I have covered multiple times the mean discriminatory ways Ruby/Rails subreddit members treat some Rubyists, which started happening only in the last 10 years. Now, I will be regularly sharing examples of that for everyone to see to increase the level of awareness of the un-Ruby-community-like meanness, lack of sympathy, lying, and discrimination that Ruby/Rails subreddit members practice and moderators tolerate to the detriment of the Ruby on Rails community. Eventually, if the problem is not corrected, I will be talking about this problem at Ruby meetups and conferences to increase awareness of this big elephant in the room that isn't being addressed. It is basically a double standard that excludes some people like me from participating safely in the Ruby/Rails subreddits while the Subreddit members are nice to others they deem "in their clique" or "tribe". That's exactly what discrimination is, let alone, it's not nice as per the MINASWAN Ruby principle (Matz Is Nice And So We Are Nice). Also, the argument that nobody forced me to join those groups is akin to telling someone who went into a bar and got stabbed that nobody forced them to go into the bar instead of correctly sympathizing with them and reporting the bad behavior to the authorities, potentially closing the bar permanently if it doesn't reform in its treatment of clients who enter it.
Before sharing examples, here are some of my previous posts about the topic:
- Entitled/Incompetent/Mean Members of Ruby/Rails Subreddits
- The Rails subreddit is an embarrassment to the Ruby community
I am very confident secure person and have thick skin, so I can freely share the interactions without being anxious about others' opinions.
As a first example, 10 months ago, I shared an article about "How To Spot Covert Discrimination in the Ruby Community", and I got downvoted to 0 in both the Ruby subreddit and Rails subreddit (probably got a very large negative number in both subreddits as Reddit doesn't show the real number when it's negative anymore I believe).
We all know that downvoting an article that speaks against discrimination means all the downvoters are discriminators (assuming what is shared is truthful). Meaning, this downvoting unwittingly confirmed 100% that the Ruby/Rails downvoters are discriminators.
Even if there might be some disagreement with what is written, the nice Ruby way to express that is by refraining from downvoting and having a conversation in a sympathetic, serious, and patient way (that's how things happened 10 years ago and before). It is very weird that Ruby/Rails subreddit members don't act that way, but it is possible they are indirectly benefiting from the discrimination that is happening in the Ruby community as that discrimination frees up jobs for them that they are not most qualified for, which enables them to steal those jobs at the expense of pushing defenseless members of the Ruby community down with bullying and discrimination. But, how come no leaders in the Ruby community are commenting about this mean behavior when in fact it is not normal whatsoever?!! Could it be that they are indirectly benefiting financially somehow from this discrimination too by taming the competition of Ruby developers indirectly?
As a second example, I will share a very recent interaction that demonstrates total lack of sympathy by a Ruby subreddit member with the fact that I got discriminated against by a certain Ruby shop. And, the subreddit member ended up embarrassing themselves further by defending embarrassing lack of support for a local Ruby community by a well-funded Ruby shop that claims to be a "big supporter of Ruby", which is obviously a lie if actions don't match their words or if they discriminate against some members in the Ruby community in their support. Of course, defending mediocrity indicates mediocrity in the defender, which is why they embarrassed themselves further with the defense, let alone they told everyone they have no manners and aren't nice members of the Ruby community. One more thing that is also embarrassing about the interaction is that I am sure the commenter fits the profile of the post above "Entitled/Incompetent/Mean Members of Ruby/Rails Subreddits", meaning it's an unqualified person with entitlement issues that make them act in a mean way as if they're a god instead of being humble and sympathetic.
If a normal person was told by somebody that some other person suffered from discrimination, they would assume a serious sympathetic attitude and ask what happened to see if they could help. Any other reaction, like making fun of the person or being sarcastic with them, immediately reveals that the listener isn't a normal loving person, yet a person who is mean, unloving, a discriminator by extension through endorsement of discrimination, and probably someone indirectly benefiting from the discrimination to defend it. Even if the reporter of the discrimination was wrong in misinterpreting some behavior as discrimination, the right reaction would be to at least show concern and ask questions or explain in a calm rational manner any misunderstandings without joking about a topic like discrimination. That Ruby subreddit member's reaction was totally unacceptable and inappropriate as part of the nice Ruby decorum.
Here is the interaction:
Here is the link shared in my Reddit comment to learn more about what it says: https://andymaleh.blogspot.com/2025/06/shopify-has-been-bad-for-ruby-community.html
The bottom line is that this person's interaction made the Ruby community worse not better overall. Offering sympathy or at least a listening ear to a person who suffered discrimination would have made the Ruby community better overall regardless of whether the discrimination took place or was a false perception that needed a patient gentle correction.
Not sympathizing with discrimination while affirming lack of support for members of the Ruby community means the commenter is by extension a mean discriminator who does not support the Ruby community nor kindly sympathizes with people who are mistreated, meaning a manner-less trash person. Also, by simple logical deduction, upvoting that comment indicates that all the upvoters are mean discriminators who do not support the Ruby community nor kindly sympathize with people who are mistreated equally, meaning manner-less trash people.
This demonstrates how ugly the Ruby on Rails community has become, especially with people in it enabling this kind of behavior and not doing the right things to discourage it, while conducting that with double standards, meaning they sometimes defend some members of the Ruby community from this sort of behavior, but also allow this behavior to go unchecked against other members of the community. Having double-standards is the very definition of discrimination.
I will start sharing more and more of those interactions to expose the unnice ways of Ruby/Rails subreddit members to the maintainers and contributors of Ruby, Rails, and other high-profile Ruby projects. It is important for everyone to become aware of this problem to eventually resolve it.
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