Here are a few tips for getting the best out of this site. Firstly, you may have found that the code you posted has earned a number of -- points. Don't take this to heart as it's just a (fairly meaningless) number after all.

There are two tools it would be a good idea how to find out how to use:

• The Chatterbox (CB). Here, you can ask questions about pretty much anything - they don't even have to be Perl related (but I guess you are already familiar with IRC). The /msg facility is useful for posting a message to an individual off list. This is much better than posting flame, which will earn you considerably more -- votes and lose you more respect than duff code.

  Remember, anything you post as replies is public. Anything sent via /msg is essentially a private conversation.

• Open up your personal scratchpad. Click on your name, and "Edit your user information". Here is something which is _yours_ and public, but you will not be judged and downvoted on it. It is a good place to post code for review - the worst you will get is sarcasm on the CB.

Also, have a good look around the site, read the FAQs, do some searches on topics of interest. In particular, check out the links other monks have given you in reply - this will take you to some quit informative articles both inside and outside the site.

You will find that this is one of, if not the best Perl forum on the Internet.

rinceWind