I first heard of the Perl Monks after the first YAPC, where the site was mentionned as a sponsor and a strong community.

I started lurking every now and then on the site about a year ago before registering in April, lurking some more, then eventually posting on my favorite topic (XML of course) and being biten by the XP bug. I have been posting regularly since then...

I think YAPC is the perfect place for Perl Monks to be.
Both the conference and the site carry the same sense of community, the feeling that we should help each other because we share the same love for our job and our language, that beyond its technical merits it carries a set of values that we all support. Those values being freedom, fun and the search for excellence, elegance and ingeniosity.

Beyond that I first thought that the XP system was just a gimmick, but as I started posting, then voting, I realized it plays a major role on the site:
- knowing that your post will be read, evaluated, voted on and then carry a reputation makes you think twice about posting, check your code and generally improves the quality of posting, and just as important makes you cancel more than one impulse post, thus increasing dramatically the SN ratio of the whole site.
- voting on other posts makes you read them all (or at least as many of them that can fit in a busy day), and really think about their technical (or philosophical!) merits, thus giving you the opportunity to learn even in areas you might not be directly interested in.

So Thanks PM, thanks vroom and thanks to all the saints, monks, initiates and Anonymous Monks that make me hit the reload button every 30 seconds when I get a chance! (BTW, idea for a poll: "how many times a minute do you hit the reload button")

Update: hey! by the way, this was my 100 posts, cool! Now on my way to merlyn's score!