in reply to Were it not a monastery, my favourite metaphor for PerlMonks would have been:
Note that it includes a sense of discipline (use strict;!), it is a community, it has a hierarchy, it has a mascot (the Camel!), there is continuous learning and training, but also good fun and informal contacts (Chatterbox), it has its traditions ("show what your tried before asking a question", ...), ...
Military, definitely so Sir; that is probably why I like it so much.
CountZero
A program should be light and agile, its subroutines connected like a string of pearls. The spirit and intent of the program should be retained throughout. There should be neither too little or too much, neither needless loops nor useless variables, neither lack of structure nor overwhelming rigidity." - The Tao of Programming, 4.1 - Geoffrey James