Please send any suggestions or corrections to user_groups@pm.org

General Questions

What is Perl Mongers?

Perl Mongers is a loose association of international Perl User Groups. Individual groups vary a great deal in the details of what they actually do, but in most cases they are groups of Perl users in a particular location who get together periodically to discuss Perl and related topics.

Perl Mongers is also the name of the organisation that oversees and co-ordinates the local groups. It also provides internet services to these groups. Perl Mongers was originally set up as a not-for-profit organisation in the state of New York, but in July 2001 it joined with Yet Another Society.

Is there a Perl Mongers group in my area?

The list of currently established groups is here

How do I start a Perl Mongers group?

Simply find some Perl hackers in your area and ask them if they'd be interested in starting a group.

Experience shows that having a mailing list and a web site help to drum up interest in your new group. Almost certainly you'll already have access to servers to set them up on, but if you need help with that, we will gladly supply both web space and a mailing list.

The only other thing to do is to let us know about your new group so that we can add you to the list of established groups.

Can you provide people to speak at our meetings?

Perl Mongers can't actually provide speakers for you. Who do, however, maintain a list of well-known people from the Perl community who have indicated that they are happy to speak to Perl Monger groups when they are passing through the area.

What support exists for group leaders?

All group leaders are automatically subscribed to the pm_groups mailing list. The #mongers channel on irc.perl.org exists for leaders to discuss anything related to running a group.

Internet Services

What Internet services can Perl Mongers provide?

If your group does not have a local server that you can use to host a mailing list and a web site then we can host it for you on our server. If you want to host your mailing list and web site locally then we can provide a pm.org domain that points to your server.

Why does it sometimes take awhile to get Perl Mongers services set up for my group?

Perl Mongers is an all volunteer organization, and almost all of our system administrators have very demanding commitments outside of Perl Mongers. We do things as quickly as is reasonable considering all of our other commitments. Additionally, there's nothing stopping you from operating your group while you are waiting for your Perl Mongers services.

How do I set up my group's web site on the Perl Monger server?

See below.

How can I administer my mailing list

All lists are run using mailman. Users can access their mailman configuration at http://www.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/>list name<. List admins can access the list administration page at http://www.pm.org/mailman/admin/>list name<.

You use mailman on a Perl web site? Are you a secret Python programmer?

mailman is better than majordomo. Deal with it.

The Perl Mongers logo

Can I make my own camel logo?

The camel used in association with the Perl language is a trademark of O'Reilly & Associates. Thus, you would have to ask them, although we can help you go through that process if you need to. Be warned that this can be a lengthy process and that only the most professionally designed logos are likely to pass muster with O'Reilly. You should seriously consider using the existing Perl Mongers logo which was chosen after almost a year of effort and many trips back to the ad agency.

Can I use the Perl Mongers logo?

Perl Mongers groups can use the logo that appears on this page on their own web page as long as they include the following text somewhere (able to be clearly seen) on the page:

"The use of the camel image in association with the Perl language is a trademark of O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. Used with permission."

Use of the Perl Mongers logo in other media is evaluated on a case by case basis since Perl Mongers is legally liable for its misuse. Our license with O'Reilly & Associates requires us to report misuse of the Camel logo with the Perl Mongers name. Help us not get in trouble.

Can I change the Perl Mongers logo's color, size, and so on?

You can only use the image as you find it. Additionally, you cannot incorporate it into a larger logo or make it look like it is part of a larger graphic. If you have other needs, we might be able to work something out. We will, however, be less willing to work out special situations if we have to ask you to remove an improperly used logo before you ask us. We are legally liable for misuse of the logo.

Who created the logo?

Smith & Jones Advertising and Marketing developed the corporate image and handles all of Perl Mongers logo placement needs. The camel image is used with the permission of O'Reilly & Associates.

Perl Mongers Group Hosting Service

What Services are Offered?

  - Basic Web Hosting (via WebDAV)
  - Group Mailing Lists (MailMan) 
  - .pm.org DNS

What Services are not offered?

  - Dynamic Web Hosting (cgi-scripts, mason, tt)
  - Shell Access
  - FTP

Why don't you offer service X?

Probably for security reasons.

Do I have to host my PM group website on your server?

No. We're happy to point yourgroup.pm.org DNS anywhere you want.

Who do I contact for help?

Send an email to support(at)pm(dot)org

Maintaining my groups website

How do I upload files?

Access is only supported through WebDAV (http://www.webdav.org).

Recent versions of Windows and Mac OS X have DAV clients built in. Many Linux desktop tools do as well.

For a simple UNIX command line client, try cadaver. (http://www.webdav.org/cadaver.)

Where do I get a username/password?

Go to http://svn.perl.org/ and sign up for a username. You must notify support(at)pm(dot)org so they can associate that username with your pm group.

What if I forget my password?

http://svn.perl.org/ tells you how to reset your password.

Where do I upload files?

https://groups.pm.org/groups/yourgroup/

You must use the 'real' name of your group, not one of its aliases. (i.e. philadelphia, not philly or phl)

What is my group website?

yourgroup.pm.org

How do I use cadaver?

Cadaver works just like most command line FTP clients.

 $ cadaver https://groups.pm.org/groups/yourgroup
 Authentication required for perl.org on server `groups.pm.org':
 Username: yourusername
 Password: yourpassword
 dav:/groups/yourgroup/>

Important commands: get put ls

Why can't I use a FTP client?

Because DAV integrates better with our Authentication and Access Control system. Also, DAV runs over SSL (https) so passwords (and data) are encrypted in transit.

WebDAV on Windows

On 2007-06-24 Doug of OC.pm wrote:

  IE7 must be different...I used this as a guide:
     http://www.hss.caltech.edu/help/web/webdav/accessing/windowsxp

  Basically you go to Start->My Network Places->Add a Network,
  plug in your group web access URL
     https://groups.pm.org/groups/yourgroup
  and it creates a directory where you can just copy/paste files.

Older (obsolete?) instructions:

Using Internet Explorer, click File -> Open and enter 'https://groups.pm.org/groups/yourgroup'. Check the box labelled ``Open as web folder'' and hit Ok. Accept the site certificate and when prompted, enter the username and password that you have had associated with yourgroup. In the resulting folder view you may delete, rename, move, or copy files and drag new files there to upload.

And for those who want to mount it as a disk under Windows, this little tool is very handfull (and free) http://support.novell.com/servlet/filedownload/uns/pub/ndrv41862.exe

I use it because the webdav client of Dreamweaver doesn't seems to like webdav with SSL, but not sure.

WebDAV on Mac OS X

Under Finder, choose Go, then Connect to Server. Under server address, enter:

  https://groups.pm.org/groups/yourgroup

That's it. You now have access to our server via WebDAV just like any other network drive.

(This works great on OS X version 10.4.5. Back on 10.3 I had to use cadaver because WebDAV over https didn't work. I don't know at what exact version they got https working.)

Is there a quota?

There is no hard limit, but we are monitoring disk usage carefully. If a group uses an inappropriate amount of disk space, they will be removed from the server.

What can I upload?

Things related to your perl monger group.

On the old server my site used Mason or Template Toolkit

Sorry, you can't do this anymore, it's a security risk we're not willing to take.

On the old server I had a wiki running

There is no standardized wiki service at this time.

Why don't you have a real SSL certificate?

Because we're cheapskates.

Go here: http://ca.develooper.com/install.html to get the Develooper Root certificate.

DNS

Why would I want to change the DNS for my group?

Because you want to host your group's web server on a server you control. We're happy to point yourgroup.pm.org DNS to your server(s).

Will you delegate NS for my group?

No, sorry. Recent security exploits have convinced us not to delegate DNS offsite.

Will you point MX records to my SMTP server?

We will only do this for established groups. After you've had a few meetings, send us your hostname(s) to which you would like yourgroup.pm.org MX to be directed. (MX records work on hostnames, not IP addresses.)

Email Forwarding

Can you forward email sent to groupname@pm.org? (e.g. omaha@pm.org)

Yes, if you explicitly ask for that. Send a request to support(at)pm(dot)org, specifing the address you would like us to forward to. You must be the group admin for that group.

Can you forward email sent to username@pm.org? (e.g. jay_hannah@pm.org)

No, we don't do this. It's proven to be too much maintenance. Sorry.

Group Mailing Lists

If you like, we'll host a MailMan mailing list for your group. You'll administer your list via the web interface (http://www.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/groupname) and/or by emailing commands to the MailMan server.

Also, as a group leader, you'll be added to a mailing list of your fellow administrators from around the world. It's a low-volume announcement-centric list.

How do I request a new group or to reactivate a group that has been inactive?

99% of the time your group name will be the name of the city in which your meetings will typically be held. So, since I live in Omaha my group name is Omaha.pm.

Send an email to support(at)pm(dot)org. The subject should be ``Omaha.pm - new group request'' or similar. Your email needs to include all of the following:

  Group leader name
  Group leader email address
  Group leader svn.perl.org username
  City
  State/Province
  Region (if applicable)
  Continent
  Country
  Latitude   (in decimal format like "41.224853")
  Longitude  (in decimal format like "-96.122798")
  ... and the answers to the 2 questions below.

(1) Do you want us to host a website for you or are you going to host your own website?

If you want us to host it make sure you've read the parts of this FAQ that explain WebDAV. That's the only way you're going to be able to manage your site content. Plus, you'll have no CGI access, etc.

If you want to host your own we'll need the IP address we should point YourGroup.pm.org to, so please provide that.

(2) Do you want us to host a MailMan mailing list for you?

Just indicate yes or no.

Once you've sent that email you should get a reply back from RequestTracker, the ticketing system we use. A volunteer administrator should be in touch in a week or so.

Who pays for Perl Mongers services?

Our sponsors: http://www.perl.org/siteinfo.html#sponsors

Can I help?

Sure!

Send money to the Perl Foundation (http://www.perlfoundation.org/), or send us hard drives and stuff on wishlist (http://www.perl.org/wishlist.html)

Buy things from our sponsors!

And put the following ad rotation HTML on your group website:

   <script language="JavaScript" src="http://www.perl.org/misc/site-sponsor-js.html"></script>

The output width is fixed at 180, but the height is variable. If you want to personalize the text message, you can add '?notext=1' to the src string.

You can probably see that ad rotation in action at the Omaha Perl Mongers website: http://omaha.pm.org

About this Document

There is a small band of volunteers known as Perl Monger administrators who maintain all the services we offer. This document started in January 2005 when we moved the server (again) and has been hacked and slashed up by various admins since (or not).

It officially lives here: http://www.pm.org/faq/

Questions/comments to the Perl Mongers admins: support(at)pm(dot)org

Copyright © 2010 The Perl Foundation.
The Perl camel image is a trademark of O'Reilly Media, Inc. Used with permission.