On 11/15/05, Kero <kero / chello.single-dot.nl> wrote:

> The reason behind all this is that I fear needless fragmentation. The Ruby
> community grows, it will have to fragment to some extent, we can't populate
> a mailing list with ten times more people. Rails split off the main lists,
> main IRC, even gets its own conference. Fine, it seems a clear cut
> distinction (but given all other useful web frameworks in Ruby, I doubt it
> deserves to be this clear cut).
>
> We have to be critical of new development.

It will only fragment if the shards are appealing enough to attract people.

I personally use a combination of mailing list and reading
comp.lang.ruby online via google groups,  and I don't feel like it
takes me away from any of that.

Instead, I think it's encouraging us to get new traffic from people
who have not yet found the list or usenet group.  Your personal choice
has not been effected in anyway.

If the new forum results in an influx of spam, poorly formatted
emails, etc, then yeah, we can complain then.   But right now, I see
it as a unifier and a new point of entry for people into the ruby
community, rather than a fragmentation.

I only recently signed up on the list, but I've been monitoring
comp.lang.ruby for about a year.  I think the trend goes towards the
center, not away from it.  I doubt this forum is going to steal people
away from ruby-talk :-/

As far as the Rails conference goes... I think that's great too.  It
lightens the pressure on the RubyConf to be rails oriented, and if you
enjoy both, you have two conferences to look forward two now! :)  (i'm
planning on attending both Rails and RubyConf 2006)