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Comment by drbragg | Hacker News Reader

This isn't true according to this article: https://www.404media.co/how-ruby-went-off-the-rails/. Joel has a terrible habit of not citing his sources so I'm not sure if the post in question is the same but this seems to nullify that argument. TBF I do think there was pressure from Shopify to get compliance and security in order but saying "Shopify demanded that Ruby Central take full control of the RubyGems" is just plain not true.

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The rubygems treasurer who is on the board said funding was conditional on doing this[0][1].

One interesting thing is that Ruby Central then said "Board decisions are independent and not contingent on funding."[2].

Doesn't inspire a lot of trust when there is a statement from a board member saying "we did this because of funding".

I'm more inclined to believe Joel's account.

[0] A deadline (which as far as I understand, we agreed to) loomed. Either Ruby Central puts controls in place to ensure the safety and stability of the infrastructure we are responsible for, or lose the funding that we use to keep those things online and going.

[1] https://apiguy.substack.com/p/a-board-members-perspective-of...

[2] https://rubycentral.org/news/our-stewardship-where-we-are-wh...

Ruby Central is making legal threats to its critics, so I hope you can see why people don’t feel safe to come forward on the record.

I can tell you that two people with direct knowledge of the situation told me that Shopify demanded that Ruby Central take full control of the RubyGems GitHub organisation and packages.

You can believe that I am lying if you want. But I can’t directly cite my sources in this case.

I never said you were lying. I said the quote that person pulled from your article isn't true. IIRC your article came out before the one I linked came out.

I believe the quote pulled from my article is true. Freedom’s original article lines up with what other people told me. I know he’s tried to retract it, but I don’t trust him to be truthful in this matter. He has lied about other things like the takeover being necessary for security.

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