Re: Terminal decline?

[tonto]

The number of nodes does not reflect the number of questions answered by searching and reading an old node. I do that all the time, I think I've found the answer to almost all my questions by reading something on PerlMonks. In fact, I think I've only asked one question myself.

PerlMonks is a vast repository of good information, please don't count it out yet!

[cavac]

I somewhat have to agree. At least to some extend PerlMonks will shrink in Posts/timespan, just because we a) have SuperSearch and b) Google does a nice job of indexing the site and c) Perl 5 is very backwards compatible and there are only so many ways on how to foreach over an array.

What i really think is missing somewhat (and that may also be reflected in the amount of users using this site) is that PerlMonks doesn't seem to have many modern features - or they are well hidden. You know, things like embedding a screenshot (rather useful when talking about a GD problem) or Youtube videos. Having a standard way of linking our Youtube, Twitch, whatever profiles in our PerlMonks profiles.

Maybe we could even think about searching for a streaming service that's happy to let us stream coding sessions (Twitch is not happy about non-gaming content) and some video-chats with multiple Monks answering live questions from users or even just discussion some Perl related stuff amongst themself.

Also, a Javascript Plugin for posting (you know, without having to write HTML by hand) would probably make posting here a bit less pain in the seating arrangment.

On a side note: It would be interesting to also see statistics on searches and directly accessed pages refered from external sites like Google.

[hippo]

Embedded images? Embedded videos? Realtime streaming? Live video chats? Wow. Just imagine the wonderful new levels of spammy intrusion.

You may think that this being a monastery is just a metaphor. However for most of us it is a place of learning, mutual co-operation and quiet contemplation. The day this site turns into the facebook-on-acid which you have suggested here is the day I shall leave.

a Javascript Plugin for posting (you know, without having to write HTML by hand)

Such things exist already as browser add-ons for those who feel the need. What I would rather see is that use of the preview button is enforced on first-time and anonymous posters (or even on all root nodes). That might just cut down on some of the format-free postings, you never know.

This site is a brilliant resource. Don't kill it with the shiny.

Just my tuppence.

[cavac]

Let me clarify a bit: When i talked about streaming and video chats, i didn't mean within the perlmonks.org site, but maybe have a an agreement where and how to do it and schedule some common activities.

We might even think about doing some streamed charity event, like a "24-hour coding against hunger" where multiple monks host a show and we do some live coding and chatting with the community, all proceeds go to some charity. That sort of thing. Helps people and brings perlmonks back into the eyes of the world.

As for embedded video and images, requiring the monks to be at least level (?something?) to have that feature would make sure they're only posted by senior monks when embedding such files is actually required or are the best for to present a solution/example.