Re: Find your own monastery: "Perl 6" is not Perl, and Perl is not a Dinosaur

[Arunbear]

The data below (kindly provided by Corion) shows a definite downward trend in participation at PerlMonks. This is why some monks are in favour of being more liberal about what content we accept here.

Count of Perl 5 / Perl 6 meditations

count(*)	year	title_type
7	1999	Perl 5 (implicit)
351	2000	Perl 5 (implicit)
7	2000	Perl 6
4	2001	Perl 5 (explicit)
1221	2001	Perl 5 (implicit)
18	2001	Perl 6
10	2002	Perl 5 (explicit)
989	2002	Perl 5 (implicit)
30	2002	Perl 6
7	2003	Perl 5 (explicit)
723	2003	Perl 5 (implicit)
12	2003	Perl 6
3	2004	Perl 5 (explicit)
658	2004	Perl 5 (implicit)
14	2004	Perl 6
2	2005	Perl 5 (explicit)
701	2005	Perl 5 (implicit)
23	2005	Perl 6
2	2006	Perl 5 (explicit)
469	2006	Perl 5 (implicit)
13	2006	Perl 6
6	2007	Perl 5 (explicit)
378	2007	Perl 5 (implicit)
15	2007	Perl 6
7	2008	Perl 5 (explicit)
324	2008	Perl 5 (implicit)
10	2008	Perl 6
1	2009	Perl 5 (explicit)
273	2009	Perl 5 (implicit)
6	2009	Perl 6
4	2010	Perl 5 (explicit)
178	2010	Perl 5 (implicit)
5	2010	Perl 6
2	2011	Perl 5 (explicit)
234	2011	Perl 5 (implicit)
1	2011	Perl 6
6	2012	Perl 5 (explicit)
155	2012	Perl 5 (implicit)
5	2012	Perl 6
4	2013	Perl 5 (explicit)
489	2013	Perl 5 (implicit)
3	2013	Perl 6
2	2014	Perl 5 (explicit)
401	2014	Perl 5 (implicit)
2	2014	Perl 6
5	2015	Perl 5 (explicit)
77	2015	Perl 5 (implicit)
4	2015	Perl 6
12	2016	Perl 5 (implicit)
2	2016	Perl 6

Count of Perl 5 / Perl 6 questions

count(*)	year	title_type
18	1999	Perl 5 (implicit)
6	2000	Perl 5 (explicit)
3190	2000	Perl 5 (implicit)
2	2000	Perl 6
30	2001	Perl 5 (explicit)
8353	2001	Perl 5 (implicit)
5	2001	Perl 6
39	2002	Perl 5 (explicit)
8898	2002	Perl 5 (implicit)
6	2002	Perl 6
62	2003	Perl 5 (explicit)
9225	2003	Perl 5 (implicit)
11	2003	Perl 6
51	2004	Perl 5 (explicit)
9170	2004	Perl 5 (implicit)
6	2004	Perl 6
36	2005	Perl 5 (explicit)
9668	2005	Perl 5 (implicit)
19	2005	Perl 6
36	2006	Perl 5 (explicit)
7375	2006	Perl 5 (implicit)
10	2006	Perl 6
31	2007	Perl 5 (explicit)
6795	2007	Perl 5 (implicit)
13	2007	Perl 6
52	2008	Perl 5 (explicit)
7146	2008	Perl 5 (implicit)
23	2008	Perl 6
46	2009	Perl 5 (explicit)
7941	2009	Perl 5 (implicit)
9	2009	Perl 6
41	2010	Perl 5 (explicit)
6450	2010	Perl 5 (implicit)
29	2010	Perl 6
40	2011	Perl 5 (explicit)
6434	2011	Perl 5 (implicit)
11	2011	Perl 6
44	2012	Perl 5 (explicit)
6335	2012	Perl 5 (implicit)
13	2012	Perl 6
32	2013	Perl 5 (explicit)
5811	2013	Perl 5 (implicit)
7	2013	Perl 6
21	2014	Perl 5 (explicit)
4211	2014	Perl 5 (implicit)
13	2014	Perl 6
24	2015	Perl 5 (explicit)
3518	2015	Perl 5 (implicit)
10	2015	Perl 6
359	2016	Perl 5 (implicit)
2	2016	Perl 6

[1nickt]

Hi Arunbear,

We could also open up our Monastery to discussion about the Kardashians, if all we want is to increase traffic.

There are many reasons that contribute to the decline in participation on a venerable site like PerlMonks. I manage another site (sailing-related), that, like PerlMonks, was way ahead of its time and, in the early 2000s, grabbed a huge share of people interested in the site's theme. Like PerlMonks, it had superlative content and functioned exceptionally well. For many years it was *the* go-to site for the topic.

Now, like PerlMonks, the numbers are trending down, down. The most important reasons have to do with (a) the rest of the internet catching up, and (b) changing demographics, more than with anything else. The quality of the archived information, and of the answers to new questions, has not declined at all. But unlike in 2001, there are now multiple sites offering the same information, and some of them even function better. So now we are no longer the go-to site, but one among many, and in some ways, a little dated. And the cadre of sailors/monks has aged, some moving on, and has not been replaced with an equal number of younger members.

So, yes, we could dilute and even abandon the mission of the Monastery, in order to get more traffic. But another approach would be to try to address the causes for the decline, to the degree possible. One way to do this could be updating the look and feel of the site, so that a potential new user, most likely a "millenial", in the 15 seconds s/he considers the site, quite possibly on a mobile device, is enticed to hang around, rather than feeling like s/he accidentally stumbled into the Wayback Machine.

And if the decline continues, well, so be it. I for one would rather have this Monastery decline in traffic but maintain its quality and value as a source of learning about Perl, than to increase numbers at the cost of hosting a bunch of crufty content, that might be related to Perl on some spectrum of relativity, but is not actually about Perl.