Better Perl

[Philip Newton]

On Mon, Apr 7, 2008 at 1:37 PM, Denny <london.pm at metamathics.org> wrote:
>  Ideally the 'gurus' would make themselves a nice #perl-experts channel
>  and hang out there, and the people who happen to like helping newcomers
>  could lurk in #perl and be helpful.  Unfortunately this seems unlikely
>  to happen, as the gurus generally seem to have a strong feeling that
>  they 'own' the virtual space for their chosen field.  Reversing the
>  solution (#perl and #perl-beginners) doesn't work, because the newcomers
>  won't know about the -beginners channel and will still go into #perl,
>  where they will be made to feel even more unwelcome (/kick ask
>  #perl-beginners).

Though even making #perl-experts probably wouldn't help -- you'd get
newbies going, "Hm, I could either ask in the general #perl channel,
where everybody hangs out, or in #perl-experts, where they're all
experts. I think I really need an answer from an expert, so I'll go
bother them."

I think I read about a newsgroup where they tried this strategy; IIRC
it was comp.unix.wizards, and IIRC it worked more or less as I
described, i.e. it didn't fulfil the purpose of keeping the crotchety
old regulars in a group by themselves where they wouldn't have to put
up with enthusiastic newbies and, conversely, they wouldn't scare them
off, either because they'd keep to themselves.

Cheers,
-- 
Philip Newton <philip.newton at gmail.com>