Re: What is "aggressive" argument?

[sundialsvc4]

“Aggressive” might be ... well ... this.

Think about it:   is this (and several other ...) threads really a Perl meditation, or is it a forceful expression of your own particular opinion?   What incentive does a perfect-stranger have to engage in it?   What benefit, if any, is he or she likely to receive thereby?   Does it, in your honest opinion, have a visible community benefit?   Five years hence, when these words are read once again, will you still be proud of them?   (As for my own words over the years, thousands of posts in so-many forums ... OMG! Ick! ...well, anyway ... what’s done is done.   Google Does Not Forget.   Neither does The Wayback Machine.)

This is a community of professional programmers.   The nexus of our conversations here is, and should continue to be, one of the remarkably powerful tools that we use most every day ... that is to say, the Perl language.   The benefit of our participation is (a) that we receive the benefit of being more effective and of banging our heads to a bloody-pulp just a little bit less often than we do; and (b) that we might give that benefit to others who trod this same path with us.   I find enough professional benefit in this to spend literally hours a day here, almost every day.   It is “priceless,” and I try hard to “give back.”

I quietly encourage you to consider your threads in this light.   They are your threads, hence they are yours to consider.   If they are not as supportive of the community goal as they perhaps could be, then let them become so ... as you see fit.   If you are not receiving a warm response from the community, consider that “negative feedback” carefully, but not particularly personally.   A healthy public forum is not about “you,” nor “me,” but rather about the (very public) community.   It’s about “we.”   If the community seems to be telling you that you’ve wandered out of the channel, simply turn the wheel either to the left or to the right, and keep right on sailing.   Everyone’s participation is needed, and wanted, and actively encouraged.

I am sensitive to the fact that I am responding publicly, but speaking only for myself.   I do not intend this as a reprimand.   HTH.