# Re: where have all the experienced users gone? **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [December 20, 2006, 7:08pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/re-where-have-all-the-experienced-users-gone/79948 "2006-12-20T19:08:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![phrogz](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/2acd7d/32.png) [@phrogz](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/phrogz)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2006, 7:08pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/re-where-have-all-the-experienced-users-gone/79948/1 "2006-12-20T19:08:13Z")
From: removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid [[mailto:removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)] > is it me, or are others also thinking that a thread complaining about > experienced users evaporating that also aims to reduce newbie > posts might just > succeed in reducing the volume on ruby-talk to zero? At the risk of exacerbating the problem: Ah-frickin-men. I personally don’t think there’s a ‘solution’ to the ‘problem’ that Ruby and the mailing list have become so popular that it’s no longer mostly hard core ruby geeks discussing esoteric idioms and proposing crazy changes to the core language. It’s lamentable for those who were into that sort of thing. The past is the past, however. You (anyone) can start your own cool new elite club and ask only the cool kids to hang out there and hope they come. You can be old-man-on-the-porch and yell at the kids to get off your lawn and complain about how good things were in back in the old days. In my opinion and experience, neither will work. Ruby is getting popular. The startup days are gone, for better or worse. You’ll have to walk among the unwashed masses and hope that others you wish were there will choose to do so. This doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t strive for all manner of signal-to-noise improvement projects. There’s room for better education and simpler, quieter responses. The reality is, however, that there will always be users new to Ruby and/or the Internet. They will cause a ruckus, and no amount of FAQs and RTFMing will eliminate that entirely. /lurk mode back on