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Rails Immaturity Model

April 29, 2009 by Rob Bazinet

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Unless you have been living under a rock in the Rails world you have certainly not missed the latest, a presentation at the Golden Gate Ruby Conference a couple weeks ago by Matt Aimonetti titled CouchDB + Ruby: Perform Like a Pr0n Star raised many eye browse.

Although I did not attend this conference it was widely known that Matt?s presentation featured women in thongs to drive some of Matt?s points home.  Since Rails is mainly a male audience, the content didn?t offend the males but for the number of women, it was tasteless.  I won?t try to find my own quotes from women as _why has done a great job already, but for example:

Amy Newell: I understand that the ruby community prides itself on its un- or anti-professionalism. But some professional norms exist for very good reasons: because they make it easier for people of different backgrounds and life experiences to come together and work productively and respectfully. One doesn?t have to be an uptight square to suggest that aggressive displays of sexual content at programming conferences perhaps decrease, rather than increase the ability of those attending to learn and focus on the technology itself. Titillation is certainly good marketing, but frankly, if you can?t find a way to make your presentation interesting that doesn?t include thonged asses, your presentation isn?t interesting. Not everyone responds to tits and ass, but everyone can respond to honest, creative, intelligent command of the material and eagerness to share it.

Denise: Only six women at the conference? it explains everything, off course the majority liked it! [?] the issue is not about censorship and freedom of speech, the issue is about mutual respect, there are no rules or laws for this, only human judgment.

I have to admit when I heard of Matt?s presentation I just had to shake my head and wonder why he thought it was acceptable to use those images in what was supposed to be a respected presentation.  The real issue here was not really Matt?s lack of judgment but the reaction by DHH.

  dhh-pr0n-is-great

He finds this totally acceptable and lauded it.  DHH is the spokesperson for Rails, the poster-child if you will, and I would certainly expect better values from him.  Sure, Rails is supposed to be edgy, but there has to be limits.

I have spent many years doing Microsoft development and still do it today and you would NEVER find such total lack of judgment used by community leaders in the Microsoft camp.  You would never find Scott Hanselman or others using thonged women in their presentations.  It would never be acceptable and would never be expected.

Reddit has some good feedback on the debacle, comment Rails is still a ghetto.   Matt is part of the Rails Activists team and should have had better common sense than he used.  This lapse in judgment lead to the resignation of Mike Gunderloy, long-time .NET and now Rails developer, from the Rails Activist team.

But unfortunately for me, in parallel to the public discussion there have been private ones. I can?t reveal details without breaking confidences, but suffice it to say that a significant number of Rails core contributors – with leadership (if that?s the right word) from DHH – apparently feel that being unwelcoming and ?edgy? is not just acceptable, but laudable. The difference between their opinions and mine is so severe that I cannot in good conscience remain a public spokesman for Rails.

So, effective immediately, I?m resigning my position with the Rails Activists.

This is truly a sad result of this fiasco.  Mike has been a pillar of the Rails community, bringing in years of experience outside of Rails.  I think this sums up the current true state of the Rails community.  There are too many thoughtless, hapless cowboys leading a great community of developers that it is a shame.  There are many folks who are very thoughtful, not the cowboy type and are in this to build a strong, mature community.  These folks are overshadowed by the few with poor values and are too immature to lead.

A very strong business leader and Rails community figure, Obie Fernandez, posted a very good post to the Rails Activist group showing his distaste for the debacle.  His suggestions should only be the beginning:

So as to not complain without offering solutions, here is my list of
what I think should happen (for discussion):

1) Matt should resign from the Rails activist group
2) If Matt does not understand why what he did and subsequent
non-apology was wrong, then we should be kind enough to explain it to
him
3) With all due respect to DHH and notwithstanding his desire for
Rails to remain "edgy" I think he should apologize for implicitly
endorsing Matt’s behavior

These are very good suggestions, will they be followed?  I guess we will see if any maturity exists at the top of the Rails pyramid. 

Technorati Tags: Ruby on Rails,Immaturity,Ghetto

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Comments

  1. Twitted by rbazinet says

    April 29, 2009 at 11:24 am

    RE: Rails Immaturity Model

    Pingback from Twitted by rbazinet

  2. Twitted by rbazinet says

    April 29, 2009 at 11:24 am

    RE: Rails Immaturity Model

    Pingback from Twitted by rbazinet

  3. anonatroll says

    April 30, 2009 at 9:37 am

    If you don’t like those "thoughtless, hapless cowboys" who are "too immature to lead" you should switch to a different framework. Really. Put your code where your mouth is.

  4. anonatroll says

    April 30, 2009 at 9:37 am

    If you don’t like those "thoughtless, hapless cowboys" who are "too immature to lead" you should switch to a different framework. Really. Put your code where your mouth is.

  5. Miamisoftware_guy says

    April 30, 2009 at 10:28 am

    Most interesting in this tempest is that developers and managers have one more issue to relegate Rails to the waste basket.
    Laughably, the article by anonatroll advocates people switching to a different framework. Uh, well, yes, that was, is and will continue to happen.
    Anyway Rob, thanks for taking a mature stand on the issue. It’s very much appreciated.

  6. Miamisoftware_guy says

    April 30, 2009 at 10:28 am

    Most interesting in this tempest is that developers and managers have one more issue to relegate Rails to the waste basket.

    Laughably, the article by anonatroll advocates people switching to a different framework. Uh, well, yes, that was, is and will continue to happen.

    Anyway Rob, thanks for taking a mature stand on the issue. It’s very much appreciated.

  7. Dave says

    April 30, 2009 at 11:16 am

    @anonatroll: Someone doesn’t like what a leader in a framework’s world did so they should switch frameworks? Are you retarded? That’s like saying if someone doesn’t like what their government is doing they should move.

  8. Dave says

    April 30, 2009 at 11:16 am

    @anonatroll: Someone doesn’t like what a leader in a framework’s world did so they should switch frameworks? Are you retarded? That’s like saying if someone doesn’t like what their government is doing they should move.

  9. oLdsk3wL says

    April 30, 2009 at 11:36 am

    OMG I wasted about 30seconds of my life on this crappy-I-just-wanna-get-hits post

  10. oLdsk3wL says

    April 30, 2009 at 11:36 am

    OMG I wasted about 30seconds of my life on this crappy-I-just-wanna-get-hits post

  11. ben says

    April 30, 2009 at 6:43 pm

    waaaa !!!!!
    omg, thongs!!!
    are you kidding?
    Matt is a great guy who helps people in the San Diego rails community at the drop of a hat. Maybe he wanted to present a lively presentation and not bore his audience to death. All I know is he is a good guy. Give him a break.

  12. ben says

    April 30, 2009 at 6:43 pm

    waaaa !!!!!

    omg, thongs!!!

    are you kidding?

    Matt is a great guy who helps people in the San Diego rails community at the drop of a hat. Maybe he wanted to present a lively presentation and not bore his audience to death. All I know is he is a good guy. Give him a break.

  13. Another rails Blog | Rails Imm says

    May 5, 2009 at 10:18 am

    RE: Rails Immaturity Model

    Pingback from Another rails Blog | Rails Immaturity Model : Accidental Technologist

  14. Another rails Blog | Rails Immaturity Model : Accidental Technologist says

    May 5, 2009 at 10:18 am

    RE: Rails Immaturity Model

    Pingback from Another rails Blog | Rails Immaturity Model : Accidental Technologist

  15. ed hardy says

    July 10, 2009 at 11:55 pm

    That’s like saying if someone doesn’t like what their government is doing they should move.EDHardy is a famous ed hardy store which sell directly ed hardy clothing, shoes, boots, swim suit and other cheap ed hardy.

  16. ed hardy says

    July 10, 2009 at 11:55 pm

    That’s like saying if someone doesn’t like what their government is doing they should move.EDHardy is a famous ed hardy store which sell directly ed hardy clothing, shoes, boots, swim suit and other cheap ed hardy.

  17. dofollow social bookmarking says

    August 25, 2009 at 12:28 am

    Thanks for the linke of Golden Gate Ruby Conference. There are several videos of the technical sessions from the conference. It makes me feels like I am almost there.

  18. dofollow social bookmarking says

    August 25, 2009 at 12:28 am

    Thanks for the linke of Golden Gate Ruby Conference. There are several videos of the technical sessions from the conference. It makes me feels like I am almost there.

  19. rapidshare search says

    October 24, 2009 at 7:38 am

    very interesting post.

  20. rapidshare search says

    October 24, 2009 at 7:38 am

    very interesting post.

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