

Zed Shaw's New Blog - twampss
http://www.zedshaw.com/index.html

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jballanc
Key Quote --

"I’ve found that while I’ve moved on from the Rails scene, the scene has not
moved on from me"

The true quality of a community is not just a measure of how forceful or big
it is, but how easily it can adapt to change. This quote, plus the fact that
the plan for "moving forward" was to pull in another framework wholesale, does
not bode well for the Rails community. It by no means indicates that the Rails
community is doomed, but it does not bode well.

I'd also like to take this moment to point out that this is yet another
indication that the Ruby community != the Rails community. Quite to the
contrary, I think you'll find the Ruby community quite flexible and robust
when faced with opposition. (Just read some of the recent ruby-talk
discussions on 1.8.6 vs. 1.8.7 if you don't believe me...)

~~~
adamhowell
The fact that a guy who's been known to be somewhat of a troll states,
anecdotally, that an entire community is still "consumed" by him proves that
the community must therefore be in trouble? Don't agree.

~~~
alecco
It was parody.

~~~
adamhowell
Ah, guess I don't know the source well enough.

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nuclear_eclipse
From his site's source code, he's using YUI it seems, but there is one gem:

    
    
        <!-- gotta have one somewhere :-) -->
        <table border="0"><tr><td><h1><a href="/">Zed Shaw</a></h1></td>
        <td width="100%"><h2>Enjoy the show.</h2></td></tr></table>

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lessofthat
God, that persona's much better. It's like the neighbours turned the 3am rap
music down.

~~~
jpwagner
Does he have a link to the old page? I can't sleep without that music.

~~~
Shtirlic
<http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.zedshaw.com/>

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icey
It's oddly work safe. I wonder what Zed's up to.

~~~
kaens
He dropped the tough-guy stuff a bit ago, admitted to creating said persona
for (more-or-less) the purposes of trolling, and announced that he would be
acting a lot more serious in the future.

~~~
herval
Got a hard time finding another job due to his 'fame', maybe?

~~~
icey
Seriously doubtful. Zed may have had a website that featured him talking like
a pirate, but I think it's pretty well known that he can code like a
motherfucker.

~~~
herval
just a theory. Even if he couldn't code at all, he speaks VERY well (seen him
at a Canadian conference) - that alone is enough to land a job in most pointy-
hair-managed companies out there...

~~~
kaens
He said he wanted to focus more on music than code. I think he's doing pretty
well for himself.

Also, he can absolutely code - and the code of his that I've looked at has
been pretty awesome on all accounts.

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petercooper
Keep feeding the monster, folks.

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Silentio
The comments here are interesting. They either breath a sigh of relief and
welcome the change in persona with open arms, or they let out a "pfft,"
uninteresting and wish for the old Zed. Any mediators out there?

~~~
jamesbritt
" Any mediators out there?"

The silent majority who likely don't give a rat's ass either way?

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tptacek
How is this Hacker News?

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jacktang
Looking forward the new projects and coming articles

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peregrine
Is this the death of Zed Shaw as we know it? Goodbye interesting articles...

~~~
halostatue
If that's what you think, then you're not thinking this through. Look, I don't
like Zed -- especially the jackass persona he adopted -- and he doesn't like
me, either. (I've had a few run-ins with him for various reasons.)

When he's not ranting like in the Rails Rant, or his odious performance "art"
(insulting friends of mine when they weren't there to defend themselves) at
RubyFringe this summer, Zed's an intelligent guy who deserves a lot of credit
for his positive contributions. His essay about statistics is an absolute
must-read (and he's _right_ ). Zed's essays are worth reading because they are
well-considered, even if I disagree with the conclusions therein.

I personally look forward to his non-ranting on-line personality.

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vaksel
to tell the truth I liked the old design better, this one is kinda boring

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sho
"I’ve found that while I’ve moved on from the Rails scene, the scene has not
moved on from me. It’s time to do something else with your lives."

I see the, uh, "elevated self-esteem" remains. As a member of the "Rails
scene" myself I don't feel particularly stuck on Zed, and I don't get the
impression many others are either, if they ever were. Maybe a couple of
curmudgeons whose nose he tweaked or something, but on the whole the scene is
much too large for any one attention-seeker to disrupt for long.

Note to Zed: Reddit users != "the Rails scene". Anyone who got bent out of
shape by your rant != "the Rails scene". The real Rails scene is too busy, you
know, working.

Not that I don't like Zed, I do. As our gentle host PG once put it, he
"offends the right people", and I respect anyone who gets things done. But his
antics have been a drop in the ocean. Zed's work on Mongrel affected the Rails
scene far more than his rants ever did, so on balance his influence has
actually been pretty positive.

