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No RailsConf

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68 pointsjohnny_reilly26 comments

I hope I'm misunderstanding something, because this seems like a baseless tantrum from DHH. From the linked post, this was RailsConf's message:

    Hi David,

    Hope you’ve been well.

    With you having been mostly offline the last 
    year, the program committee has decided it 
    would be valuable for the community to start 
    sharing the opening keynote stage with other 
    contributors. We have a few in mind but if you 
    have any suggestions of people who have been 
    impactful this year, please share them.
    
    If you have any questions, please let me know.
    
     - Evan

It sounds like they just wanted him to share the keynote stage with some others? And even asked for his suggestions?

It doesn't sound like he's being asked not to participate. What am I missing?

That was my impression as well. Unless we're missing additional context - I don't see what's so outrageous about that message, except that "mostly offline" doesn't make any sense.

Yeah, DHH's bafflement over the "mostly offline" part is probably the one aspect of his reaction I actually agree with - I don't get that part.

Not sure how being "online" matters, when DHH (as he points out at length) has had a pretty packed year of Rails progress. Maybe RailsConf has had a hard time getting in touch with him?

DHH has jumped right to the conclusion that RailsConf has some kind of problem with him. Perhaps, but if that was really the case, it seems like they would have just declined to invite him entirely? "Hey, we have a problem with this guy. Let's only let him talk for some of the keynote!"

Perhaps based on him using Twitter as a one-way communication the last year. Not replying to others. Turned off replies for his own tweets.

But yeah, poorly worded and unnecessary.

How do you share a keynote? The dude can talk for hours.

It seems to me (and I guess to him?) like a politely worded way of asking him to not come at all.

No one asked him not to come.

They did. In the most cowardly way possible

I read it as a euphemism for "give other contributors a chance at presenting the opening keynote going forward, not you (DHH) every year by default". It is vaguely worded, so I suppose they could mean sharing in the sense of spreading this year's keynote across multiple presenters, but in the context of the past year it wouldn't surprise me at all if this was RailsConf's way of uninviting DHH.

I think DHH has done a decent job navigating some really tough situations. He's always forged his own path which by itself is impressive. I think partially it's just really easy to hate on someone in a powerful position who has been super successful.

I think asking him to share the keynote stage isn't hate. Rails doesn't belong to him, it belongs to the community, and is far bigger than him or his influence.

He's the main force driving it forward while other entities are busy either divesting from it or just use it as a free API builder for their React app.

Yes there's lots of contributors and he doesn't do everything but his vision is what's driving basically all the innovation.

Also the MIT license does require attribution (if nothing else) and the copyright is his...

I didn't say he had nothing to do with it, only that Rails is bigger than him. Shopify and Github have as much or more to do with the state of the framework as Basecamp.

Maybe on the backend but on the front end they're using React, Liquid templates, etc...

Liquid is just a templating language written in Ruby. Much of the Rails ecosystem uses non-Rails projects (Devise, Sidekiq, Rspec, etc). I know that both Github and Shopify use some React, but neither is a strict-SPA with Rails merely serving as the backend API. Github is actually pushing the server-side rendered UI forward with ViewComponent.

I was planning to send a bunch of engineers to railsconf. They were excited about a lot of it but of course they were excited to see DHH. Now we are rethinking the plan, and I’m sure we won’t be the only ones.

(I can’t imagine how the sponsors will feel!)

Going to a conference for a keynote or an individual seems like a bad way to make spending or time decisions.

Why? Going to a music festival to see a single act is pretty common and seems analogous to me.

I think comparing going to a music festival for entertainment to using business resources (time and money) for a conference that presumably provides business value is a bit apples to oranges.

> that presumably provides business value

I have yet so see a conference that provided enough tangible "business value" to recoup its costs in any measurable sense. Let's be real: It is entertainment and stimulation for grownup nerds. Which is completely fine and has value for a business – but it is very much like a music festival.

Does anybody have the context? DHH mentions a "political and ideological divide", but I'm not sure which one since he's considered a controversial character in general.

https://www.theregister.com/2021/05/05/basecamp_political_di...

I’m guessing it is revenge for https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26998127 but you’re right, it could be a variety of things.

Some days I'm thankful not to be part of the RoR community for reasons such as these.

Is RailsConf in fact cancelled? The website still shows it happening in May, and DHH doesn’t say anywhere that it is cancelled, except maybe the title of his post?

I think the point is badly presented, but I conclude that there will be no Rails Conf for _him_.

I read the post as DHH saying he won’t attend RailsConf. The conference can still happen without him. You could read the title as “No RailsConf [for me]”.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com