

Learn Ruby - blacktm
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/blacktm/learn-ruby

======
eliben
There used to be a time where people created programming tutorials just for
the heck of it: to learn the language better themselves, to do something good,
to get some rep, to make a name for themselves. I wrote quite a few myself -
enjoyed every minute of it - both the process of writing (writing stuff down
forces you to be honest about knowing it well) and the feedback afterwards.
Without asking for $10K on Kickstarter!! I see the direction this is going and
I don't like it at all. I hope Kickstarter won't end up harming open source.

~~~
bpatrianakos
I don't think Kickstarter will harm open source. I think opporunists might.
But do you really think people like us would fund something like this? I'm
honestly asking the question. I don't think they would. As a programmer I know
better than to fund something like this. There's no shortage of Ruby tutorials
out there for free and a ton that cost money too. All great resources. I see
this and I think to myself, "nice, someone decided to capitalize on the
hipness of Ruby by duplicating what's out there for free with a twist -
vaguely familiar games as lessons".

I have faith that this won't be funded.

~~~
jamesgeck0
The end result is going to be free, isn't it? He's just asking for money so he
can devote more of his time to it.

~~~
pc86
The end result will be $100.

~~~
tomku
There are actually two components that the author is promising. The
interactive learning environment and website will be free and open source, but
the author is also planning on selling a premium, paid month-long course with
extra content. The premium course is what's promised in the $50 tier, and what
will cost $100 after the Kickstarter ends.

Edit: As the responses indicate, the premium course is probably against
Kickstarter's rules. I didn't mean to imply otherwise.

~~~
pc86
The point is that people are trying to use Kickstarter to eliminate risk in a
business venture. If you're good enough o charge $100 for membership for one
of your website, do it. Take a risk. _Be entrepreneurial._ Don't be that guy
trying to get other people to provide you back-door seed funding so you can
just bolt if it all falls apart with an extra $10k to boot.

From the KS: "Launching a Kickstarter campaign is the best way I can think of
to get the word out and see if there's real interest in this. I always try to
focus my time and energy on things people want (easier said than done), and
this campaign will help me figure that out. So if you want this to exist, cast
your vote by pledging!"

I try to be civil and calm here but that is complete and utter bullshit.
Kickstarter does not exist so people like this guy can get a few months rent
while trying out his latest business venture.

~~~
briandear
Lol. Tell that to every SilVal wannabe startup begging for seed funding. Being
entrepreneurial IS about gathering reasorces to make your idea happen.

Kickstarter shouldn't exist so some guy can raise money to sell 3d printers
either, but that happens all the time.

~~~
pc86
You've got a point there, but let's be honest: that 3d pen was pretty cool.

------
bdcravens
This violates Kickstarter rules.

See the $50 pledge: _The price will jump to $100 after the Kickstarter, so
sign up now!"_

Kickstarter project guidelines: _Kickstarter cannot be used to fund
e-commerce, business, and social networking websites or apps._
(<http://www.kickstarter.com/help/guidelines#prohibited>)

No matter if you throw the "education" label on it, it's still a paid
membership site. A business website.

Even if it were allowed, it's miscategorized. The "Open Software" category is
to fund open source projects, _not_ education efforts about open source
software. I don't see that any of the software that would come out of this
project would be released as open source.

~~~
tomku
The local learning environment gem is "Open source (license TBD)" according to
the page.

Edit: Since you responded to my other comment - I'm not claiming that what
they're doing is allowed by the rules, just responding to that particular
point.

~~~
bdcravens
Yes, but that's not the totality of the project. Had it been limited to that,
it would probably be ok.

------
melling
There are lots of places to learn Ruby. At this point, you could Google just
about any question that you had.

How about something more ambitious? Anyone want to crowd fund a small
satellite or lunar rover for the Google Lunar Prize?

<http://www.googlelunarxprize.org/>

------
alpb
I wouldn't pay $25 for this Kickstarter project.

Codeacademy and Udemy has Ruby classes to grasp enough knowledge and cost less
than this.

~~~
bdcravens
I also have to give a +1 to CodeSchool.

------
film42
This is great, but there are already many sites that teach ruby through clean
slides, animations and gamification. Most notably (with respect to ruby) is
code school.

I'm all for more resources, but I don't see how this is filling a market gap.

~~~
Stranger2013
Ruby is a part of hipster culture. You can't just say "There is enough hipster
bands out there, we don't need more" can you?

------
tomku
It's probably not a good idea to use a "popular game character" in your
example images, even if you don't name him. The sprite itself is copyrighted
by Nintendo, and using it in your game like that is probably not going to fall
under fair use.

------
andreiursan
Around minute 1:01, in the kickstarter video, he says that ruby is used by
facebook o_O. I don't think that it is, is it?

~~~
knowtheory
Remember that both Chef and Puppet are written in Ruby. Ruby is in a _lot_ of
things by virtue of the fact that it's so prevalent in the DevOps world.

~~~
andreiursan
Yes, I also used Chef. But I don't think that is enough reason to market a
language as beeing a "FB" one. Because in that way you can market that 80% of
the companies use ruby.

------
programminggeek
I wonder if this project will be as poignant as other ruby learning projects.

~~~
swatkat
I think I see what you did there :)

 _Why's (poignant) Guide to Ruby_ : <http://mislav.uniqpath.com/poignant-
guide/>

~~~
glitchdout
And don't forget his interactive course!
<http://www.codeschool.com/courses/try-ruby>

------
briandear
I actually know and have worked with Tom Black extensively. He was an
instructor with me at General Assembly in NYC and, after being in the Ruby
education space, it's clear there is a market for great developer education
courses. The target market isn't the typical hacker news reader, it's the job
seeker looking to expand their marketability. There are plenty of 'free'
resources to learn cooking, yet there is still a huge demand for cooking
schools. Many of us don't think twice about paying for Railscasts or
CodeSchool because they provide value to the user. I don't think there is
anything wrong with selling a high quality instructional product to people who
make be overwhelmed by the variety of free and occasionally dubious offerings.
When I was getting started, the Rails Tutorial was a bargain at around $100. I
can't speak for the quality of Tom's product (yet,) but there is certainly a
demand and a need for quality programs for new developers. Given some of the
utter nonsense I've seen on kickstarter, this is a worthy project.

