Re^5: PERL as shibboleth and the Perl community

[Tanktalus]

So we're willing to condemn a large number of people to be "not part of the community" just because they fell for a joke in the official perl manpage that doesn't have a smiley or anything to indicate it's a joke?

I'm sorry, but having the perl manpage say this and perlfaq1 to say something to contradict it, how is this person, who is otherwise completely competent at putting out useful product in perl, supposed to know which one is right, when they don't actually affect his/her perl code?

It's like going to a lawyer, having the lawyer tell you your shoe is untied, looking down, and having the entire law office break out into laughter at you. You didn't read that manpage looking for a joke. And now the community is laughing at you for falling for it.

Sorry, that's not just unfair, it's downright rude and condescending.

[TimToady]

Yes, it's true that the Perl community has the tendency to laugh at people who take themselves too seriously. But yikes--please don't think of us as a law office. It seems you've wandered by accident into the comedy club for clowns next door, and we're just all having bozonic amounts of fun pretending to be lawyers. We all plead "Not Gillcup". :-)

[SamCG]

Mmmm, almost all -- at least one of us has passed the bar. But don't hate me, I came out of law school with my personality at least partially undamaged. ;)

So, the question is, is the way you capitalize perl a BFOQ (bona fide occupational qualification)? An argument could be made either way; I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of an unfair hiring suit based on it, but I suspect most could survive such a suit based on other factors of the applicant anyway.

*sigh* I should include the Disclaimer The preceding post is not intended to create any sort of attorney-client relationship or serve as legal advice for any specific situation. As such, this posting is not privileged and may be shared with other parties. If you have a specific legal problem, you should contact an attorney specializing in the subject matter of your issue.

[TimToady]

In the tagmemic worldview, being a real lawyer does not preclude you from also having fun pretending to be a lawyer. :-)

[demerphq]

Just out of curiousity, I've always wondered whether you lawyer people have to put disclaimers like that whenever you say something that is vaguely like legal advice? Is it just habit from other scenarios? Is it so drilled into your collective heads in law school that you must disclaim everything which you aren't getting paid for and you thus just do it out of habit? Even though its probably not really necessary?

I mean, here we are on a public site, you are using a semi-anonymous account, your comment contains nothing like a directive to the person you are replying to, etc. Is there really a risk that you or some or other lawyer in such a context could have issues if you dont explicitly disclaim your comments? I could understand such a risk in other contexts, but here? Or on a list site like groklaw or whatever?

And I ask this fully understanding that you are not my lawyer and that whatever you say is understood to be under the disclaimer we are discussing. :-)