The groups of users detailed below have undertaken vows of service to the Monastery.

See What are PerlMonks Orders? for more information on user groups, such as how to join one.

There are also a few other user groups that have less important purposes (developers, SiteDocManagers, Site Documentation Clan, editors, pmtesters, holders of unholy power, Breathers of Fire, tinkers, punsters, and pirates).

cabal  (Top)

Cabal is an umbrella group containing all the other user groups. It was created mainly to allow all the groups to discuss things together in a shared wiki. The existence of this group also allows each group to read the other groups' wikis.

The Cabal Matrix shows which users are in which groups.

• QandAEditors
• power users
• janitors
• SiteDocClan
• pmdev
• pollsters
• pedagogues

gods  (Top)

The gods are the administrators of the PerlMonks web site.
They are "superusers", in that they have the powers of all of the various cabal groups (aka orders of monks) — power users, pmdev, etc.

In addition, they have their own unique powers, such as:

• they can add (and remove) members in the various cabal groups.
• they apply patches submitted by pmdev members.
• they can un-reap nodes and override considerations.
• they can edit any field of any node, including user profile settings.
• they can disable user accounts, remove voting privileges, etc.
• they implement heuristics to keep spammer accounts at bay.

Gods do not have access to the servers on which PerlMonks runs!

The gods determine the policies which govern PerlMonks, and are the ultimate arbiters of site policy.
Even so, the gods operate according to an ethic which reflects the site's tradition of voluntary self-restraint and mutual respect.

The gods are your court of last appeal: send a message to the gods.
If you have any suggestions or complaints regarding site policy, /msg [gods]. :-)
(Note: if you are not logged in, you will only be able to send a message to the gods via the form on the Retrieving a forgotten username or password page.) Sending a message from this site is the preferred method of contact.

If you really need an out-of-band way of contacting the site administrators, there also is perlmonks.org@gmail.com, but please really consider sending a message first.

Membership in the gods group is by invitation only. You can't apply to join it like you can with other orders.

Some of these gods have separate accounts for their non-godly activities; those "mortal" accounts are linked to near the top of each godly account's home node.

• vroom
• chromatic
• tye 
• Petruchio
• de-merphq
• yitzchak
• Co-Rion
• erzuuli

pmdev  (Top)

pmdev (PerlMonks Developers) are the folks who write code patches to implement bug fixes and enhancement for the benefit of the site's users. They are the alchemists who frequently create gold from base metals, and, on rare occasion, explosions which rock the monastery from tower to tower.

If you have an idea for an improvement to the site, you should post a writeup in the Perl Monks Discussion section — although you should discuss it in the Chatterbox first, just as a sanity check.

If you have joined pmdev and don't know where to start, go to the PmDev HowTo Wiki.

• tye
• Corion
• Arunbear
• jdporter
• shmem
• footpad
• JayBonci
• LanX
• choroba
• cavac
• etj
• haukex
• Polyglot
• Bod
• pemungkah
• ysth

power users  (Top)

The power users help suppress offensive or disruptive users in the chatterbox; they can temporarily suspend a user's ability to use the messaging system (both cb and private messaging). This is called borg'ing a user. The default suspension is for 10 minutes.

A list of all currently borg'ed users can be seen in the Borg's Belly.

Spells for Power Users:

/borg username [ time [ quip ] ]

Blocks a user from using the messaging system for time (default: 10m).
A message will be posted to the cb stating the fact. You may override the default quip.
quip is optional, and if omitted, time is also optional. (That is, you can't provide a quip but not a time.)
time Takes the form 10s, 10m, or 10h (seconds, minutes, hours, respectively). (You can put any integer you want, of course.) You cannot combine these time scales; 1h30m does not work. You may omit the 'm' if you are specifying minutes.
The username can be in square brackets.

/reaper quip

Posts a message to the cb as if spoken by NodeReaper. The text will be posted as something spoken.
The /me command is also available, e.g.: /reaper /me picks his teeth. But other "slash" commands apparently do not work, e.g. /reaper /msg ...

To spring someone from the brig early, Power Users can do so via the belly page.

If you're a power user, you can visit the group's message inbox.

• chromatic
• davorg
• tye
• footpad
• Petruchio
• demerphq
• Corion
• castaway
• NodeReaper
• ysth
• planetscape
• MidLifeXis
• marto
• jdporter

janitors  (Top)

The janitors keep the site free of "trash" (broken nodes) by fixing bad HTML formatting and remediating obstructive titles. See What do Janitors do? for information on how janitation works, and what role you can play in the process.

Note: In times past, this group was known as 'editors', but the name was changed because their job is really just to clean up messes, not to serve in any kind of editorial capacity.

• Corion
• tye
• davido
• Arunbear
• planetscape
• GrandFather
• stevieb
• Athanasius
• Discipulus
• footpad
• jdporter

QandAEditors  (Top)

QandAEditors place special designations on the most worthy questions and answers in the Seekers of Perl Wisdom section, so that future visitors can easily find the site's best content.

• Corion
• davido
• Arunbear
• cavac
• jdporter
• hippo

SiteDocClan  (Top)

The SiteDocClan (aka SDC) write all the FAQlets that make up the PerlMonks FAQ, as well as the short texts appearing at the top of each site section (e.g. Seekers of Perl Wisdom), and various other pages around the Monastery.

For details on what they do, see How is the PerlMonks FAQ maintained?

• chromatic
• Corion
• davido
• Arunbear
• shmem
• jdporter
• footpad
• eyepopslikeamosquito
• cavac
• Bod
• LanX

pedagogues  (Top)

The Pedagogues have purview over the Tutorials section of PerlMonks. They do the following:

1. Manage the organization of tutorials within the Tutorials section. This consists mainly of moving new tutorials into the proper category. See How does editing work in the Tutorials section?
2. Request editorial action on a tutorial from either its author or the janitors, as appropriate. Pedagogues cannot edit tutorials themselves!
3. Guide and coach authors in the process of tutorial development.
4. Observe currents in the community, noting new needs for tutorials, and
5. Solicit new tutorials from the Monks via the Tutorials Quest.

One thing which is explicitly not in the Pedagogues' charter is to write tutorials. A Pedagogue may write a tutorial, but s/he does so as a private citizen, not in her/his official capacity as a Pedagogue.

• planetscape
• jdporter
• demerphq
• Arunbear
• injunjoel
• shmem
• davorg

pollsters  (Top)

The pollsters regularly set up new polls for your education and entertainment, based on ideas suggested to them.

• gods
• davido
• Petruchio
• planetscape
• liverpole
• gryphon
• Arunbear
• jdporter