Fragmented
I already said this elsewhere, but writing this week's Skill Issue is exceptionally difficult. I have some very particular feelings about what's happening with Ruby Central. I'm simultaneously aware that expressing those feelings (in this newsletter or elsewhere) is probably not helpful.
There's a certain tension between what I'm thinking and what I think I should say. I hope you'll all consider that while reading this.
I'm also not going to keep discussing this topic week after week. Expect a return to my usual content next week.
Resolving conflicts...
A lot has happened since I wrote about this last Friday. Most notably, and in no particular order:
- Freedom Dumlao published his perspective on the controversy.
- Joel Drapper wrote an article attempting to summarize this situation.
- James Smith created an open letter calling for (among other things) a hard fork.
- André Arko announced that he's registered the trademark for "Bundler" and intends to prevent Ruby Central from using the name.
- Josef Šimánek, who as worked on Rubygems since 2013, announced that he was leaving Ruby Central.
- Various people https://victorwynne.com/dhh/ expressed their thoughts on the whole situation.
- While it's not really relevant to the controversy itself, we also saw some nice responses to the stuff DHH was posting on his blog. Here's one that I liked.
Very little (if anything) has been resolved. No surprise there. Ruby Central presumably can't roll the changes back without losing a critical source of funding. Following through on their plan to sort out the governance and access for the Rubygems project will take time even if everyone cooperates. And that's a big if.
Please Stop Posting
Over on X, DHH has been riling up his supporters. Capitalizing on the sentiment in the wake of the assassination of Charlie Kirk, he equated being called a "Nazi" with calls for violence. It's all very silly given that the loudest and most extreme voices in this conversation just want him out of a position of power in the community or the Rails project. He's the only one talking about violence.
Today, his supporters are tweeting "I'm on team DHH", exacerbating the factionalism. Leaning into his cult of personality, he's offering "forgiveness for those who repent". It's all very childish coming from someone in a leadership position, but his audience seems to be eating it up.
I'm sympathetic to Johan Halse's view. He called on DHH to stop posting inflammatory right-wing nonsense in an effort to restore some kind of equilibrium to the Rails community. Sadly, I don't see that happening.
Shifting Earth
I've heard this advice repeated from a few different sources: if you don't make money by posting publicly on the Internet, you shouldn't. I can't blame anyone (regardless of politics) for not wanting to engage online in this environment. There's so little to be gained.
Unfortunately, David is right about one thing: there has been a culture shift in the America and elsewhere. Progressive calls for action have lost their weight. Honestly, public outcries in general have lost their weight; things that would have had politicians resigning in disgrace in 2005 don't even warrant an apology in 2025. It's all one trend.
I commend those being vocal about David's more repugnant views. Good on you, but we need to face the reality that folks like David and Tobi wield an incredible amount of power in the Rails ecosystem. They can't be pushed out by mere posting. Creating more diverse and equitable spaces in the Ruby world will take real work.
Constellations
I don't have a lot to add the Ruby Central/Rubygems conversation specifically. It's clear Shopify holds more sway than many would like over Ruby Central. Ruby Central failed to collaborate with the maintainers of Rubygems and created a governance/maintenance crisis. It remains to be seen how they'll handle putting the pieces back together, especially after some key departures1.
While we watch that play out, we need to put our weight behind folks who share our values. There are plenty of awesome humans doing great work to create communities around the Ruby language.
Tim Riley has been working to foster a safe and diverse community around the Hanami project. Their recent adoption of the new version of the Contributor Covenant is evidence of that effort.
Hanami isn't the only Rails alternative, either. Tim's vision for a more diverse Ruby web ecosystem has Hanami as just one star in a constellation of alternative Ruby web frameworks. Dave Copeland is building Brut RB. Joel Drapper and friends are working on Yippee. I'm sure there's more. (Send me your favourites.)
“The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of weird new web frameworks.”—Antonio Gramsci, paraphrased
There are great humans putting on Ruby events. Jim Remsik and the folks behind XO Ruby come to mind. Jim is one of the kindest people I've ever met, and it's clear that he cares about creating safe, welcoming events. Check if they have an event year you!
There are other efforts too, like Spinel, the group behind rv. I'm a little skeptical of rv itself, but I could write a whole post about why I think its approach is exciting and worth exploring.
There's no shortage of exciting work being done in the Ruby world outside of David's orbit. We don't need to let his platform and enthusiasm define the whole ecosystem.
Keep Ruby Weird and Welcoming
Anyone who has attended an in-person Ruby event knows that this community it full of kind, empathetic, creative people. Even if a certain portion of the Rails (and Ruby) world doesn't share our values, we can focus on supporting those who are walking the right direction.
We can focus on projects run by maintainers who care about diversity, equity and inclusion. We can make sure our events highlight diverse voices. We can build communities that are welcoming and safe. We can support our friends in these efforts. We can be better.
So let's not get too bogged down that the three-letter guy has terrible opinions. He always has, and it's probably only going to get worse from here. We've got important work to do.
Normally, I'd write something about the latest episode of Dead Code here, but I'm running out of steam today. Just go listen to it! It's an interview with (former Rails Core member) Kasper Timm Hansen. We did not talk about anything to do with the drama.
Ever wanted your browser tabs to be in a spiral? Do you want them in a spiral now that I've mentioned it? Then you should check this out.
Let's keep the music recommendation angry again this week. I had Motherless' debut album Do You Feel Safe? on playing on loop while I wrote this week's Skill Issue. Pummelling guitar riffs, infectious energy, all condensed into a blackened sludge package reminiscent of bands like Thou. (I love Thou.) It good.
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Mike McQuaid (of Homebrew fame) put together some neat stats regarding the Rubygems contributors/maintainers. ↩