[Epo-marketing] Why Perl Isn't Going Away Soon (Or Ever) - and the responses

[Mark Keating]

On 12 May 2010, at 07:16, Gabor Szabo wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> What do you think about the article of Jeff Hobbs even on Ostatic
> and the responses to it in the various places?

i thought the article was okay, it was nice that the message about Perl5 and Perl6 being members of the same language developing simultaneously got across.
> 
> http://ostatic.com/blog/guest-post-why-perl-isnt-going-away-soon-or-ever
> http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/c2igz/why_perl_isnt_going_away_soon_or_ever/
> http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1337668
> http://www.osnews.com/story/23279/Why_Perl_Isn_t_Going_Away_Soon_Or_Ever_

Yeah a lot of the usual trolling and negative comments from people who don't like Perl and never will. A lot of this is all about being able to lead a horse to water when in fact it is better to shoot it in the head.
> 
> Was there a problem with the article that it generated so many
> negative comments?

Nothing. This is the internet and developers, there will always be negativity, write any article supporting anything and you will get the same. it is just that converts to or major lovers of one language will always be vociferous in slamming another, they seem to think it makes their position more tenable if they try to erode yours. it is cheap, easy and pointless.

> Is this just the nature of some people to bash Perl no matter what is
> written about it or can there be different types of articles that
> would not generate so many negative comments?

Any article would generate a negative comment as people love to espouse an opinion. An article that doesn't garner opposition must be so watered down as to be almost irrelevant.

> Is there maybe value in those negative comments?

Yes. it shows us what sorts of arguments we need to counter with marketing and promotion, it shows us what positions are still held, wrongly or rightly. Also, it shows just how ill-conceived and badly informed some of them are.

> 
> Do we want to or need to somehow counter attack the problem?

If we counter-attack we escalate. Do we really have to keep washing other peoples dirty laundry in public? My feeling is we fight negativity with more positive press. We will not change everyone's minds, but that's not a concern. If we can change some people with reasoned argument, and by lack of aggression show that the opposing opinions are the rantings of ill-informed fools we win more than the cheap gain of telling them they are morons. Let them show their own idiocy. My feeling on those comments is that a lot of the negativity was poorly informed FUD. The interesting comments that were thought out seemed to be countered by reasoned Perl-supporting comments which is an indication that we are moving away from the whole stupid Perl is Alive/Perl is Dead motifs that are now consigned to history IMHO.

> 
> What are we doing about it?

I think a lot of people are trying to do things about it, not least yourself with your efforts to get into other conferences, but we should try to ramp up the more positive aspects of Perl and talk about how it solves problems.

> 
> Do we have a strategy?

A cohesive strategy? One that everyone agrees with? One that pulls all the varying natures of the community into one glorious hole? No. But people are doing things to develop the community.

> 
> BTW What happened to the series of articles in The Register?

It is stunningly hard to get people into committing to write articles and I would appreciate any help in jollying people into writing them and helping/supporting that effort. I have already said I will help with working out a article style/getting them to editors etc., but we need quite a few people devoted to actually writing the pieces. This is not an easy thing to ask or get people to do.

But if we could start by getting articles written on how Perl solves particular problems or guides to good modern/enlightened Perl projects and libraries that would be a start.

> 
> regards
>  Gabor

Regards

Mark

> 
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Mark Keating BA (Hons)          |  Writer, Photographer, Cat-Herder
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