No. GrandFather passing me has done that.

:-)

Nope. Of course I wasn't ever a saint, I don't think.

But the level change hasn't altered my posting frequency. I've been posting less recently because I haven't had an opportunity to work in Perl very much. So I haven't had many questions -- and I'm definitely in no position to answer many questions. So I swing by the monsterary every once in a while, but post rarely.

I too answer with no and no.

The reason i was "in" the XP game in the first place was because i was unemployed at that time. I remember posting this image on my homenode at that time to reflect the amount of time i could devote to playing the XP game. As such, i hope i am never in the XP game again, as that would mean i am not employed. :/

L-LL-L--L-LL-L--L-LL-L--
-R--R-RR-R--R-RR-R--R-RR
B--B--B--B--B--B--B--B--
H---H---H---H---H---H---
(the triplet paradiddle with high-hat)

I like that ... 'behated" :)

It doesn't feel like I'm posting any more or less, but I hadn't been around for very long at Perlmonks when the change occurred, so I think I was still "learning the ropes."

From what I can tell, though, it's been mostly a change for the good.  It's fun to have more levels to aspire to (some of which I'm sure will be impossible for me at least, which is as it should be).  And it's been fun trying to catch my friend McDarren, ever since he passed me to get onto the List in the first place.  :-O

But it's also fun to look up to the numerous monks (ikegami and GrandFather, to name just a few) whose knowledge, experience and erudite posts will always be an inspiration to me.

Re^2: New levels and new habits

McDarren

created: 2006-08-11 19:57:08

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prlmnks

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What a wonderful community Perlmonks is :)

I remember the change well. Just like you, I hadn't been around long and was just starting to feel my way. I remember looking at the XP levels soon after I joined and noticing that when you reached a certain level (around about 600XP, I think), you could do stuff like approve and moderate. That looked pretty cool, so that became my first goal. Those first 600XP seemed to take forever - but finally, I made it. Woop!.

So the first thing I did was enable my approval nodelet, and I was ready to go!

Next morning, I logged in and my approval nodelet had disappeared!! #%*!!$# Petruchio and his stinking level playing field (just kidding ;)

Talk about bad timing... sheesh!

But it's all good. Tomorrow I will have been a part of Perlmonks for exactly one year. I've gotten so much from this community in the past year. Help, advice, encouragement and friendship. I feel like I need to stick around for another 20 years now, just to try and give some of that back.

And you, my friend - please keep those obfuscations coming - your wizardry is definitely one of the highlights of Perlmonks!

I am still in the business of taking an hour in the morning and another in the afternoon, reading the Monastery, SoPW and Meditations, mostly. In the morning, I am getting enough coffee into my blood-stream to be coherent (so I bally well don't want to be posting anything then!) and waiting for the rest of the Team to make it in. Then I usually grab some time after work, to let the traffic die down. I have found that the roads around here are much saner and safer after 1830....

In the greater scope of things; PerlMonk SaintHood and a couple bucks will get you a cup of coffee. My Perl skills are average. I know there are people with less XP that are better then me.

I of course have never played the XP game. I never mention my own nodes like Ook interpreter or post purely humorous nodes. All my answers are serious attempts to solve problems others are experiencing with Perl and to help posters achieve a happier life.

Actually, regardless of any component of the XP game I may engage in from time to time, I have gained a huge amount of knowledge at PerlMonks and met a bunch of interesting people. I'm sure that a factor in my sustained interest in PerlMonks is the XP game, but it is more like the barb on the hook than the whole hook, line and sinker.

For the most part, I suspect you're unlikely to get anyone admitting that XP is a major motivation — even in those cases where it is. There are, I'm sure, exceptions, but the cultural social pressure here at PerlMonks tends to dissuade admission of XP relevance to anything.

That aside, I personally wasn't affected by it. I had gone through a period of absence from PerlMonks for a variety of reasons, then returned to discover that everything had changed. I returned to posting without any consideration for those changes in particular, because they didn't happen during a time that I was in a position to notice. The likelihood of it motivating me in some way was greatly reduced in comparison to someone who had already attained the rank of "Saint", in any case, since I had not already reached a glass ceiling of sorts.

I hope the changes induce more of the upper-level Perl Monks to participate more fully in discussion here, as my whole purpose for being here is to learn, and I probably have more to learn on average from them than from others (all else being equal). If not, however, I certainly don't think the changes will demotivate them much in that regard.

My posting frequency is dictated more by my own needs and by the availability of questions I can answer! Otherwise XP is an interesting aside, once, as a new monk it seemed like fun, but now it doesnt really matter at all. The only observation I have to make is that those with more XP tend to be more active, but if they weren't they wouldn't have the XP would they.

jdtoronto