http://www.perlmonks.org?node_id=40505


in reply to From Initiate to Monk

Congratulations Blue,
at first to your decision to join and of course to your new being as a monk :-)
Though I have a question:
How did you all get here?
How did you found the way to this place?
I mean I didn't know about before I've seen our beloved merlyn putting a note about perlmonks to his page at stonehenge.
Well, don't get me wrong when I just want to say that I got here through wise advise of a perl hacker.
just b.t.w., my very first post here was one as "Anonymous Monk" and later on I registered.

Have a nice day
All decision is left to your taste

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
RE: RE: From Initiate to Monk
by mirod (Canon) on Nov 08, 2000 at 15:11 UTC

    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!

Is this another poll coming up?
by neophyte (Curate) on Nov 08, 2000 at 19:04 UTC
    How did you found the way to this place?
    I think this would make another interesting poll.
    • I did a google search on Perl
    • Saw it in Stonhenge ;)
    • Followed the link on slashdot
    • other
    • I just rubbed my eyes real hard, and there it was.
    • I just couldn't help stumbling over it.
    and so on ...

    neophyte

    • read about module reviews available here
    • gained somewhat enlighment so just got lead here through a vision I had due to my perlish religion

    • {grin}
      • Heard Gnat talk about it multiple times at yapc 19100

      Chris

      M-x auto-bs-mode

        • was told about it by a friend
RE: RE: From Initiate to Monk
by jepri (Parson) on Nov 08, 2000 at 18:16 UTC
    How did you all get here?
    I read Slashdot for a while before I found their nodelets, and added PerlMonks on a whim, because it sounded kind of neat. I was weeks before I actually checked it out, since it was at the bottom of my nodelist. Now I log into PM almost every day, and the only time I hear about Slashdot is when my friends send me an article from it. I like it better here. It's a lot more cosy.

    I have independently developed a plan similar to Blue's and am following it with fair success. Just out of curiosity, how many of us are System Administrators who started perl because they had to modify a script to add users/count quotas/hits on a webpage/etc...?

    I also admit to being quite intimidated by the masters around here, but I like it because I think it encourages me to make sure my posts are good, since I have a high standard to aim for.

    ____________________
    Jeremy

RE: RE: From Initiate to Monk
by chromatic (Archbishop) on Nov 09, 2000 at 10:43 UTC
    I saw the Perl Monks banner ad on Everything 2 on Christmas Eve last year, a few minutes after EDC started running the ads.

    No comment on what I was doing at E2. It was a crazy scheme involving a robot CowboyNeal.