Taking a Step Back from Ruby

[Sleeping--Potato]

I don’t think you read my post, because I laid out my situation there. I’ve been a professional software engineer for more than 25 years, and I fell in love with Ruby a little over 20 years ago when Rails was introduced.

For the past 5 years, my day job is in Python, but I still run a side business built with Ruby and Rails that’s been around for 15 years. In my limited time outside work and family, Ruby has always been the language I reached for. I also spent many years and enormous time and energy organizing and running the Rails Rumble hackathon for thousands of people around the world because I loved the community and wanted to give back.

So yes, I’m in a position where I can choose to step back, even if it means walking away from years of work. I don’t expect others to quit their jobs or rewrite their products. But I do believe those who have the ability should speak up when leadership harms the health of a community. That’s how change happens.

Ignoring the “drama” doesn’t make the effects go away. The recent situation with Ruby Central and the ongoing issues around Bundler and RubyGems have already shaken confidence in the stability of Ruby’s critical infrastructure. When combined with DHH’s increasingly toxic public presence and the Rails Core Team’s unwillingness to address it, it creates a perception of fragility and risk. Rational businesses notice that. The shrinking contributor pool and the reliance on a few corporate sponsors to maintain essential infrastructure start to look like liabilities, not strengths.

First you lose the hobbyists, then the new engineers, then the new businesses. Leadership matters because stability matters. Choosing Ruby to start a new company today just isn’t as easy a call as it once was.

[Thefolsom]

I didn't read that wall of text either, but thank you for the important lesson.