> I think that for the most part, the posts which receive higher reputation are those which tend to generate a lot of discussion.

This is true, but not always! I have voted ++ on posts that had absolutely NOTHING to do with perl or with the topic in hand. Off topics, wisecracks and other assorted useless posts help to keep the mood of the monastery. I have never found Perl Monks to be the gloomy sort of place. I've always thought of the monks as being cheerfully drunk on code.

I appreciate posts that have little or nothing to do with perl so long as they are clever (note: not necessarily funny). I believe these posts deserve ++

#!/home/bbq/bin/perl
# Trust no1!