While I trust that Perl will be around for many years to come, it's certainly suffering from attrition, or at least, a lack of new recruits. Without new programmers and popular support, few will be left to just maintain what we have. Sad as it may be, the current course eventually leads to obscurity.

OK, so what? Is it better to let Perl die of natural causes or help it survive and grow? Your inspirational "call-to-arms" clearly supports the latter. To be honest, it's ambitious enough to be a Mission Statement -- a beautiful goal which isn't necessarily realistic. It seems difficult to form such an organized campaign (and uncertain to have any significant effect) but it certainly won't happen without trying.

As crazy as it may be (no offense), I like the idea and would love to see it actually happen. At the very least, it's nice to have hope for Perl, whether you consider it to be an end-in-itself or just one of your favorite tools. We should keep looking for opportunities to promote/maintain Perl ... at least as long as it's helpful and/or fun.

Thanks for the well-written proposal and interesting thread.