This week marked a monumental event for Ruby programmers. The enigma which was _why, the hacker/artist who was instrumental in shaping the Ruby community, simply vanished without a trace. All of his websites were removed, his social media accounts cancelled, and he left without so much as a goodbye note to the community he so very much shaped.
Losing _why was bad enough, as his voice will be missed by anyone who’s ever interacted with the Ruby language, but another loss we suffered was in the fact that when _why left, he took his work with him.
Losing _why’s work is a great loss, one which will be far-reaching an long-lasting, especially by those who have adopted his code into their own projects. There’s no more Camping, no more Shoes, no more Why’s Guide, no more Try Ruby. There’s much more we lost, but to list it all would require a blog post within itself. The revocation of his projects hurts all of us, and while I try not to be offended by his brash actions, I can’t help but feel that his actions were completely and utterly selfish.
The move to Mexico has opened my eyes to a whole new world. And I don’t mean because I’m in another country (although that’s also true, Puerto Vallarta is a stark contrast to NYC in just about every way possible). What I’m talking about is how the Internet treats people in different locations.
This blog belongs to Jade Rauenzahn, a 24 year-old web developer living in Hell's Kitchen, NYC.
