It's a bit like saying "I see a lot of women have jobs these days - does that mean that feminism is more than just a fad?" You're not going to get any helpful responses if you ask something inflammatory (and I think it shows maturity that no-one's flamed you).

Anyway, what would you gain from asking a bunch of Ruby developers whether Ruby is "just a fad"? This is hardly the best venue for that question.

Incidentally, I didn't downvote you, just thought I'd try to explain why nobody responded to you.

I downvoted you because you weren't asking an honest question and that adds nothing to the thread.

Posting an inflammatory response in tandem with a question already loaded with rhetoric ("fad", "serious tool") isn't going to spur interesting or valuable debate because you've shown you're already cemented into your position before you even started.

Erm... I believe it's pretty popular in web-land, has been for some time, and remains so.

Though I have no personal evidence for any of that ;) - I have never used Ruby, I don't know anybody in real life that does, and in fact aside from three or four mentions-in-passing I have never heard anybody even talk about it. Different worlds, I guess.

EDIT: Why am I reading a Ruby article, then? That's easy... just avoiding a bit of work. Maybe I'd find that it had done something interesting.

I guess that your tone used when qualifying it as fad was what gained you the downvotes.

It read like you were just trying to make waves around the subject just for the sake of it.