My experience of web-based language support forums has been patchy to say the least. Often they seem to be a "blind leading the blind" kind of place with uninformed people helping each other to find sub-optimal solutions. I'm not suggesting for a second that Perl is immune to this phenomenon. I've seen many Perl sites that conform completely to this model.
So what it is that makes Perl Monks so different? The big difference has to be the quality of the programmers who visit the site. At any time of the day or night you'll find expert Perl programmers there who will be happy to help you with your problem. You can be sure that most of the advice you get from Perl Monks will be of top quality.
"Most of the advice"? Yes. Of course there will be times when you get advice that isn't quite as good as it could be. And that's where Perl Monks' other advantage comes into play. Perl Monks has good feedback in the form of its voting system. If you see a good question or answer on the site then you can give it a positive vote. If you see a bad question or answer then you can give it a negative vote. Voting for or against an entry also has a change of effecting the reputation of the author of that node. People who consistently give good answers will rise to the top of the league table so it becomes easy to know whose answers to trust.
Perl Monks is also one of the friendliest forums that I know. There are occasional arguments in the chatterbox, but most of the time it's a pleasure to be there. I think this was an ethos which was imposed by Tim Vroom (the original creator of the site) and which is now so deeply ingrained into the site that anyone who disturbs this peaceful and friendly atmosphere won't last very long on the site.
So you've got friendly experts who will happily answer your Perl questions in something like real time. I can't see any downsides there at all.
It's a site that makes me proud to use Perl.
So what it is that makes Perl Monks so different? The big difference has to be the quality of the programmers who visit the site. At any time of the day or night you'll find expert Perl programmers there who will be happy to help you with your problem. You can be sure that most of the advice you get from Perl Monks will be of top quality.
"Most of the advice"? Yes. Of course there will be times when you get advice that isn't quite as good as it could be. And that's where Perl Monks' other advantage comes into play. Perl Monks has good feedback in the form of its voting system. If you see a good question or answer on the site then you can give it a positive vote. If you see a bad question or answer then you can give it a negative vote. Voting for or against an entry also has a change of effecting the reputation of the author of that node. People who consistently give good answers will rise to the top of the league table so it becomes easy to know whose answers to trust.
Perl Monks is also one of the friendliest forums that I know. There are occasional arguments in the chatterbox, but most of the time it's a pleasure to be there. I think this was an ethos which was imposed by Tim Vroom (the original creator of the site) and which is now so deeply ingrained into the site that anyone who disturbs this peaceful and friendly atmosphere won't last very long on the site.
So you've got friendly experts who will happily answer your Perl questions in something like real time. I can't see any downsides there at all.
It's a site that makes me proud to use Perl.
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