I'm in full agreement here. I'd rather everyone get together in one 
place for a mixed discussion. That almost invariably leads to better 
discussions / learning.

I'm going to keep the 2nd group open to see what interest there is, but 
as far as meetings go, I'll try to get everyone to just come the 
ruby-nyc meetings. No reason to fork the rails discussions off if it's 
not obtrusive.

Matt

Francis Hwang wrote:
> Hey all,
> 
> ( First off, if you don't know, the Ruby-NYC group can be found at 
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ruby-nyc/ . )
> 
> I guess the general policy when it comes to topicality in Ruby-NYC is 
> that we want to talk about whatever Rubyists are interested in, in 
> sensible proportions so as not to bore anybody too much. I don't mind if 
> the group ends up having particular obsessions. Last year, a lot of our 
> meetings kept drifting back to Topic Maps, del.icio.us, and the 
> philosophy of classifications (I am looking at you, Rob). Rails is a 
> perfectly good obsession, too.
> 
> That said, I don't think I'd want to devote a set portion of each 
> meeting to *any* topic in particular, whether that's Rails or Topic Maps 
> or electoral politics (we talk that sometimes, too). But here are a few 
> ways in which the Ruby-NYC group might be of interest specifically for 
> Railsers:
> 
> - I am always looking for people to do quick, informal presentations on 
> a subject they have some experience with, and you don't have to be an 
> expert to give a presentation. If Rails fans want to do presentations 
> about Rails in general or specific aspects of it, I am very open to that.
> - Meetings tend to be about 1/3 informal presentation and 2/3 chatting 
> about whatever, so if you come with 3 other Rails fans then you'll 
> probably end up talking about Rails quite a bit if that's what you want.
> 
> I'm also interested in some good cross-pollination; I think everybody 
> has a lot they can learn from everyone else. But I wouldn't want 
> Ruby-NYC to be heavily focused on any particular application or library 
> or framework. So, I guess the answer is, if Rails users would find that 
> interesting, then you should come. If you want to be exclusively focused 
> on Rails, then I certainly won't be offended if you decide to have a 
> Rails-only group.
> 
> Also, please don't call us pre-Rails Rubyists "elders". It makes us 
> self-conscious of our hairlines.
> 
> Francis Hwang
> http://fhwang.net/
> 
> 
> 
> On Apr 12, 2005, at 6:14 PM, Matt Pelletier wrote:
> 
>> (i just joined the ruby-talk list and am forwarding this post since 
>> it's predecessor went here as well)
>>
>> Pat,
>>
>> I fully agree about learning from the 'elders', and that cooperation and
>> cross-talk should be encouraged from the start. I don't think
>> fragmenting interests is too much of a concern at this point, though, as
>> anyone coding for RoR is likely to be pretty interested in Ruby as a
>> language anyway. I certainly am. In fact I plan to encourage anyone
>> coming to the RoR to go to the NYC.rb as well. Depending on the size of
>> the interest (I have 4 ppl so far), maybe we'll ask the NYC.rb leader
>> (Francis I know you're on ruby-talk) to set aside some time for each
>> meeting just to focus on RoR.
>>
>> My rationale for wanting to start a Rails-specific group is that the
>> ruby-nyc group is for the language, and those members have interests
>> that don't necessarily deal directly with the web. While they would
>> probably be interested to hear new members talk about Rails (and they
>> were when I did so), I wouldn't want to alienate them by hogging the
>> discussion about the Web.
>>
>> Since this is going to the Ruby-talk list... any Ruby folks there
>> interested in a NYC meetup?
>>
>> Matt
>>
>> pat eyler wrote:
>>
>>> On Apr 12, 2005 3:40 PM, Matt Pelletier <pelletierm / eastmedia.net> 
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi Pat (and Paul, from earlier reply),
>>>>
>>>> Actually I did go to last month's Ruby Group (If you guys are 
>>>> watching I
>>>> was the newbie). It was quite helpful, and I even came out with a free
>>>> 'Learn Ruby in 21 days' (thanks Francis), but my impression was that it
>>>> was more oriented toward the language itself than to Rails, esp. as 
>>>> it's
>>>> been around longer than Rails has existed. We talked about Rails a bit,
>>>> but I don't want to inadvertantly steer those meetings into discussions
>>>> just about Rails. So I will continue to attend them, but if there is
>>>> enough interest in NYC I'd like to start one that focuses on Rails
>>>> itself. There are plenty of developers here and I'd wager the interest
>>>> is only going to grow.
>>>
>>> Actually I'm no where near NYC, so I didn't see you at the last 
>>> meeting.  ;^)
>>> I am concerned though that by starting Rails specific groups, we 
>>> fragment a community that is still fairly young.  I think having a 
>>> RoR group is a great idea, but I'd rather see it run in cooperation 
>>> with an NYC.rb (or whatever).  I
>>> think the new Rails folks can learn a lot from experienced Rubyists, 
>>> and the
>>> 'old timers' can certainly get a boost from the new folks that RoR 
>>> will bring
>>> in.
>>> just my $0.02
>>>
>>>> Matt
>>>>
>>
>>
>>
> 
> 
> 
>