planetscape's reply makes the case very well. There is a crossover between real life™ and life in the Monastery. I was rather surprised, and a little flattered, to receive an email soliciting for a programmer for a significant Perl programing contract which must have come through my association with PerlMonks. It looks like XP can be traded on for the sort of coupons that buy coffee or the right sort of car to attract girls.
Not that it is the XP in and of itself that is important. Just like money, XP is an indicator. And just like money, what XP indicates may be completely bogus depending on how it was obtained. I guess you might say - we don't want to devalue XP. Although really what we are saying is we don't want to devalue PerlMonks.
DWIM is Perl's answer to Gödel
