Oh Look, Darth Vader's Wearing Black Today

If you ever write a contentious post, don't tell one of your friends who's got great Karma on Reddit. You'll be pretty busy getting buried by flames for the next day. It's worth touching on some of the responses - I'll keep it brief.

Hi, My Name's Rob, Open Source Advocate
Most of the people who commented on my blog probably have no idea that I've created two very large Open Source projects on the .NET Platform. One of which is SubSonic, a "Rails Port" in which I'm doing my best to bring many of DHH's ideas into ASP.NET (which I spend a lot of time supporting - even with regards to Rails!). I'm a free thinker and have no problem stating my opinions, to either side.

The Potty Mouth Thing
I shouldn't have said that - and I apologize to DHH for my word choice. Over here, the term "Potty Mouth" is a thing you call children with foul mouths - it seems in Europe this isn't the case and some folks took exception. DHH does himself and his users a disservice by lacing his posts and presentations with F-Bombs: it's disrespectful and juvenile- and I'm not the only one who thinks this. F-Bombs are for people without command of their language and I know that's not the case with him, he's an incredible writer. So I'm at a loss as to why he keeps using playground-speak. I prefer ScottGu's style.

The Bashing Bandwagon
I don't jump on those - as people have noted "I'm a little late to the party". I'm not bashing Rails (it's silly to suggest I am given my work on SubSonic and the other posts I've done). I've waited for the dust to settle out of the Bashing Party to see what the Rails Core Team has to say about it all. I don't think "It's your problem" is reasonable. Aside from flaming me - answer this question for me: Are you happy with their response to the perf issues? Is it your problem?

Use It Or Don't, DHH Owes You Nothing
The Rails concept is a gem, the size of the user base shows that. No, DHH owes me nothing. Or does he? It's the Hero's Dilemma: You've done something great, you're a hero. You can't walk away because you put yourself there, and by doing that, you set the expectations. You sing the songs Britney, you show the skin...

Misrepresentation
Commenters have suggested that I misrepresented quotes. I've offered links in every case and they tell the story. Telling me I'm misrepresenting is out of line.

Finally.. I want to share what DHH has created with as many Microsoft developers as I can. That's my mission with SubSonic. I don't "do it for me" and that's as it should be.