PERLCOMMUNITY(1perl)

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version 5.44.0 · 2 versions
, in arch rolling

💖 PERLCOMMUNITY 💖

okay so bestie, this is perlcommunity from the Perl Programmers Reference Guide, sitting pretty in section 1perl. it's your lil' map to the whole entire Perl community and honestly it's giving ✨welcome wagon✨

🌸 NAME 🌸

perlcommunity — a brief lil' overview of the Perl community 🫶

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

okay so this document? it's trying to give you the vibe of the vast Perl community — and babes, it is far too large and diverse for anyone to give you a detailed listing. if some specific niche got left out, pls don't take it as an insult 🥺 it's literally just an omission for the sake of brevity, no cap.

the Perl community is as diverse as Perl itself, and there is a large amount of evidence that Perl users apply TMTOWTDI to all endeavors, not just programming. websites, IRC, mailing lists — the way that there is more than one way to get involved in the community. iconic behavior honestly 💅

🗺️ Where to Find the Community

there's a central directory for the Perl community: <https://perl.org> — maintained by the Perl Foundation (<https://www.perlfoundation.org/>), which tracks and provides services for a whole variety of other community sites. she's the main character fr fr 👑

🌈 Raku

Perl's sister language, Raku (formerly known as Perl 6), maintains its own directory of community resources at <https://raku.org/community/>. sibling energy, we love to see it 🦋

📧 Mailing Lists and Newsgroups

Perl runs on e-mail. there is no doubt about it. the Camel book was originally written mostly over e-mail, and today Perl's development is co-ordinated through mailing lists. the largest repository of Perl mailing lists lives at <https://lists.perl.org> 💌

most Perl-related projects set up mailing lists for both users and contributors. if you don't see a certain project listed at <https://lists.perl.org>, go check the particular website for that project. and most mailing lists are archived at <https://www.nntp.perl.org/> 📚

💬 IRC

the Perl community has a rather large IRC presence. for starters, it has its own IRC network: <irc://irc.perl.org>. general (not help-oriented) chat can be found at <irc://irc.perl.org/#perl> 💬 many other more specific chats are also hosted on the network. info about irc.perl.org lives on the network's website: <https://www.irc.perl.org>.

for a more help-oriented #perl, check out <irc://irc.libera.chat/#perl> (webchat <https://web.libera.chat/#perl>). most Perl-related channels will be kind enough to point you in the right direction if you ask nicely 🥰 (asking nicely is the whole vibe check, iykyk)

any large IRC network (Dalnet, EFnet) is also likely to have a #perl channel, with varying activity levels 👀

🌐 Websites

Perl websites come in a variety of forms, but they fit into two large categories: forums and news websites. there are so many Perl-related websites, so only a few of the community's largest get a shoutout here.

📰 News sites

  • <https://perl.com/> — originally run by O'Reilly Media (the publisher of the Camel Book), this site provides quality articles mostly about technical details of Perl 🔥
  • <https://blogs.perl.org/> — many members of the community have a Perl-related blog on this site. if you'd like to join them, you can sign up for free 🎀
  • <https://perl.theplanetarium.org/> — Planet Perl is one of several aggregators of Perl-related blog feeds 🌌
  • <https://perlweekly.com/> — Perl Weekly is a weekly mailing list that keeps you up to date on conferences, releases and notable blog posts 💌

🗣️ Forums

  • <https://www.perlmonks.org/> — PerlMonks is one of the largest Perl forums, and describes itself as "A place for individuals to polish, improve, and showcase their Perl skills." and "A community which allows everyone to grow and learn from each other." 🧘
  • <https://stackoverflow.com/> — Stack Overflow is a free question-and-answer site for programmers. it's not focussed solely on Perl, but it does have an active group of users who do their best to help people with their Perl programming questions 🫶

👯 User Groups

many cities around the world have local Perl Mongers chapters. a Perl Mongers chapter is a local user group which typically:

  • holds regular in-person meetings, both social and technical
  • helps organize local conferences, workshops, and hackathons
  • provides a mailing list or other continual contact method for its members to keep in touch

to find your local Perl Mongers (or PM as they're commonly abbreviated) group, check the international Perl Mongers directory at <https://www.pm.org/> 🗺️

🛠️ Workshops

Perl workshops are, as the name might suggest, workshops where Perl is taught in a variety of ways. at the workshops, subjects range from a beginner's introduction (such as the Pittsburgh Perl Workshop's "Zero To Perl") to much more advanced subjects 📈

there are a couple of great resources for locating workshops: the websites mentioned above, and the YAPC Europe website, <http://www.yapceurope.org/>, which is probably the best resource for European Perl events 🇪🇺

💻 Hackathons

Hackathons are a very different kind of gathering — where Perl hackers gather to do just that: hack nonstop for an extended (several day) period on a specific project or projects 😤 information about hackathons can be located in the same place as information about workshops, as well as in <irc://irc.perl.org/#perl>.

if you have never been to a hackathon, here are a few basic things you need to know before attending, bestie:

  • have a working laptop and know how to use it
  • check out the involved projects beforehand
  • have the necessary version control client
  • bring backup equipment (an extra LAN cable, additional power strips, etc.) — because someone will forget 💀

🎤 Conventions

Perl had two major annual conventions:

  • The Perl Conference (now part of OSCON), put on by O'Reilly
  • Yet Another Perl Conference or YAPC (pronounced yap-see), which is localized into several regional YAPCs (North America, Europe, Asia) in a stunning grassroots display by the Perl community 👑

in 2016, YAPC was rebranded as The Perl Conference again. it is now referred to as The Perl and Raku Conference.

OSCON had been discontinued. 🫡

for more information about either conference, check out their respective web pages:

an additional conference franchise with a large Perl portion was the Open Source Developers Conference or OSDC. first held in Australia, it also spread to Israel and France. more information can be found at: <http://www.osdc.org.il> for Israel, and <http://www.osdc.fr/> for France 🌍

✍️ AUTHOR ✍️

Edgar "Trizor" Bering <trizor@gmail.com> — ty bestie for writing all this down 🫶

aaaand that's the whole thing! this was perl v5.44.0, dated 2026-10-17, filed under PERLCOMMUNITY(1perl). go forth and be social, babe 🌈💖✨

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