"A. Sinan Unur" <1usa@llenroc.ude.invalid> fell face-first on the
keyboard. This was the result:
news:Xns9A9C5884D27BFasu1cornelledu@
127.0.0.1:
>> On May 12, 8:03 am, PerlFAQ Server
stonehenge.com> wrote:>>> This is an excerpt from the latest version perlfaq4.pod, which
>>> comes with the standard Perl distribution. These postings aim to
>>> reduce the number of repeated questions as well as allow the
>>> community to review and update the answers. The latest version of
>>> the complete perlfaq is
athttp://faq.perl.org.
>>>
> ...
>
>> Honestly, what is the point of posting this?
>
> Advertising the FAQ list.
>
>> It really doesn't help.
>
> These postings work in many ways. First, by making specific FAQ
> entries more visible to inexperienced users. Second, FAQ entries are
> constantly improved using feedback from the group.
>
>> It makes the newsgroup harder to read
>
> No they don't. Certainly, no more than newbies who post without
> reading the documentation.
>
>> and they are never relevant.
>
> Huh? They are answers to Perl FAQ list.
>
>> It's basically spam.
>
> You need to learn what spam means.
>
>> If the person doesn't google the question before
>> posting then they sure as hell aren't going to search the group.
>
> While I pride myself in reading the full FAQ list every time I upgrade
> Perl, I cannot keep it all in my head all the time. These postings
> have time and again attracted my attention to useful FAQ entries I had
> forgotten. They also serve as an automatic review mechanism meaning
> that the quality of the FAQ list increases as a direct result.
>
> So, clueless newbies are not the only potential beneficiaries of these
> postings.
Agreed wholeheartedly. While I consider myself a moderately experienced
perl geek, I'm far, far away from a true expert. More often than not,
the FAQ postings will trigger something of interest or simply refresh
knowledge that got a little stale. Many a time, I've read the odd FAQ
posting and thought "So *that's* how it's done", simply because it
wasn't important enough in the past to look up, but now makes future
coding easier because of the new knowledge.
