I had planned on writing my first post as a meditation on what to do before posting a question that went something like this:

• perldoc
• Super Search
• merlyn's online articles
• post

Thanks for the reply and ++.

Typical XP whoring exercise, I would say.

Answering on some subjects you don't have the faintest idea about, just trying to be the first one to post something.

Exactly the kind of co-operation the Monastery could do without.

Heh - OK that was a joke. But I believe I am not alone in thinking that if it can be that automatic then there should be some automat to do it. This is a really bold idea, I know, but this makes it exciting too. I understand it might not be feasible in the monastery now - but if people will continue to think about it then eventually it would succeed.

This is exactly what is wrong with Perlmonks and a great deal of other forums. You end up with people spitting out the same old drivel over and over and over again. 95% of the people have no idea what they're talking about, but nobody's disagreed with them so far, so they must be right, right?

Wrong. The people that could correct you don't bother. They have better things to do.

I could go on for about a couple megs or so about consequences and variations of this, but I have better things to do. And yes, I am an elitist asshole.

That was a joke. But anyway I don't understand what you are talking about. I can't imagine how the jokingly proposed algorithm would lead to stagnation and 'spitting the same old drivel'.

Actually sometimes the people who can correct you, actually do so around here. They (eg merlyn, Abigail-II) often start spats by doing so, but they do it anyways.

That occasional preventative for the human tendancy towards groupthink is an essential part of what gives PM value.

Not that I expect a self-described elitist asshole to pay enough attention to notice that this really does happen...