We're getting ready to launch a site now with Ubuntu Server 9.04, Apache2, mod_perl, and perl 5.10. We considered RoR, PHP, and a couple of Python frameworks, any one of which would have been reasonable, but I'm reasonably satisfied with this choice. I like the way you can access almost all of the Apache internals with mod_perl. RubyForge is gaining on CPAN but it's still got a ways to go, at least for variety.
Let me tell you something about Perl ... have you tried the Dancer module ? <a href="http://dancer.sukria.net/" rel="nofollow">http://dancer.sukria.net/</a> I like it very very very much. It seems to be straigh-to-the-point web programming. Use it :)
I know Slashdot used to use it, and I don't see why they'd change. Although they did re-template their site not long ago, I can't imagine they'd give up perl after using it for so long.
i kinda meant who is building new sites in perl? my site's front end is built in rails while the api and xml handling is being done with perl due to the support from CPAN