From: Tommy Morgan Date: 2008-08-24T01:53:07+09:00 Subject: Re: A Mascot... ------=_Part_50582_27035439.1219510621284 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline On Sat, Aug 23, 2008 at 12:37 PM, James Britt wrote: > Tommy Morgan wrote: > >> Regardless of whether or not I agree with that... you have a >> self-selection >> problem. >> The people who have formed the ruby community did so without the aid of a >> mascot. >> > > Well, there is no *one* Ruby community; there are many. And some (possibly > large) number of Rubyists have abandoned ruby-talk, so the thread here is > hardly indicative of what Rubyists as a whole think of a mascot. (BTW, > this thread is a good example of why people are leaving this mailing list. > Sad to say.) But I am unaware of any Ruby community that has a mascot, > and things seems to be thriving. True, that's what I meant. Since no community (either the community at large, or a sub-community) seems to have a mascot, it's a safe assumption that a mascot isn't a huge draw for the people who are already using the language. > > > So it's easy to see how the community as it exists now is one that >> doesn't see the need for some avatar to represent the language - the >> language is the language, and they love it for the reasons that they love >> it, and that's that. >> Attempting to force a community to adopt anything will do nothing but spin >> tires. Especially if that community is spontaneous and decentralized, like >> the ruby community is. >> >> > I imagine that if some Ruby community really wants their own mascot they > will just go adopt one. Some others will giggle. True, but the point of this thread seems to be "let's make an official mascot." I don't think that's something that can really be done declaratively (unless Matz feels like it, but I get the impression that he has other things he'd rather be doing at the moment ;) ). > > > If a mascot ever does get adopted, I'd be willing to bet it'd be more of a >> viral adoption than as part of a "let's sit around and pitch ideas for a >> mascot" email thread. >> > > Exactly. Doing beats asking. But be careful what you wish for. Oh, I'm not wishing, trust me :) > > > > > -- > James Britt > > www.happycamperstudios.com - Wicked Cool Coding > www.jamesbritt.com - Playing with Better Toys > www.ruby-doc.org - Ruby Help & Documentation > www.rubystuff.com - The Ruby Store for Ruby Stuff > > ------=_Part_50582_27035439.1219510621284--