This is a very real phenomenon. A somewhat related one is the effect that the Perl 6 disaster has had on the reputation of the Perl community as a whole, even

This is a very real phenomenon. A somewhat related one is the effect that the Perl 6 disaster has had on the reputation of the Perl community as a whole, even if Perl 5 is a very different language embraced by a different segment of the community. Unfortunately, the term "Perl" has become synonymous with terms like "failure", "incompetence" and "wheel-spinning" for a lot of people. This isn't the kind of reputation that proves useful when trying to advocate for the use of Perl 5 in new projects, for example. One will end up spending more time trying to explain that Perl 5 is pretty unrelated to Perl 6 and that its development has continued, rather than spending time explaining how it'll be beneficial to use it.