There are likely slides already up somewhere.
]]>What I like about the Perl community is, I don't think we even have (m)any Brogrammers. Perl is not Rails and YAPCs are not JSConf. There is relatively little drama in Perl and maybe that has a bit to do with the average age being a bit higher and people just having already been there, done that, let's code.
The point is, the community makes a decision, and it's maybe very simple.
You either decide you want as many members as possible: people who feel comfortable in the community and can take part in its topics without reservation;
or you decide you want certain kinds of members, members with whom you can be yourself, be funny, be relaxed, if you fit within that group's ideals. A more restricted group.
Assuming Perl is striving for the former, then this is the guideline: if someone says they're offended by something, or creeped out by it, or simply uncomfortable with it, and you agree to goal #1 (as many members as possible who feel comfortable), then you recognise their feelings, apologise for doing what made them feel that way, and sincerely state you're now aware of the issue/topic and will not do/say something similar in the future. You don't have to say you see why it's creepy or not funny: maybe you honestly don't. Doesn't matter. You simply have to believe the other person when they say it's creepy to them, and keep it away from them. This is at the very least, polite.
For me personally, this is a difficult thing: I want to bristle at people when I think whatever they're on about is mild, or funny, or silly, or unimportant. And it will make me sometimes feel like I'm walking on eggshells and I want to get all indignant and rant, or sigh loudly in a boorish way. And also, I'm often a very oblivious person, so I can easily offend without lifting a finger.
But if I think the community I'm part of is important, and awesome, and I want even more people to join and enjoy it and see how awesome it is and what neat things people in it are doing, then I *WILL* respect the other members publicly, acknowledge their feelings, and agree to hold back things I know will cause them problems, and things which they tell me/others cause problems. Call it self-censorship or whatever, but in a similar vein I don't scratch myself in certain places in public (cause nobody wants to see that), I try to remember to apologise when I belch loudly in polite company, and usually refrain from arguing with Republicans during social occasions, for example. That is, most of us are already doing some self-censoring in some areas of our lives, for (we believe) good reasons, and I think we can do it for the Perl community as well (because we think doing so will make things better, or socially smoother, or whatever).
It's actually not common sense (at least not obvious to everyone), but it is called being polite and inclusive. We want Perl to be inclusive. We want all kinds of different people working with and loving Perl and hanging out with us. It makes Perl better because of the different ideas and perspectives it brings. It makes the community better by growing it and helping it connect to other (and different) communities (something Perl people have been discussing under the topic "marketing" for years now). Some of us (like me) need a dope slap now and then, but we should be able to adjust ourselves appropriately when we get such a dope slap. And be better the next time. Kaizen.
]]>Yahoo bots do look at it, but they don't count as anything towards perceived relevancy.
]]>Matt's Scripts are getting used in new Perl code, from what I see of newbs asking questions in the forum I'm in. Why? I think he comes out on the top still. Also, some newbs who have been directed to that (excellent effort BTW, Mongers) NMS page, point out that Matt's copywrite says the current year, while NMS is 2006. They wonder if Matt's is now up to date?
Too bad I can't trust Google, with their tracking and crap... if I type in Perl tutorials in google, first hit is Perlmonks tutorials link. But I go to Perlmonks. I can't trust that's what newbs see (and, be aware, *neither can we*!). DuckDuckGo will give unfiltered results, but they may be mostly Bing results (not sure, they may tweak for Perl specifically). Leeds is #2 on google though. Once a single decent tut is anywhere, someone adminning that site could (easily?) put a link in that table at the top. And make the rest of the text light grey. Someone still wants to read it, they'll have to ctrl-a it or wget it or turn CSS off... not things I'd expect a newb to bother doing. Text is still there for posterity then.
BTW I have a thread on a web developer forum that can be updated with any better links anyone comes up with, just let me know. Though again I notice if I type in "perl resources sitepoint", the older (deprecated) thread comes out on top. Luckily we added a note "this is obsolete" and a link to the current one, so people hitting the old thread shouldn't have a real problem. Also showing up are decade-old tutorials for CGI etc by the main site. Would be nice if someone could offer to write something newer/Modern Perly for Sitepoint? Like how about an Intro To Dancer? They pay their authors. RubySource for example recently had a Get Started With Sinatra. Why not Perl?
Links to better tuts (when there are any that address the specific topic) could maybe be pushed in answers in places like SO and reddit where I've noticed Perl people getting active (excellent).
Maybe PHP.net is something to emulate. Newbs love it, apparently.
]]>What's nice about A/B testing is, unlike some kinds of "tests" where people (users, customers) are asked what they LIKE, this shows more valuable information: what they DO. Behaviour.
But A/B testing won't tell you why something failed. You try a blue button instead of a red button, and behaviour changes. But why? Was one button harder to read? Harder to find? Did people think it meant something else? Other kinds of user testing compliment A/B testing.
]]>And, hi : )
]]>However, I need to say browser sniffing is generally a very very very bad idea (well, maybe that depends what you're doing with it, I suppose). Browsers lie. About everything. Who they are. What they're running on. And nobody keeps track of the over 100 UA strings out there... if they do, they don't remain updated... which is why Facebook will send Konqueror Desktop browser to their mobile page. Oops, they forgot a browse or two or...
Opera calls itself Internet Explorer and has for a very long time (of course not counting those people who like to set silly names like "Oprah" and "SuperBrowserVersion42"). Opera 10 got hit by older JS-based sniffers by having a 2-digit version number (it became "Opera 1"). Most other browsers let you set whatever you want, and then there are the emulated browsers (like Multiple IEs). Mobiles are no better: sometimes identifying themselves as some mobile version of Browser X, other times making no difference. Or lying about not being a mobile browser in order to give the user the "good" version of the page (to prevent redirects).
Just... be very very careful what you do with this.
Again, karma++ for helping CPAN modules (and then blogging about it... go Perl!).
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