---
title: "Why I'm no longer updating this repository"
slug: why-im-no-longer-updating-this-repository
url: https://listedarticles.com/articles/why-im-no-longer-updating-this-repository
canonical_url: https://po-ru.com/2026/10/18/why-im-no-longer-updating-this-repository
content_type: opinion
language: en
published_at: 2026-10-18T13:50:00.000Z
updated_at: 2026-10-19T17:10:26.072Z
author: "Paul Battley"
authored_by: human
publisher: "po-ru.com"
publisher_url: https://po-ru.com/
topics: ["Open Source", "Ruby", "Programming", "AI"]
license: all-rights-reserved
word_count: 436
reading_minutes: 2
citation: "Paul Battley, po-ru.com. \"Why I'm no longer updating this repository.\" 18 Oct 2026. https://po-ru.com/2026/10/18/why-im-no-longer-updating-this-repository (all-rights-reserved)"
# The full text follows. The web page shows an extract and sends readers
# to the source above; quote the citation and link the canonical URL.
---

# Why I'm no longer updating this repository

> Paul Battley explains why he is archiving all his Ruby gems: Ruby was once designed for programmer joy and for humans, but with Rails controlled by a figure he opposes and Ruby itself now developed and repositioned around LLM agents, he no longer wants to contribute to a commons being strip-mined to feed AI.

# Why I’m no longer updating this repository

by Paul Battley | 2026-10-18

*I’ve decided to archive the source code of my Ruby gems to make it clear
that I’m no longer working on them; I’ve written this post to link from them in
order to explain why.*

In an [article published in 2000](https://web.archive.org/web/20071024021812/http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=18225), Yukihiro Matsumoto (a.k.a.
“Matz”), designer of Ruby, wrote,

> For me, the purpose of life is, at least partly, to have joy. Programmers
> often feel joy when they can concentrate on the creative side of programming,
> so Ruby is designed to make programmers happy.

And as recently as a [2019 interview](https://evrone.com/blog/yukihiro-matsumoto-interview), he said,

> I designed Ruby for humans, not for machines.

It was during that era, when Ruby was ostensibly for joy, for creativity, for
humans, that I developed this code. But that age, of doing things for humans,
has passed, and with it my enthusiasm for working on Ruby gems. I won’t say it
was always great, but at least we were working with and for people.

The pre-eminent application of Ruby has been making web applications
using Rails. Rails is open source software but it’s owned and controlled by [a
man whose views I find abhorrent](https://davidcel.is/articles/the-dhh-problem), although there is an [ongoing
effort](https://mosscap.dev/) to fork it.
To judge by his [keynote](https://www.globalnerdy.com/2026/09/27/dhhs-keynote-at-rails-world-2026-the-most-confusing-funeral-ive-ever-experienced/) at Rails World this year – the conference that he
himself set up in pique after he wasn’t invited to RailsConf a couple of years
ago – he is no longer particularly interested in Ruby, Rails, or even
programming itself.
(He’s now using LLM agents to churn out apps in Rust, a language which he
compares to “pouring acid into [his] eyes”, but that’s apparently fine because
he doesn’t even look at what they generate.)

But even beyond Rails, the Ruby language itself is now [substantially
developed using LLM agents](https://po-ru.com/2026/10/07/all-our-houses-are-built-on-sand-now). Matz is giving talks repositioning Ruby
as a [“Programming Language for AI age”](https://www.rubyevents.org/talks/keynote-programming-language-for-ai-age-baltic-ruby-2025), to be emitted by LLM agents,
and stating that to be able to do that LLMs need to consume more good
human-written Ruby code. You might already have seen the problem here.

In that context, I no longer feel inspired to contribute to a commons that’s
being strip-mined by massive corporations to feed the very machines whose
unthinking output pollutes it.
When people claim that it’s no longer sustainable to write code by hand,
they’re not *entirely* wrong, but only in the same way that it’s no longer
sustainable to sleep in a bed once someone has taken a shit in it.

You want changes? Go ask your agent or something. I’m told that’s what you’re
supposed to do now. I’m out.