Gavin wasn't a registered perlmonks user untill
2006-03-07 ... the comments attributed to "Gavin" on that blog are form 2002.
"japhy" does appear to be "our japhy" based on the URL that poster used (either that, or someone trying really hard to seem like him.
None of which precludes the possibility that all of these people stumbled onto this blog over a span or several *YEARS*, and posted comments, entirely independent of perlmonks -- anyone can comment on that blog, you don't even need to create an account, or have a verified email address, and it's the #1 result when googling for "perl python ruby" so it seems likely people might have found it, commented on it, and forgotten about it *YEARS* later.
(ocam's razor and all that)