed the wording to this to be accurate:

This message may eventually (in the fullness of time) be automatically sent to every new poster to perlmonks.

I agree that a /msg is less intrusive than an email. The only disadvantage is that it took slow learners like me a week or two to realise what all those little boxes accumulating at the top of the chatterbox were. No matter where I went they followed me....Duh

The other options that have been suggested are to post it to a new users initial home node with a checkbox to remove it, or by adding a link from the initial home node.

The email method is suggested because it is the lowest common denominator and presumes absolutely no familiarity with online forums and how they work. The sorry for insulting your inteligence bit is included to apoligise for those who don't require much help. Part of the popularity of perlmonks amongst newer perl converts comes from the general newbie intolerance of usenet (my personal opinion), as well as the fact that many people who have discovered http:// have yet to discover the concept of news and usenet.

The original source of this post is plain text and munged to remove the links to http://www.perlmonks.com/node... so practically any option is easy to execute. The links are auto generated etc....

tachyon