Someone asks why their bug reports aren't making it to perl5-porters. Investigation reveals that nobody's bug reports are making it to perl5- porters. Suddenly a hundred and fifty bug reports flood into perl5-porters. They are ignored, and discussion peters out. Sarathy posts a patch to fix a bug that most people didn't know existed.
Someone proposes a fix for a long-standing bug.
Tom cites a four-year old article of Larry's proposing a different fix. The original person asks why it would be done that way. Larry replies enigmatically, giving you the impression that it was just the first solution that came to him. Discussion peters out. Sarathy posts a patch to fix a bug that most people didn't know existed.