Excellent article. But...

I am afraid that it is too much reading for newbies (some are too busy even to register)... : )

I think it might be good idea to have special 'obstacle course' for newbies with experience less than (put you guess here) and anonymous monks before allow them to post something. Page like:

---

So you want to ask for help?

Fine.

But before you dare to ask somebody to spend his/her valuable time to look into your code for free, please do your homework (and keep your reputation intact and avoid flames and RTFM response, too):

link : "Are you 100% sure you have '-w' after shebang and 'use strict' " ==> will allow to continue on next 'obstacle' page;

link "I am not sure if I do or why I should" will link to this explanation.

If you are complete beginner, you may want to subscribe to perl beginners list:

http://lists.perl.org/showlist.cgi?name=beginners

There are many experts specializing to answer questions from beginners and beginners only.

Please read all FAQ and come back. We enjoy answering tricky questions...

... end of page ...

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On next page can be question about using CGI.pm, etc. So we can guide new monk through FAQ, making sure s/he read all relevant FAQ before posting. I hope people do not want to be a cheaters, will not just click through.

So we will force newbies to read and think - and maybe to register some anonymous guys.

I hope this is not too much "anti-newbie". Just wanted to suggest interface which makes most sense - IMHO.

pmas

To make errors is human. But to make million errors per second, you need a computer.