monkdiscuss
Anonymous Monk
Take a look at [you|your home node] See those little entries at the top?
One of those says "Experience" and is a pretty random number.
It goes up, it goes down. Here's how it normally works. I post a question, it goes up by
around 6, down by around 3. Note that I didn't specify whether the question was on topic,
off topic, good, bad or even stupid. Here's what you have to keep in mind: that number doesn't
mean anything. Nothing. Simple as that. "Experience" is a misnomer, it should be renamed
"PerlMonks Experience", it has nothing to do with your perl experience, which is pretty much
impossible to give a numerical value to. The range of ++ or -- votes you get per post is in a
way dependant upon how high this number is. The number really defines how long you've been here,
and how many people here like you. There are a bunch of people who will downvote a node simply
because it has your name attached. This is not a set group of people, it's totally dependant upon
who you are. [merlyn] likes to call these people "Personality Voters", as they vote on your nodes
based upon your personality alone, nevermind the quality of the post.
<p>
Every question or answer I post from here on
will be posted anonymously. This is because, I don't give a damn about what that number is. Nor do
I care to gain the mysterious "level powers". I'm here to get help with my perl coding, and if possible help others with theirs.
<p>
Perlmonks has lost many users who were valuable assets to the community because of these "personality voters"
and I would like to think that someday, these people will see that they are damaging a great resource by their childish
actions.
<p>
The moral of the story is: I'm not here to be your buddy. I'm here to help and to get help, and that's how you
should look at your own "PerlMonks Experience".
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