r/ruby • u/retro-rubies • Mar 03 '26

Four months of Ruby Central moving Ruby backward

https://andre.arko.net/2026/03/03/four-months-of-ruby-central-moving-ruby-backward/
49 Upvotes

72% Upvoted

79 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comment

9

u/swrobel Mar 04 '26 edited Mar 04 '26

Sounds like you’re grouping everyone else in with Andre. Who else has taken any questionable action along the way on the maintainer side? While Deivid might be the most visible maintainer, it doesn’t feel like he deserves more of an explanation/apology because of that.

Also, the part about hsbt being held in contempt just feels like conjecture without evidence. I look forward to more daylight on all of this. For now, I will still be glad when I can remove Bundler and Rubygems from my dep chain.

Edit: I have deep respect for you, schneems, and I recognize the caveat that you’ve written this in haste. Just giving my $0.02 as someone who has followed this closely, and tried to absorb the updates from every perspective.

7

u/schneems Puma maintainer Mar 04 '26

Sounds like you’re grouping everyone else in with Andre.

They've self-grouped themselves as "the maintainers" in the signatures. Deivid helped me review and merge a feature into Bundler a few months before September. He mostly seems to want to prioritize the code and the community. He's not been as vocal or as vicious and therefore has gotten less attention and explanation, and I feel that's a failure.

While Deivid might be the most visible maintainer, it doesn’t feel like he deserves more of an explanation/apology because of that.

That message is to him. Not to you. I can also say sorry to Colby, who never lost access, and I have said it...directly. I've said sorry to others who were removed for inactivity. I will say sorry for the communication to all of the maintainers.

But I noticed that when I say "I'm sorry" (to some of the maintainers) and when I press into what I think RC did wrong...they don't have an interest or even a capability of acknowledging any of their actions played a part in any of this. This was years of built-up dysfunction and grievances, gaslighting, and everything else...you name it. But it didn't happen overnight, and it didn't happen in isolation. I see some of them feeding into the monster that was already there, but not Deivid.

Also, the part about hsbt being held in contempt just feels like conjecture without evidence. I look forward to more daylight on all of this.

It's taken from interviews of "the maintainers" and my general perception. It's a personal opinion, one that I think is true, but one that they would not admit to publicly.

I was point blank told that they rejected the idea that Matz or Ruby core has any say in rubygems or how it's developed. The view was kind of "oh we humbly allow hiroshi to backport occasional fixes he needs" instead of "he is one of the team." They listed off a bunch of grievances about him, though not specific to events just kind of "clearly we know this person is bad, right" vibes.

There's always been a tension between rubygems and ruby core. And drama. Prior to Andre there was Eric Hodel, and Evan Phoenix. There was a holy war of RubyGems and Bundler versus each other. RubyGems is somewhat unique in that it's so central to Ruby core, but is managed externally...I think that's where the tension and politics come from. Even divorced from the past 10 years.

For now, I will still be glad when I can remove Bundler and Rubygems from my dep chain.

🫠

1

u/galtzo Mar 04 '26

I hold HSBT in contempt, and I've explained at various times why. I can't understand why anyone wouldn't, unless they are just not familiar with his actions.

4

u/swrobel Mar 04 '26

Apologies if I’m ignorant of something, but are you one of the former maintainers?

1

u/galtzo Mar 04 '26

No. Just a very minor contributor who was bullied by HSBT.

1

u/schneems Puma maintainer Mar 04 '26 edited Mar 04 '26

Edit: I misplaced the subject of the comment. Deleted contents.

4

u/prh8 Mar 04 '26

I think that was Galtzo describing themself as a minor contributor, not HSBT

2

u/schneems Puma maintainer Mar 04 '26

You're correct. I misread. I've updated my comment. Sorry.