No, I disagree. The Ruby community is, generally, far more cohesive and homogeneous than the others you listed. This may partly be due to it being a relatively young community, compared to some others.
Anyone who has been to a Ruby conference, especially while not being overly involved with the community otherwise, would likely know what I'm talking about, for example.
Almost the entire community is male. There are very, very, very few females involved. While other communities have an imbalance, it is nowhere near as lopsided as it is within the Ruby community.
Another common trait is the use of Apple hardware. It's rare to see anything but Apple laptops or other devices being used by those within the Ruby community. I've been at talks where there are rows of 20 people, and over 15 of them are using a MacBook of some sort.
There's very little true dissent within the community. The emphasis on "convention over configuration" ends up chiseling those conventions into stone, and nobody dares question them, even when they're obviously wrong.
While I'm not saying every single member of the Ruby community is exactly like every other, there is a commonality that is not found in any other computing community. It's undeniable.
I think you're conflating "the Ruby community" with "the kinds of people you see at RailsConf". Homogenous, maybe. Cohesive? Hardly.
I work with three other Ruby programmers, two of whom are female, and older than me (I'm 30). Your assertion that there are "few females involved" might as well be characterization of IT in general for all the evidence you present. In my experience diversity is a reflection of institutional values, not the culture of the programming languages used.
Apple hardware is tremendously popular with web developers in general, and while I don't blame you for your impression (I've been to RailsConf), there are plenty of Rubyists who prefer Linux on a Thinkpad. I bet you could find rich veins of Apple hardware at almost any type of conference.
There is plenty of disagreement about the best way to do things; that's why we have both Rails and Sinatra (both of which have been imitated in Python, node.js, and more) several implementations, and lots of discussions about new language features (like refinements).
I suspect your confirmation bias means you don't even notice Rubyists who don't fit your preconceptions.
tptacek wrote No, he trolls, and you fall for it. You could help clean up the thread by deleting your comment, and then I'll delete this one.
I don't mind if you disagree with what I believe and what I express, but I do ask that you please argue against my points, rather than attacking me personally. It's not constructive to label people here as "trolls" just because you have a differing opinion or point of view.
Anyone who has been to a Ruby conference, especially while not being overly involved with the community otherwise, would likely know what I'm talking about, for example.
Almost the entire community is male. There are very, very, very few females involved. While other communities have an imbalance, it is nowhere near as lopsided as it is within the Ruby community.
Another common trait is the use of Apple hardware. It's rare to see anything but Apple laptops or other devices being used by those within the Ruby community. I've been at talks where there are rows of 20 people, and over 15 of them are using a MacBook of some sort.
There's very little true dissent within the community. The emphasis on "convention over configuration" ends up chiseling those conventions into stone, and nobody dares question them, even when they're obviously wrong.
While I'm not saying every single member of the Ruby community is exactly like every other, there is a commonality that is not found in any other computing community. It's undeniable.