Since the only way to uncover a nodes score is to make a value-judgment, I did '--' sierrathedog04 more times than I really wanted to. It wasn't because I "like/hate" him, but because I couldn't bring myself to '++' much of anything in that thread.

In this case, some (if not most) of the votes cast on deeply-nested-nodes weren't really "value judgements" at all. They were simply the result of people wanting to uncover the nodes rep. En masse this caused some unexpected and undesired results.

I was also interested in reputation of sierrathedog04's nodes. But I voted ++ on them from following reasons:
(1) I had gut feeling that sierrathedog04 is being slaughtered for wrong reason. I still believe it started as honest misunderstanding, and while if it was stupid from him to begin the post and then not to shut up - especially adding one rather embarrasing and tasteless follow-up- he tried hones discussion. But in the middle of flames nobody noticed it...
(2) If total newbie will post code snippet with blatant errors, will we try to destroy him personally? Not at all. If a member of our community makes stupid mistake, after all good posts which bring him to bishop level, does not he deserves the same patience, or even more than that?
(3) If you do not agree with your friend, will you start criticize him in front of so many others? Probably not.

I tried to send sierrathedog04 /msg with some support and encouragement, although now I realise not too usefull - I was not aware of how bad the situation was, and matters went out of hand too quickly.

Now when sierrathedog04 and also abigail are both gone, are we as community better of? I doubt so. Did we learn something? I am not so sure, but there are hopes. Some members are so ashamed of how they behaved during this crisis that they feel they need to post anonymously about what they did. I think it is good - I believe our community failed in this incident. Monastery survived, it is good, and we can learn from that. I am not sure what we should learn I am not expert in inner works of monastery - but I do hope that editors will next time react quicker and pull this slaughter offline sooner - to cool heads.
For myself, although I have nothing to be proud of in this infamous thread, at least there is nothing I am ashamed of. I was not quick enough with support and some kind of solution (and also I was doing something billable at the time), but I believe I did not hurt anybody too hard.

I do hope that both sierrathedog04 and abigail returned to our community with different nicks. If so, welcome back monks. I feel sorry if I said something what I should not, or when I was silent and afraid to loose couple of stupid XP, when I was loosing friends and should say something and make a difference, please forgive me. Please continue to contribute to knowledge in our monastery. You know you are very good, and we need your knowledge. Both of you are more knowledgeabla than I am, so it feels strange you have to start again from level 1, where I was couple months ago - but it does not matter. Knowledge is all that matters after all. Forget the XP, forget even taste of this experience, and start new reincarnation. Hope you are reading it, welcome back, and good luck.

pmas
To make errors is human. But to make million errors per second, you need a computer.

(2) If total newbie will post code snippet with blatant errors, will we try to destroy him personally? Not at all. If a member of our community makes stupid mistake, after all good posts which bring him to bishop level, does not he deserves the same patience, or even more than that?

Actually, sadly, this does happen quite frequently. Hence the need for a newbie area, a tailored newbie welcome email, or at least something, to help people get a feel for the place. I don't know how many newbie posts I've seen that are rapidly downvoted for poor english / grammar / spelling, formatting, using words people don't like (LOL etc). That pisses me off. We strive to be a community with a wholehearted, spirited approach toward Perl, but *many* lack the patience and foresight required to ease new members into the fold.

If anything needs to be changed, it's our approach to new posts. My 3 point plan :

1. THINK! Before you vote, how long has this guy/gal been a member? Are they brand new? If so, welcome them. Give them a newbie ++. Do it.

2. Don't Downvote. Msg them. Don't be lazy. Be proactive for the community.

3. Nurture. I stayed here b/c a senior monk took the time to show me the ropes. Again, be proactive.

Azatoth a.k.a Captain Whiplash

Make Your Die Messages Full of Wisdom!
Get YOUR PerlMonks Stagename here!
Want to speak like a Londoner?

FWIW, you could have gotten the same effect by watching the Worst Nodes node. The poor schlub didn't really deserve the absolute pounding he got - and I think the loss of both abigal and sierrathedog04 was mostly a result of the sharklike feeding frenzy.

Sometimes a community can turn into a mob - and quite frankly, that's what we turned into.

EEjack

sierrathedog04 wouldn't have been downvoted nearly as much if he hadn't ignored the very clear expressions of discomfort in the responses to his nodes and pressed on with his (non)point. I don't think it's fair to blame the 'community' for this particular debacle. I'm only sorry that Abigail left as a result.