I think there is some correlation between having XP and having Perl knowledge, statistically speaking anyway. And I don't think it's about judginge people, but rather about judging content.

What I find informative is how people have voted on a particular node, to find out the "Reputation" of that node. This, together with the XP of the author of the node, is a good indication to me of whether what was said in the node, makes sense or not.

Now, currently, the only way to find out the Reputation of a node, is to vote for it, either up or down. But if I don't know whether it makes any sense, how can I vote in a sensible way?

I would therefore be in favor of being able to "ask" for the Reputation of the node. Such a request would cost me one vote and never change the Reputation of the node. In the end, I should learn because I get an indication of the node's reputation from my peers. So therefore it makes sense to me to have a the same chance of increasing my own XP as I would have if I would have voted up or down.

So for me, the options would be:

    --  tell me  ++

Liz