Hi Casey and List, On Friday 22 Apr 2011 20:39:15 Casey West wrote: > Hi List, > > It's hard for me to accept this mailing list has been around for ten years! > http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.beginners/2001/04/msg1.html >
Great. > The catalyst for creating this list was my embarassing display on the Perl > 5 Porters mailing list on April 9, 2001. > http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2001/04/msg33850.html > > Shortly after I made my pitch for this list: > http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2001/04/msg33899.html > Thanks for the history. > I've not been involved for years, as many of you know. It was pointed out > to me by a couple individuals that the situation here has been > deteriorating. I'm sorry to hear that. In part the idea of this list was > modeled after the Python help desk and tutor mailing lists. Incidentally, > their tutor mailing list is more than twelve years old! > http://mail.python.org/pipermail/tutor/1999-March/000001.html Yes, I am sorry that this list has also deteriorated a bit, though it could be much worse. I'll do my best to maintain a good atmosphere here withing my powers. I've recommended this list on: http://perl-begin.org/mailing-lists/ along with a list of some other mailing lists useful for beginners. I'll probably deprecate a few now that I look at that page. I recall that the traffic on the list was very overwhelming and that someone commented to me that whenever he set to compose a message answering a beginner, he already got several good replies by the time he finished. The traffic now may also be a bit too much, even for experienced people, but I recall it being much higher. > However, like our list, it appears the natural tenor of the list has > changed. For example: > > "Now, given this is a list for beginners to Python, could you > try explaining what you did there and how the OP, or > anyone else for that matter, might use it? > > "Or were you really just trying to establish that if > you try hard you can write Python that is as > difficult to read as Perl?" > -- http://mail.python.org/pipermail/tutor/2011-April/083157.html > Heh, heh. Yes, Paul Graham discussed bad apples ruining such online forums, in one of his blog or web site posts. Can't remember which was that. This post of mine is useful: http://unarmed.shlomifish.org/909.html It discusses Dealing with Provocative Internet people - based on the approach in the book "Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy". > Shortly after this mailing list got off the ground I wrote an article > trying to instigate the Perl community to embrace the idea of a safe place > for newcomers, both to Perl and programming. It's been pointed out I was > marginally hyperbolic, but only a little. My abuse of the comma, however, > has no justification. I quoted from the preface of a popular Perl book at > the time, closing my argument thusly: > > "But, paradoxically, the way in which Perl helps you the most has > almost nothing to do with Perl, and everything to do with the people > who use Perl. Perl folks are, frankly, some of the most helpful folks > on earth. If there's a religious quality to the Perl movement, then this > is at the heart of it. Larry wanted the Perl community to function like > a little bit of heaven, and he seems to have gotten his wish, so far. > Please do your part to keep it that way." > -- Preface, Programming Perl 2nd Edition > http://www.perl.com/pub/2001/05/29/tides.html > > At least one of the active members of this mailing list today either wrote > that, helped write it, or agreed to have it printed in his book. :-). > > It's been ten amazing years. I was 21 years old when this list began and I > thought I could do anything [0]. I'm a little bit older these days and it > shows [1]. It's time to formally pass the torch of moderating this list to > more presently capable hands. What's the job? From the FAQ: > > 1.10 - Who will maintain peace and flow on the list? > > Casey West, Kevin Meltzer and Ask Bjoern Hansen currently carry large, > yet padded, clue-sticks to maintain peace and order on the list. If you > are privately emailed by one of these folks for flaming, being off-topic, > etc... please listen to what they say. If you see a message sent to the > list by one of these people saying that a thread is closed, do not > continue to post to the list on that thread! If you do, you will not only > meet face to face with a XQJ-37 nuclear powered pansexual roto-plooker, > but you may also be taken off of the list. These people simply want to > make sure the list stays topical, and above-all, useful to Perl beginners. > -- > http://learn.perl.org/faq/beginners.html#1.10+who+will+maintain+peace+and+ > flow+on+the+list > > Anyone here with the desire and temperament can do that. If you would like > to formally take this role please email me (ca...@geeknest.com) or > email<beginners-work...@perl.org>. We'll work to determine the required > steps to update the FAQ and get your standard issue padded clue-stick in > the mail. Are you up for it? > I've already expressed this desire in private. If possible, Instead of taking someone off the list, it would be good if I can make their posts moderated, and let them resend these posts after I give some commentary. > In one week I'm going to speak to a couple hundred high school kids about > what it's like to be a software developer. My career has been fun and > rewarding—dare I say successful—thanks to the open source software > community. Thanks to you, all of you, for participating and enriching my > life with your positive contributions to code, community, and > consideration. Keep up the good work and please don't lose sight of the > goal. I look forward to encouraging those children to find open source > communities and ask questions, explore with enthusiasm, because there will > be people willing to give you a help, on your level, just because it's a > nice thing to do. Sounds good. I hope that some of them would be interested enough to contribute to open-source. See: http://teachingopensource.org/index.php/How_to_start_contributing_to_or_using_Open_Source_Software (short URL - http://xrl.us/bhjbgk ) There's a more comprehensive book under works on http://teachingopensource.org/ . Regards, Shlomi Fish -- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Shlomi Fish http://www.shlomifish.org/ "Star Trek: We, the Living Dead" - http://shlom.in/st-wtld I'd love to change the world, but they won't give me the source code. -- Unknown Please reply to list if it's a mailing list post - http://shlom.in/reply . -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: beginners-unsubscr...@perl.org For additional commands, e-mail: beginners-h...@perl.org http://learn.perl.org/
