After encountering CodeNewbie at OSCON 2016 I've been thinking a lot about why there are so few new developers interested in Perl. I haven't been a Perl beginner for a very long time so I went looking for resources and found FAQ for the beginners mailing list. I wanted to know how active the mailing list was so I immediately went to the web achive. Reading through the list I saw things like:

"Is there a reason why you think one CPU is better than another?"

"your code exhibits many bad elements, and you don't seem to apply all the advice I've been giving you. Please go over http://perl-begin.org/tutorials/bad-elements/ , read it and internalise it."

Condescending, abusive advice is worse than no advice at all. There's no way I'd send a beginner into that. Nobody should have to learn like that. Seeing it ruined my afternoon. Maybe I should have read more of the FAQ:

"Who owns this list? Who do I complain to?"

This is a FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION?

"Think Before Posting!"

This isn't even a question but the "answer":

"Please always think before you write; when you write you are taking the time of over a thousand people."

is telling.

So come on in newbies. You're stupid. You fill us with contempt. Get ready to complain. And most of all, don't waste our precious time.

Interesting Twitter Searches:

• #womenwhocode #javascript - Uncountable Entries
• #womenwhocode #python - Uncountable Entries
• #womenwhocode #perl - NO ENTRIES

Ok, how about these:

• #codenewbie #javascript - Uncountable Entries
• #codenewbie #python - Uncountable Entries
• #codenewbie #perl - 2 Entries

Are we a support group for disenfranchised Perl developers or advocacy group for all developers? If we want people to join our community then we need to reach out and do some good in theirs.