Recipe 1.1. Joining the Rails Community

Problem

You know that Rails is an evolving open source project, and you want to stay on top of the latest developments. Where do you get your questions answered, and how do you know what new features are being developed?

Solution

Like most popular open source projects, Rails has a number of mailing lists that developers, system administrators, and other interested parties can join to stay abreast of the latest developments. These lists also have searchable archives that will help you understand the evolution of a feature. Currently, the following mailing lists are available:

rubyonrails-talk

General Rails topics: http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-talk

rubyonrails-core

Discussions about the core development and future of Rails: http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-core

rubyonrails-security

Security announcements: http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-security

rubyonrails-spinoffs

Discussions about prototype and script.aculo.us: http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-spinoffs

Also, http://ruby-forum.com has a number of Rails- and Ruby-related lists that you can join or read on the Web.

Another venue for communicating about Rails is the #rubyonrails IRC channel on the Freenode IRC network (http://irc.freenode.net). If you're new to IRC, you can learn more at http://www.irchelp.org. You'll need an IRC client such as X-Chat (http://www.xchat.org), Colloquy (http://colloquy.info), or for terminal fans, Irssi (http://www.irssi.org).

One great place to ask questions and look for answers is Rails Weenie (http://rails.techno-weenie.net). This site uses a points-based system in an attempt to persuade people to answer more questions, and to ask more sensible questions. When you create an account, you automatically receive five points. You can offer these points as a reward for questions you want answered. If someone answers the question, they get the number of points you offered. Also, if you answer other people's questions, you get the number of points they offered. It's not as responsive as IRC, but you're far more likely to get a more thorough answer to your question.

The Rails Forum (http://railsforum.com) is another active community of Rails users, with members of all levels of Rails experience.

Depending on where you live, you may be able to find a local Ruby or Rails user group you can join. The Ruby-Lang site has a good page on finding Ruby Brigades or Ruby User Groups (RUGs) in your area (http://www.ruby-lang.org/en/community/user-groups). If there isn't a local Rails group where you live, perhaps you can start one!

Lastly, a large part of the Rails community exists in the blogosphere, where participants post anything from tutorials to explorations of the latest new features of the framework as they're being developed. Two popular blogs that aggregate individual Ruby and Rails blogs are http://www.rubycorner.com and http://www.planetrubyonrails.org.

Discussion

The Rails community is relatively young, but strong and growing fast. If you've got questions, there are plenty of people willing to help you answer them. They'll help you get the hang of Rails development, and you can return the favor by helping others or even contributing to the project.

The Rails mailing list has lots of traffic: currently about 400 messages per day. This means that you can post a question and soon have it buried under a screen full of newer messages. The trick to coping with this information overload is to use very clear and descriptive subject lines and problem descriptions.

The #rubyonrails IRC channel is also very busy, but it is a great resource for instant feedback. Just make sure you respect simultaneous conversations. Rather than pasting code examples into the channel, post them to an external site (e.g., http://pastie.caboo.se). In fact, when you're in the IRC channel simply say, "Hi pastie," and the pastie bot will send you a link to where you can post your code.

See Also

• Section 1.2"