I don't think it's ever appropriate or necessary to vote down a newbie. The only effect that will have is driving away an inquiring programmer from the site. If my first question to a quirkily organized Q/A site was greeted with an anonymous negative vote, no answer, and no explanation, I'd immediately think the forum was filled with arrogant know-it-alls and promptly ask somewhere else. I really don't think Perlmonks is such a place, or I wouldn't frequent it. Asking a simple question doesn't at all require that the asker didn't look in the docs; it just means he didn't find the relevant information. Keep in mind that tools experienced Monks use (the search box, perldoc, etc.) don't have big neon signs pointing to them saying "use me to find information on a built-in function". The obvious function of the search box is searching for nodes, and it's not too blindingly clear that built-ins have their own nodes. IMHO, the best advice one could give to a newbie post would be to answer the outstanding question with a generic reference to a place to look in the future (someone mentioned plugging Camel... that's a good suggestion). And really, do you need to waste a vote postdec'ing a reply?