You know, I just ran into this exact issue not too long ago. I saw a post by MeowChow, Why not support this syntax? and I, having recently taken a class and done some extra studying on Programming Language Structures and language creation was all set to drop my two cents in the bucket. Then...just before I submitted my thoughts, I thought about what I was doing, checked MeowChow's XP value and, realizing that it was much higher than mine, figured that I must be an idiot college student that thinks too much of himself to be critical of someone that has that much XP. At that point, I trashed the entire reply and never posted.

I didn't think of it at the time, but I'm sure that some of the monks with low XP levels have a great deal to contribute to the site. I'm just learning Perl and I often find myself entirely lost in the Seekers of Perl Wisdom section. Most of the questions (and replies) go straight over my head, but I find myself often picking up threads in the Meditations and Perl Monks Discussion sections and speaking my mind. I feel that, in these sections, I can really contribute to the community without knowing a lot about Perl. Hopefully, in time, I can contribute more to the rest of the site.

But I believe that what you say is true. I find myself being much less critical of anyone with a higher XP value than my own because I naturally equate higher XP with greater Perl knowledge and my own inferiority. I'm glad that you made this post - maybe now I won't be quite as afraid to post things and speak my mind - regardless of who I'm replying to.

- Sherlock