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Re: Parallels Between Perlmonks.ORG and Religious Cults (Retirement Announcement)

by swiftone (Curate)
on Nov 30, 2000 at 20:32 UTC ( [id://44165]=note: print w/replies, xml ) Need Help??


in reply to Parallels Between Perlmonks.ORG and Religious Cults (Retirement Announcement)

It should be stated from the outset that this is not an attempt to prove that perlmonks.org is a cult, but rather to show that certain aspects and events on the site are cultish in nature and probably should be removed or curtailed.

Okay, I'll be responding to your comments with this assumption.

Intolerance to Dissenting behavior

In a cult, their way is right and all other ways are wrong. Rational, independent-thinking is frowned upon and heavily criticized. In a recent thread entitled Apparent Inconsistencies in Perl Function Naming I launched an attack on some aspects of the Perl language that have shown themselves to be unintuitive to my co-workers.

Skimming through that thread, I see that you are both right and wrong. Correct, many people dismissed your comments as a wholesale attack on Perl. However, many others did not. This sounds like debate to me, not cultish behavior.

A POWER FIGURE WHOSE MOTIVES CANNOT BE QUESTIONED

Here I totally disagree. We certainly can question Vroom, but in the end it _is_ his site, and we can only state our opinion over what makes it better or not. I find your picture concerns petty (and perhaps somewhat egotistical). But then I have never submitted an image to the site, and have turned off the monk images. A quick perusal of Perl Monks Discussion shows _many_ times that vroom has been questioned and requested to change things. Any deference you see to him is respect that he has earned by creating such a good site with little personal gain.

MIND CONTROL BY INTRODUCTION OF GUILT

I think you extrapolate this section too broadly. Society runs on similar principles to what you see here.

US VERSUS THEM MENTALITY

This section makes no sense. You say there is a bad mentality, but that we don't attack Java. Huh?

PUBLIC RECORDS NOT AVAILABLE. NO AUTHORIZED REVIEW BY OUTSIDERS. ONE CLOSED INTERNAL SYSTEM OF JUSTICE

First, this is a lousy defining quality for a cult, as it is true in about 90% of things in life. Second, the Anonymous Monk option is available to everyone.

CONTACT WITH INFORMATION ABOUT LIFE OUTSIDE THE CULT IS SOMETIMES FROWNED UPON

This just makes me laugh. Your example is pointless, as in the context of the thread, it was off topic. I doubt you could find other "evidence" for this charge.

SUBORDINATION OF FREETHINKING ON THE GROUNDS OF A HIGHER KNOWLEDGE

Still laughing. Particularly since you yourself mentioned the large number of RFC's that indicate freethinking in the Perl community. Are you saying that the Perlmonks represent a conservative niche of that community?

CONCLUSION

You want a third party appeals system? Sorry, welcome to a merit-based democracy. That means you're on your own, and yes, it means that people can carry a grudge and penalize you. I also suggest that you take things a little too seriously. Perhaps with whatever unknown account you are now using, you'll feel better.

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