Mastodawn

I'm still angry and trying to recall the things I love about #Ruby and #RubyOnRails. 20 years ago, when I was pondering Ruby vs. Python, Rails vs. Django, I actually read _why's (Poignant) Guide to Ruby. (1/?)

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Aaron Sumner May 29

I've said it before, any community that'd welcome this weirdo is one I wanna be part of. Bonus: It helped me do my bit to make a better world, and paid my bills!

The day _why was outed broke my heart. And watching DHH and Tobi reveal their true colors recently has been increasingly rough. (2/?)

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Aaron Sumner May 29

I still love Ruby and Rails. I even enjoy the times I still get to code in dilapidated Ruby systems—even in the horrendous codebases built when Rails was the hotness, but people weren't taught how to use it. And I'll keep sharing what I learn along the way. (3/?)

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Aaron Sumner May 29

But I'm really leery of #Ruby or #RubyOnRails thought leaders in 2025 who aren't talking about the DHH and Tobi problems. (4/?)

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Aaron Sumner May 29

I understand that many of you are employed by one or the other. And I get that I'm a D-lister at best these days, so it's easy for me to whine. But still. #RubyFriends can do better. #minaswan (5/fin)

don't get me wrong, but since I joined the #ruby community, 10 years ago, that was the first criticism I've had:

> Matz is nice and so we are nice

Sorry, but no, that's not how it works. If Matz is nice, that's good, but people are not nice by association, #minaswan would be just happenstance.

People like you, Aaron Summer, had a long, slow, constant, solid journey towards being a good person, it's independent of what Matz did, and has their own merits.

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Aaron Sumner May 29

@esparta that's totally fair. I try to use MINASWAN as a reminder to check my own behavior, try to follow Matz's lead, and as a reminder that there are good people putting good things into the world—not always to assume others will respond in kind, but hoping they'll at least think about their actions. Maybe pollyanna-ish.

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PointlessOne

May 30

@ruralocity @esparta I always took it as a reminder. Matz is nice and so we *must be* nice. I thought it was the intended meaning. It just doesn’t give a nice acronym.

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PointlessOne

@ruralocity @esparta I still found it a bit weird that people hung it all on one guy. It’s great that Matz is nice and seem to hold on to that over the years. But what we’re gonna do if after 40 years he suddenly starts drowning kittens? (Purely hypothetically, I don’t think he will) Shouldn’t we have independent standard of behavior that is not vulnerable to one person failing? I mean DHH was far from ideal but also a lot of his issues became known only much later.