SPUG:divergence-from-a-divergence [was: lots of thing]

[Michael R. Wolf]

Brian Hatch <spug at ifokr.org> writes:

[...]

> [2] This thread being far diverged from perl, so I'm going
>     to shut up before Tim starts having stick riddle
>     flashbacks.

I agree.  This topic has diverged.  I'll bet that this 
    $topic =~ m/divergence(-from-a-divergence){$nth_degree}/
is real close to burning out all by itself.

I notice that many threads are not *directly* centered on Perl.  I
think the post/no-post decision should take into consideration whether
it's useful to Perl Users as a group.  After all "Perl User" is SPUG's
middle name.  If we got formal, using only first/last name, "Seattle
Group" would be very uninteresting to most of us!!!

The shear volume of discussion on this topic (all within 3 days as
'~damian/bin' morphed to 'alias cd' morphed to 'helpful hints about
my-favorite-*sh') indicates interest, and is therefore, IMO, important
to group members.  

And, I happen to enjoy these side discussions within the group.  I can
read a sterile Perl discussion in comp.lang.perl.* from my ISP, but,
at the risk of being melodramatic, the kind of community that's
generated by these types of discussions is why I settled in the
Northwest in general, and Seattle in particular.

Perl does not exist in a vacuum.  Consider how rich the content of
this list is, and how connected and related we are based on
discussions of some of these not-so-Perl-centric threads

  ~whoever/bin (for various definitions of "whoever")
  book publishers/editors
  XML, YAML
  coding style
  numerous interface problems (shell, Windows, Unix, system(), DB's
     (Oracle...) via DBI, browsers via CGI)
  design practices
  algorithms (sometimes posed as puzzles or quiz of the week)

I think some freedom is important in selection of group content.  I'm
happy with the depth/breadth of the discussion.  And because I know
how to use my 'D' key, I can stop reading a thread when I've had
enough.

I love this group!

Michael Wolf

-- 
Michael R. Wolf
    All mammals learn by playing!
        MichaelRunningWolf at att.net