Perl became a popular language for one reason and one reason only: CGI.

Wrong. The universe did not begin in 1994.

The Perl community seems to have always had a rather snobbish attitude towards the web.

Nice synecdoche, but it's a logical fallacy.

Well, despite what Perl snobs may think, people are not going to learn Perl because it's cool and "post modern."

Strawman. Citation please.

Most of the people writing Perl code today aren't real programmers.

What is your definition of a "real programmer"? It's difficult to argue against this without a definition.

What's amazing is that the Perl community not only accepts and encourages bad code, it's outright hostile to those who don't.

Look, that synecdoche problem again.

I've seen people raked over the coals (even on Perl Monks) for suggesting cleaner alternatives to the Schwartzian Transform or suggesting using named variables instead of $_.

I've seen people lambasted for believing that U.S. Astronauts actually landed on the moon too.

Instead of shoehorning Perl 6 features into the aging Perl 5 codebase, the Perl Gods chose to do a complete rewrite.

Have you tried to add a feature to Perl 5? I have. Perhaps you should listen to the people who've patched Perl 5 when they say "Ouch. That hurt."

Well, I'm here to tell you today that Perl is stagnating.

I wrote the article to which you responded, so I'm a primary source. Therefore, my opinion wins.

Perl needs a new, snazzy web application server right now. Something that has the performance of mod_perl but doesn't expose Apache's internals; something as easy to install as PHP or RoR, with a great name and a great API. (A toned-down version of mod_perl coupled with T2T and Mason would suffice.)

I completely agree.

Finally, Perl 6 needs to come out in some form this year. Not in 2008 or 2010. By then, no one will care. Shelve all nonessential features; save them for future versions. Just get something out now that people can play around with so you can say "Perl 6 is here!"

Contributors welcome.

If you haven't or don't contribute, go fall off of a cliff, learn Ruby, become a circus clown, lock yourself in a little box for ten years eating food through a straw, or pack it all in to paint Elvis on velvet. I don't care. Your opinion doesn't matter.

Posted anonymously, since downvotes are bound to ensue.

Only the depth of your whiny martyr complex surpasses your unbound self-described courage.