I think one of the challenges Perlmonks faces is, what we expect from us. From your past posts (discussion about "contributions of monks"; discussion about "voting scale") I get the impression that you think there are good (= contributing) members of our community and bad members, who are detrimental to the goal of our community.

I have two problems with this. First, your posts seem to me somewhat critic of people of low(er) XP. Of course, newcomers won't fit in and be a "useful" part of the community from the start, but I don't think that "us" old-skoolers (or old scholars) should put as much effort into the XP system as you display. Of course it's sad if people see their only chance for attaining monk by voting out, but if that's their only ability, so be it I say. Second, you seem to distinguish Perlmonks into two categories, those who are Perl monks and those who benefit from it without contributing back - a separation which is not necessarily wrong, but I feel that you think that there should be only one class of Perlmonks. This brings me down to what Perlmonks is to me - a helpfull community where everybody is helped and where everybody can benefit, as long as they obey some basic rules of style (<CODE> tags) and form (polite language). And while it makes sense to distinguish between people who contribute and people who don't, I think that the current system of rank and XP serves this purpose quite well and is already enough motivation to participate and contribute to those who want to.

The people who only vote out and do not actively and repeatedly contribute to Perlmonks are a part of us, just as Anonymous Coward and Trolls are a part of Slashdot. And honestly, I'm much more content with having people who vote out.

I know that you had your gripes with mt2k boasting about how he attained monk rank without ever writing anything useful, and I must admit that this also dented my relaxedness regarding his posts. But I always reminded myself that mt2k is very young (about my age when I started visiting BBSes) and you do need a relaxed approach when dealing with (I know you won't like it, mt2k, but...) kids. Personally I viewed mt2k as some form of jester of the monastery, always exploring stuff within the mechanics of the monastery while trying to learn stuff about Perl.

If I've misinterpreted or misunderstood you in any way, please tell me so.