Hmmmm... I have to agree with the other monks that say questions add content to the site. When I reply to a node, I'm not really concerned about the rep that it will draw. If the reply is useful to the node starter, then my job is done. For example, in my last reply (before this one),the rep was 3.

I remember that I posted a golf node that drew a rep of about 90 in a matter of a day. It was a very simple (but new, or at least seemingly new) question of flipping a coin. It wasn't the most difficult question to answer, but one that a lot of people saw as a challenge (and began racking their brains). The reason I believe the node got such a high rep was that it was a node that forced those that replied to be creative. I also believe that is why certain questions also draw high reps. If you have to think about your response, then the person that produced the question should be rewarded. Not only are you increasing the node starter's knowledge of Perl, but reinforcing (and sometimes adding new knowledge) your knowledge.

I would go as far to say that the node starter deserves to have a higher rep than the replies (for the reason mentioned above). If we didn't have people starting nodes with interesting questions (or sometimes dull ones), Perlmonks would not be as interesting a place as it is.

Theodore Charles III
Network Administrator
Los Angeles Senior High
email->secon_kun@hotmail.com
perl -e "map{print++$_}split//,Mdbnr;"