Enlarge / One of the Perl programming language’s best-loved nicknames is “the Swiss Army chainsaw.” The nickname also seems unfortunately applicable to Perl’s recent community discourse. (credit: Coffeatus via Getty Images)
The Perl community is in a shambles due to disputes concerning its (nonexistent) Code of Conduct, its (inconsistent) enforcement of community standards, and an inability to agree on what constitutes toxicity or a proper response to it.
At least five extremely senior Perl community members have resigned from their positions and/or withdrew from working on Perl itself so far in 2021:
Community Affairs Team (CAT) chair Samantha McVey
The Perl Foundation (TPF) Board of Directors member Curtis Poe (author of Beginning Perl and Perl Hacks)
TPF Grant Committee member Elizabeth Mattijsen
TPF Perl Steering Committee member, key Perl Core developer, and former pumpking Sawyer X
Perl developer and SUSE engineer Sebastian Riedel
It’s difficult to impossible to pin down the current infighting to a single core incident. With that said, the rash of resignations revolves entirely around problems with unprofessional conduct—and in most cases, a focus on interminable yak-shaving that does little or nothing to address the actual problems at hand.