Inchoate Curmudgeon

Zed Shaw is ranting about Rails. The effects are palpable. People are talking about the post. I’ve seen no less than a dozen tweets on Twitter in the last hour or so, and it has been by far the vast majority of the tweets about Rails.

The post is clearly consistent with a theme of healthy and vigorous commentary that Zed generates about the ethics and behavior of folks in our world, the industry and on the Internet. His position can be summed up as follows: don’t do anything on the Internet you wouldn’t do in person.

Zed practices what he preaches: his real-life persona is the same as his Internet persona. It’s unapologetically in your face, wall-to-wall polemics.

Zed’s style definitely gets more attention than any feeble musings pretty much anyone might write on this topic. This is bad, since it further reinforces and supports his thesis that our world is filled with people who can’t be bothered to think critically about much of anything, at least without something like his fiery delivery to get your attention.

Ironically, he lambasts even Dave Thomas in his post. Dave delivered an emotional address in the last Rails conference in Portland that asserted the Rails community is what is important about the Rails phenomena, not the technology. But hate and love are both part of life, and whatever it takes to get people thinking and talking about this subject may be worth the risk of collateral damage. Zed proves it takes short sentences with one syllable words, generously sprinkled with expletives.

I love that people are talking about Zed’s post, and pray that people really read it. I hate that it takes this kind of delivery to get people to talk about the subject, and pray readers do more than just say “Wow, he’s mad” or “Wow, Zed’s leaving Rails.” That would truly make his exit pointless.