Where are my cast iron underpants?

[wfsp]

I'm sure all monks will share my relief to find that BrowserUk formats his poetry better than his code. :-)

A bit uncalled for? Unecessary? Not at all; taking pop shots at Cardinals is my idea of good sport. gods would be a better target but they are so darned tetchy. :-)

So, who else is there? Ah, newbies, first time posters. Some gentle ribbing doesn't hurt but I think monks should be a bit cautious. There's a danger that it could appear as riducule. One example: search for a pattern in file without opening the file was, as virtualsue points out, not an unreasonable question. OK, there was some humour to be had - but half a dozen times? I'm not picking on any of the monks who responded to that question but I think there has been a bit of a trend here. I put it down to over enthusiasm, the urge to get in quick cuz you get more points if you're first. And no, of course, I would never ever do that, the XP doesn't matter does it? :-)

I think Flame provides an object lesson in how to respond to a new monk. ++ to him.

Now, I think what sounds like a rhino charging down the corridor is in fact BUk. Where did I put my cast iron underpants?

[GrandFather]

As one of the "tedious wisecrackers" I must say that some nodes just cry out for a cheap pot shot. Some so loud that, for example, the first three replies to the referenced post had a very similar theme and arrived in very short order of each other. Note too however that each of the three replies also had a serious component that was intended to help the OP either directly or to elucidate more information so that more help could be given.

Not that it invalidates your comment, but where is the evidence that the node was posted by a newbie btw? Very often newbies are greeted as such with their first question, but annonymonk doesn't get afforded that curtesy because we have no idea if the question is the first or the hundredth.

GrandFather hobbles off nursing a broken toe - curse those iron underpants.

[spartan]

I could not agree more GrandFather. Anonymonk most definitely does not get a "welcome newbie", let's take it easy attitude. I'm not suggesting that they recieve the equivalent of the Spanish inquisition either (I mean really, no one expects the inquisition!), as this would discourage anyone wishing to test the perlmonks waters before creating an account. Were it a real person posting, I am sure the moks involved would have had their fun, but followed up with sincere suggestions as virtualsue did.

[jonadab]

Where did I put my cast iron underpants?

Right next to the burlap thong and the chain mail socks. HTH.HAND.

[f00li5h]

Personally, it's the wisecracks that encourage me to open the seemingly silly questions... Heck, a thread like that wouldn't have left me with a feeling of "great, I can't answer the question because i have no idea what he's talking about", where it not for the comments regarding Crystal::Ball and Acme::Clairvoyant

It's funny stuff, and i'd say that more folks enjoyed it than were offended (see also, the node reps...)

[Anonymous Monk]

At the time of a KKK ritual burning alive, more folks present probably enjoyed it, than were offended.

But there was always at least one folks that did much enjoy it.

On balance....

[f00li5h]

That's true, but they only did that because they didn't have television... or online Perl forums to entertain themselves with

"She's a witch, she turned me into a newt! well, I got better"

[Anonymous Monk]

You've just sacrificed mobility