While I understand the frustration people here have with newbies such as myself asking the same question time and time again, there is a rhyme and reason to it. First of all, learning how to learn for me is case dependant, i like a little interactive guidance. If i just wanted to plough thru document when i really have absolutely no clue where to start, i can just start by reading docs offerered with perl. While that does become the preferred method as you progress thru you knowledge of the language, it helps to get a little guidance. I feel fortunate to be able to ask some of the people here "stupid questions" I wonder at this point of the community, how many questions are "original" i doubt very many. This is evidenced by the infamous ... see this node (or in merlyn's case please see this column :^)) I think the newbies coming in asking the same questions that were asked a month ago gives those of us that just started a month ago an opportunity to help those that follow. To me, that is what this community is about, helping others learn/master as the skill level may be, and the sense of community that is offered.

If the same posts start to bother, just ignore them, start looking by the subject, unless someone blantly mis-titles a node, you can tell if it is something that would interest you. The nicest part of reading these redundant questions is the cool colection of links that can be spun off of them, kinda like a pm webring.