On Java And Ruby Communities

By Angsuman Chakraborty, Gaea News Network
Thursday, August 10, 2006

Rob Sanheim commented on Java & Ruby communities. Ruby has Dr. Nic, and blogs like the Rails Blob while Java has Hani and his BileBlog. That underlines part of the reason I want to be with Java community.

In my experience Ruby community, with few exceptions, consists of lots of over-zealous fans unlike Java community. Java community on the other hand has BileBlog. It indicates the maturity of a community to be able to self-criticize as vehemently as he does. I would rather contend with Hani’s critiques ( I know it may come back to bite me someday soon) rather than submerge myself in flattery of over-adulating fans.

Honest constructive criticism is the vehicle of improvement.

Community has recently come into limelight when Bryan O’Bryan, well known longtime Mac enthusiast and editor of ResExcellence.com, a popular Macintosh website moved over to Ubuntu primarily due to perceived over-hostility of Mac community -

the Mac “community” (ie, the most vocal and active of the Macintosh enthusiast and power users) tend to be incredibly negative and expect much more than they deserve.

In my own Mac experience I ran a free Mac website and was greeted with an absolutely immense amount of hostility. I have also release free (and, in some cases, incredibly inexpensive) Mac software and was greeted with hostility there as well.

Community is very important for the development of any initiatives, whether it is Apple Mac or Ruby or Java.

Discussion
August 15, 2006: 12:40 pm

More on Java/Ruby Communities, or Chill Out: Its Just Code Dude

I think the point of my original post on the java and ruby communities was kinda missed.
Criticism is great for any community, and if you are really passionate about something you should constantly question it and look for crappy things to call out….

August 10, 2006: 11:09 pm

What Hani’s blog needs is a strong profanity filter. It was funny for the first few times. I have taken Hani as a vehicle but by and large I see lots of self-criticism and introspection in Java community. There is a downside too. Newcomers can easily get confused.

August 10, 2006: 10:43 pm

> don’t live the hype and chose what’s best for the job.

Exactly my thoughts too.

August 10, 2006: 7:36 pm

…if only Hani’s criticism would be constructive all the time. TBH I don’t think the BileBlog has anything to do with the maturity of a community. But you are right - over-zealous fans don’t make a mature community …but it gives drive and traction. It will probably just take a while until it turns mature. Unfortunately many people will then cosider it “legacy” and go for the next big thing. So my conclusion - don’t live the hype and chose what’s best for the job.

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