I keep reading how vibrant the Ruby community is but I’m finding it.
Where’s it at? Or, what happened to it, if it’s gone?
Thanks,
Kent
Kent Brede wrote in post #1161560:
I keep reading how vibrant the Ruby community is but I’m finding it.
Where’s it at? Or, what happened to it, if it’s gone?
You should first ask those who tell you about it, if their descriptions
are not clear or rise questions. “We are vibrant” is not one of the
often repeated formulas in this forum.
Well the first paragraph on the ruby-lang community page states, “Ruby
has a vibrant and growing community…” 
https://www.ruby-lang.org/en/community/
I like Ruby. The “community” is often sited as one of the best parts of
Ruby. This forum is where Google leads me for “Ruby community.” The
mailing list and forum are suppose to be synced but they appear not to
be. The post count seems real low.
I’m not complaining, I’d just like to know if I’m in the right spot, but
there’s currently a lull in the storm. Or maybe mailing lists and
forums are not the place Rubyists are hanging out now… If that’s
the case, where?
Thanks,
Kent
Ruby has been around for a while, I think that at the beginning, there
were people who liked both the language and rails, but perhaps folks
moved on to other newer and better things. I have dropped out so I don’t
know where the spark is right now in terms of languages.
I keep reading how vibrant the Ruby community is but I’m finding
it.
Well the first paragraph on the ruby-lang community page states,
“Ruby has a vibrant and growing community…”
Wait a moment - you cite as source a webpage that was written by
a single person?
Aside from that I have never seen anyone else use the word “vibrant”
to define the (a?) Ruby community.
Anyway, to answer your question - there is not really “one” Ruby
community. It is fragmented. The biggest two are the “ruby rails
community” - as in people who use ruby mostly because of rails.
And then there are other people like me, who use ruby because it
is beautiful and effective. It is the better perl for most ways.
Now, I am not sure if this information helps you, but basically
I think a lot of attention has been taken away from old mailing
lists by new mediums such as stackoverflow.
There is still IRC activity however - the #ruby channel on
freenode has “899 total” right now. There are also about 350
on #ruby-lang (that is also a fragmentation hehe), and of course
there is #rubyonrails as well. I am no longer in #ruby-lang due
to the requirement to be registered - on #ruby it is free chat
for all.
Then there are many who never use IRC too. You can find some of
them very active on github.
Then there are local meetups but I have no experience there (I
am however not a programmer - I just use ruby mostly because
its philosophy is better than that of python).
Where’s it at? Or, what happened to it, if it’s gone?
A lot of the mailing list traffic dwindled down when rails
came up. There was a lot of noise. Then stackoverflow also
got popular - with their karma-reward system, they really
encourage people to provide (often) high quality answers,
at least to the more simple questions.
That is a level of competition that has never existed on this
mailing list.
I should however also note that I am using this mailing list
only through the webforum interface - I never learned how to
manage 100 mail per day, so I always opted out of ALL mailing
lists.
I like Ruby. The “community” is often sited as one of the best parts of
Ruby.
Who is telling you this?
I like Ruby because it has an excellent design and is very elegant.
I never used Ruby because a community is so super-awesome or not.
I am impartial to it. Actually, as detailed above, there is not
“one community”. I have absolutely no idea about the whole rails
ecosystem + community.
This forum is where Google leads me for “Ruby community.”
Google can give you a lot of shitty results. 
The forum is however quite useful - I have recieved a lot of
helpful hints over the various years.
I do admit that I am using IRC and stackoverflow much more often
though these days. That was different 5 years ago or so (though
on IRC, I am always idling to power).
The mailing list and forum are suppose to be synced but they
appear not to be. The post count seems real low.
Well, I have no idea - I don’t use a mailing list, I would not
use it as a mailing list either. I think you have to ask old
folks like drbrain and chris2 and a few others about the impact
of rails + stackoverflow to really find out what is going on.
Both are on #ruby-lang btw and not on #ruby
I’m not complaining, I’d just like to know if I’m in the right
spot, but there’s currently a lull in the storm.
Eh - you need to be careful. You start the discussion by using
words such as “vibrant”. That sounds like marketing speak or
at least it rings my alarm bells. I did not write that webpage!
Additionally, it simply does not provide to you an accurate
picture, because there is not “one community” - there is
fragmentation. There are groups of communities. I am sure
the japanese community handles things completely different
than other communities. I mean they have the home advantage
here, matz is japanese. Imagine user groups on the other
side of the planet!
Or maybe mailing lists and forums are not the place Rubyists
are hanging out now… If that’s the case, where?
No idea about others but I don’t like mailing lists.
Forums I tend to use sometimes but for me it is IRC and
stackoverflow.
Matz also used to use IRC many years ago, I think, but it
took too much time away if I understood him correctly so
he stopped that again.
Robert H. wrote in post #1161642:
I keep reading how vibrant the Ruby community is but I’m finding
it.Well the first paragraph on the ruby-lang community page states,
“Ruby has a vibrant and growing community…”Wait a moment - you cite as source a webpage that was written by
a single person?Aside from that I have never seen anyone else use the word “vibrant”
to define the (a?) Ruby community.
Thanks for the thoughtful post. I didn’t know the word “vibrant” was
going to be a trigger word for people. Maybe “active” would have been
better…
Yes I’ve seen the word “vibrant” attached to the Ruby community in many
places. As well as “friendly,” “helpful” and “active.”
If you google “ruby programming “vibrant community”” you’ll see what I
mean.
Anyway, to answer your question - there is not really “one” Ruby
community. It is fragmented. The biggest two are the “ruby rails
community” - as in people who use ruby mostly because of rails.And then there are other people like me, who use ruby because it
is beautiful and effective. It is the better perl for most ways.Now, I am not sure if this information helps you, but basically
I think a lot of attention has been taken away from old mailing
lists by new mediums such as stackoverflow.There is still IRC activity however - the #ruby channel on
freenode has “899 total” right now. There are also about 350
on #ruby-lang (that is also a fragmentation hehe), and of course
there is #rubyonrails as well. I am no longer in #ruby-lang due
to the requirement to be registered - on #ruby it is free chat
for all.Then there are many who never use IRC too. You can find some of
them very active on github.Then there are local meetups but I have no experience there (I
am however not a programmer - I just use ruby mostly because
its philosophy is better than that of python).Where’s it at? Or, what happened to it, if it’s gone?
A lot of the mailing list traffic dwindled down when rails
came up. There was a lot of noise. Then stackoverflow also
got popular - with their karma-reward system, they really
encourage people to provide (often) high quality answers,
at least to the more simple questions.That is a level of competition that has never existed on this
mailing list.I should however also note that I am using this mailing list
only through the webforum interface - I never learned how to
manage 100 mail per day, so I always opted out of ALL mailing
lists.
OK, thanks for the pointers on where to look. Perhaps mailing lists and
forums are dying as a communication medium.
Thanks,
Kent
Kent Brede wrote in post #1161650:
Perhaps mailing lists and
forums are dying as a communication medium.
That would be wonderful. We could revive them as we please, like Usenet
has become useful again, with less people, less traffic, less fuss.
“I Love Mailing-Lists - (echo: Love Mailing-Lists)”