Are we hackers or children? Is this the real, professional world or is it gradeschool?

We're all those things and more. PerlMonks and the Perl community are not a homogenous block of one kind of person in one job title in one industry at one age bracket.

I agree that things don't always have to be completely civil. However we should remind people that being a competent person who's a jerk on a regular basis is less productive than being a competent person who's a jerk only rarely.