From: Avdi Grimm <avdi@...>
Date: 2001-08-13T11:34:49+09:00
Subject: [ruby-talk:19622] Re: /.ed again

> Me as BSD man can only agree. Most of the /. guys seem to be 15 year old 
> linux users who think they rock the world because they can mutter in a 
> programming language ;)


The thing about /., is that it has more than one audience. There is the
vocal minority, who (apparently) have nothing better to do than make
ill-informed comments on every story they see; and then there's the
silent majority: people like me, who rarely, if ever, comment; but scan
/. periodically for news of interest.  I don't know how many interesting
languages, technologies, software packages, and projects I've been
introduced to by /. stories or from people's comments on stories.  It's
very possible it was /. that introduced my to Ruby; I can't remember
now.  I know /. well enough to know that a lot of the posters do not
know much about what they post about; so I take everything with a grain
of salt and click through when something looks like it might interest
me.  My guess is that there are many like me.

I might also note that /. seems to be a sort of early-indicator for
certain types of tech trends.  If this is true, than increasing Ruby
coverage on /. can only be a good thing; since it means that more and
more people on the industry are becoming aware of it.  Take the subject
of the current article, for example: Ruby has become popular enough that
IBM developerworks has posted a tutorial on it.  This is a Good Thing;
and the fact that it's covered on /. means that some of those who might
otherwise have missed it will be introduced to Ruby.

The attitude of "why should we cast rubies before swine" is
self-defeating.  I say, let your seeds fall where they may, and you
might be surprised where they take root and grow.

~Avdi