"I’ve found that while I’ve moved on from the Rails scene, the scene has not moved on from me"
The true quality of a community is not just a measure of how forceful or big it is, but how easily it can adapt to change. This quote, plus the fact that the plan for "moving forward" was to pull in another framework wholesale, does not bode well for the Rails community. It by no means indicates that the Rails community is doomed, but it does not bode well.
I'd also like to take this moment to point out that this is yet another indication that the Ruby community != the Rails community. Quite to the contrary, I think you'll find the Ruby community quite flexible and robust when faced with opposition. (Just read some of the recent ruby-talk discussions on 1.8.6 vs. 1.8.7 if you don't believe me...)
"The true quality of a community is ... how easily it can adapt to change."
Very true.
"The fact that the plan for 'moving forward' [is] to pull in another framework wholesale, does not bode well for the Rails community."
Very untrue. In fact, very contradictory to what you first said. The fact that the the Rails community is so willing to adapt to the change that is Merb bodes very well for the community as a whole.
+1 for "the Ruby community != the Rails community." That's a statement worth echoing many times over.
The fact that a guy who's been known to be somewhat of a troll states, anecdotally, that an entire community is still "consumed" by him proves that the community must therefore be in trouble? Don't agree.
Well I think the rails community is adaptable (eg its embrace of merb).
Whilst Zed's rant uncovered the unholy origins of rails sudden "grass roots" popularity - things have changed a lot since then. The community is healthy, you can get things done without a lot of fuss. Its useful.
But yes, ruby != rails, and it will continue on its own path.
From his site's source code, he's using YUI it seems, but there is one gem:
<!-- gotta have one somewhere :-) -->
<table border="0"><tr><td><h1><a href="/">Zed Shaw</a></h1></td>
<td width="100%"><h2>Enjoy the show.</h2></td></tr></table>
He dropped the tough-guy stuff a bit ago, admitted to creating said persona for (more-or-less) the purposes of trolling, and announced that he would be acting a lot more serious in the future.
Seriously doubtful. Zed may have had a website that featured him talking like a pirate, but I think it's pretty well known that he can code like a motherfucker.
just a theory. Even if he couldn't code at all, he speaks VERY well (seen him at a Canadian conference) - that alone is enough to land a job in most pointy-hair-managed companies out there...
"I’ve found that while I’ve moved on from the Rails scene, the scene has not moved on from me. It’s time to do something else with your lives."
I see the, uh, "elevated self-esteem" remains. As a member of the "Rails scene" myself I don't feel particularly stuck on Zed, and I don't get the impression many others are either, if they ever were. Maybe a couple of curmudgeons whose nose he tweaked or something, but on the whole the scene is much too large for any one attention-seeker to disrupt for long.
Note to Zed: Reddit users != "the Rails scene". Anyone who got bent out of shape by your rant != "the Rails scene". The real Rails scene is too busy, you know, working.
Not that I don't like Zed, I do. As our gentle host PG once put it, he "offends the right people", and I respect anyone who gets things done. But his antics have been a drop in the ocean. Zed's work on Mongrel affected the Rails scene far more than his rants ever did, so on balance his influence has actually been pretty positive.
The comments here are interesting. They either breath a sigh of relief and welcome the change in persona with open arms, or they let out a "pfft," uninteresting and wish for the old Zed. Any mediators out there?
They probably don't see that there's anything much to be said until we discover what the new persona actually has to say. If you loved or hated the old one, then you can already guess that the new one is much worse or better, respectively; if not, Insufficient Data For Meaningful Answer.
If that's what you think, then you're not thinking this through. Look, I don't like Zed -- especially the jackass persona he adopted -- and he doesn't like me, either. (I've had a few run-ins with him for various reasons.)
When he's not ranting like in the Rails Rant, or his odious performance "art" (insulting friends of mine when they weren't there to defend themselves) at RubyFringe this summer, Zed's an intelligent guy who deserves a lot of credit for his positive contributions. His essay about statistics is an absolute must-read (and he's right). Zed's essays are worth reading because they are well-considered, even if I disagree with the conclusions therein.
I personally look forward to his non-ranting on-line personality.
"I’ve found that while I’ve moved on from the Rails scene, the scene has not moved on from me"
The true quality of a community is not just a measure of how forceful or big it is, but how easily it can adapt to change. This quote, plus the fact that the plan for "moving forward" was to pull in another framework wholesale, does not bode well for the Rails community. It by no means indicates that the Rails community is doomed, but it does not bode well.
I'd also like to take this moment to point out that this is yet another indication that the Ruby community != the Rails community. Quite to the contrary, I think you'll find the Ruby community quite flexible and robust when faced with opposition. (Just read some of the recent ruby-talk discussions on 1.8.6 vs. 1.8.7 if you don't believe me...)