Re: What's the secret of this community?

[jZed]

1. We learn from our mistakes. While comp.lang.perl.misc and #perl are useful places, they're also sometimes mean-spirited places. Having seen the potential for that kind of atmosphere, many who come here have an active desire to make Perlmonks have a more positive tone.

2. There is ample opportunity here for people to actively participate in forming the site's direction. On clpm the only way to show you care about the community is often to lambast OT posts. Here you contribute by posting, by becoming a member of one of the site-editor groups, by talking in the CB, etc. People who feel they are active participants can take ownership and therefore a sense of responsibility for what happens.

3. I think the CB is very important in that it allows us to get to know one another much more fully than we can with a usenet posting or in an IRC chatroom where only the regulars are allowed to say off topic things. Having both the CB and the posting area is also great because we all recognize there is a place for serious Perl and a place for non-serious chatter so both aspects have an outlet but they don't interfere with each other.

4. The fact that we are building something permanent - a repository of categorized and rated information about perl. Sure there are usenet archives and IRC logs, but PM has a much more obvious and usable identity as a repository.

5. The fact that there are a few key people whom we all recognize as experts in the subject matter and who also maintain an even tone in their repsonses and a fairness in their god-powers.

6. The fact that there is a hierarchy here, but that it is a) open, b) usually fair, and c) that we make fun of it's hierarchical nature.