RubyConf has joined RailsConf & RailsWorld as another exclusive discriminatory unexcellent conference

(Originally published as this blog post: https://andymaleh.blogspot.com/2026/06/rubyconf-has-joined-railsconfrailsworld.html)

RubyConf has joined RailsConf & RailsWorld as another exclusive discriminatory unexcellent conference by discriminating against any speakers who submit talks that cover Frontend Ruby technologies or dethrone React/JavaScript in any way. In 2025, I won an award for a highly innovative and outside-the-box Ruby open-source project at an international Japanese tech competition that Matz, the creator of Ruby himself, presided on in addition to other judges. My project really impressed Matz, who is the reason for all the Ruby-related conferences existing in the first place, but in spite of that, both RailsConf and RailsWorld rejected my talk about my award-winning open-source project in 2025 despite the Ruby on Rails community sorely needing a Frontend Ruby solution that would fill a gap not handled by Hotwire; that is true Frontend Development in Ruby (to build frontend-local apps like a UML Diagrammer for example). Given that I am the most qualified person to talk about Frontend Development in Ruby on Rails using real Ruby in the Browser, and no other Frontend technologies rival my project in either productivity or simplicity/maintainability, the rejections came across as discrimination/exclusion and mediocrity/closed-mindedness/lack of appreciation for excellence. After all, if you reject an open-source project that won an award by Matz, your action is sending everyone the discouraging message that it doesn't matter how hard Software Engineers work to produce a unique innovation; they will stil be rejected because of discrimination and lack of appreciation for excellence if it comes from outside the core group behind Rails and some of their sponsors/friends. The reason this is also discrimination is because I was not rejected due to being disqualified while the project I want to talk about provides great value to the Ruby on Rails community. It saves Ruby on Rails Software Engineers who use JavaScript libraries like React.js/Angular/Vue/Svelte 6 months of Frontend work every year. I don't know many talks at RubyConf in general that can offer the same benefit. And, I am sure that nobody is as qualified as me on the subject of Ruby Frontend Development, plus no one at either RailsConf or RailsWorld has won a similar award to mine at an international tech competition that was judged by Matz (and I have done it one other time previously too in fact).

Fortunately, this year, my award-winning open-source project got accepted at RubyConf Austria 2026 (30-minute talk) and wroclove.rb 2026 (3-hour workshop). Those conferences are much better run than RailsConf and RailsWorld in welcoming innovation and being inclusive! wroclove.rb 2026 literally says on their website that they "want to confront ideas", in contrast to RailsConf and RailsWorld running away from ideas that don't come from the Rails core devs and some of their sponsors/friends (a form of discrimination). RubyConf Austria & wroclove.rb don't discriminate against Frontend Ruby projects and aren't offended by a talk that dethrones React/JavaScript, especially if already approved by Matz, the creator of Ruby. They welcome the excellence and hard work that went into creating my award-winning open-source Ruby project and winning an award from Matz, the creator of Ruby. In other words, they encourage the Ruby community to be excellent and follow my example in innovation and thinking outside the box. In fact, I met Chad Fowler at RubyConf Austria 2026, and he attended my talk, then told me "good job" afterwards. For those who don't know, Chad Fowler founded RubyConf back in 2001.

So, I submitted my award-winning open-source project's talk to RubyConf in 2026 thinking they might be less averse to Frontend Ruby, especially if the speaker won an award from Matz, given RubyConf is typically more open-minded about Ruby innovations outside of core Rails. Well, I got rejected despite being accepted by Matz, the creator of the language that conference was founded upon. I asked by email for the reasons for the rejection and for feedback to help improve myself in case they want me to do better before getting accepted (though to be frank, I won an award from the creator of Ruby himself, and there isn't anything that can top that). They never responded.

I want to clarify that I have supported RubyConf in the past by giving talks/workshops at it and by donating my speaker stipends/hotel-pay (over $1000 or $2000 for all the conferences I spoke at) back to RubyCentral for the benefit of the Ruby community as a whole with everyone in it. So, it's not much to ask for a response as to why I encountered behavior that came across as discrimination when I have gone above and beyond in the past in supporting RubyConf and RubyCentral.

Eventually, I remembered that I have 2 RubyConf/RubyCentral people as LinkedIn connections, Jason Swett and Freedom Dumlao, so I contacted them asking the same question. I also pointed out to them that I am a former RubyConf speaker who donated his speaking stipends from the last 3 RubyConfs back to RubyCentral for the benefit of the Ruby community at large (that's over $1000). So, being treated with respect and non-discrimination is the least I could expect from RubyCentral.

Jason Swett chose the coward's plea and just never responded, which is how true discriminators handle discrimination when it's raised to them. The reason this incriminates him 100% is because if he truly wasn't involved in discrimination, he would have at least responded by saying he sympathizes with me perceiving discrimination and by indicating he is shocked that a project that won an award from Matz (when many other RubyConf talk projects didn't win any awards from Matz) got rejected at RubyConf. Honestly, Jason reminds me of employees that my employers fired in the past. Lack of presence and visibility is usually the sign of an unreliable employee who is never there for others. So, I advise against hiring Jason Swett (unless he responds to me and clears up my experienced discrimination).

Freedom Dumlao didn't respond to my first message, but at least responded to my 2nd follow-up message. He gets some points for that. Otherwise, his response was very weird and defensive. He claimed with a very unfriendly tone that I didn't know him even though him and I met at RubyConf 2024 and sat at the same eating table multiple times while having conversations that eventually led to connecting on LinkedIn. In fact, it sounded like he was trying to get out of responsibility by claiming I did not know him enough (a very unnice unfriendly thing to say from a Rubyist) even though the world is a meritocracy anyways, meaning people are known through their actions in day to day interactions, whether ethical or unethical. The way he said that came across as immature and irresponsible, not the way someone at RubyCentral should be talking. After all, a responsible person would have not focused on that, yet focused on my experience of discrimination and how strange it is that a project that was approved by Matz in a very difficult international competition and got a "good job" remark from Chad Fowler (the founder of RubyConf) got rejected at RubyConf, which would indicate RubyConf's staff are unqualified and do not appreciate excellence, in addition to having discriminatory biases, like the bias against Frontend Ruby and biases for React/JavaScript that cause offense if they are dethroned (shameful at a Ruby conference that is supposed to make Software Engineers feel safe about loving Ruby more than other languages). None of them have won similar awards from Matz, most likely in fact. A person in Freedom's position should have been sincerely concerned and should have noticed the problem and then promised a solution without making any excuses, just like how excellent organizations behave. Given that he didn't respond that way, even if I didn't know him, his reaction told me and everyone everything about him that we need to know about who he really is. He showed that he's part of the problem not the solution.

Regarding my donations to RubyCentral that exceed $1000, Freedom tried to deny the value of my donation by saying he donated more to RubyCentral, believe it or not! What a creepy disrespectful way to talk to someone who gave you money for free without being required to. Invalidating a donation is NOT a way to encourage people to continue donating, yet sends the message that donations are discouraged because in the end, they won't matter anyways as "someone else donated more than you". That was the most unhinged unprofessional encounter I've had from someone who is supposed to be a professional! Honestly, it doesn't matter how much he donated. My donations still have the same value in helping RubyCentral and the Ruby community regardless. Other people's donations definitely don't invalidate mine.

Freedom also proceeded to claim that there was "no discrimination" because all their talks are reviewed anonymously. EXCEPT, my talk was NOT reviewed anonymously, because it mentions a public project on GitHub (which shows the author as soon as one visits it) and a public award (with the winner's name) that the project won from Matz at a public competition.

I responded to inform him that my proposal submission wasn't anonymous as that was impossible with the talk being about a GitHub project and having won an award. And, I informed him that my donation is definitely NOT invalidated because he donated more. Freedom then chose the coward's plea and didn't respond. I advise against hiring Freedom Dumlao for any jobs or services as a result. He's the kind of selfish irresponsible excuse maker who is only about protecting his own hide while not caring about encouraging and maintaining excellence in a community, nor respecting people who donate to the community without being required to.

You see what i'm dealing with here!? Total trash! These are the kind of people running RubyCentral today! No matter it encountered issues last year with the Mike Perham vs DHH debacle, in addition to stopping RailsConf. The Ruby community is being run by total clowns who are discriminatory, unethical, and unprofessional!

I have ZERO interest in attending RubyConf 2026 as a result. After all, if they rejected a talk by one of the best open-source Ruby projects to come out in 2025 as to win an award by Matz, the creator of Ruby himself, then they probably rejected many other project talks that are top equality because of the lack of qualification of RubyConf staff in 2026. For all we care, we got the dumbest, but most popular, talks in RubyConf 2026, but smart Software Engineers know that popularity is NOT quality. After all, PHP/WordPress is more popular than Rails, but definitely inferior in productivity and maintainability, which is why Ruby on Rails devs don't use those technologies in general.

In conclusion, RubyConf in 2026 has become an exclusive discriminatory unexcellent conference, which is where people go to become dumber and/or meaner.

I have covered the topic of covert discrimination in the Ruby community before. What I encountered at the hands of the RubyConf folks is classic covert discrimination. Spread the word to help stop discrimination and unexcellence in the Ruby community! In the meantime, I'll make sure to only attend and speak at Ruby conferences that don't have unprofessional unexcellent discriminatory staff.

P.S. To prove that I'm reasonable and on the right side of this, I will acknowledge that nobody is perfect and everyone makes mistakes. What distinguishes good people from bad people though is that good people will admit their errors and apologize for their mistakes when they are pointed out to them whereas bad people will act aloof and commit more discrimination/exclusion by ignoring you when that happens. If any of the problematic people mentioned in the article change their mind and decide to respond like real men (not by hiding like cowards) to resolve my concerns about discrimination/exclusion/unexcellence for the benefit of the cheated Ruby community that missed out on all the Matz-loved value provided by an award winning open-source Ruby project that impressed Matz, then I'll delete this blog post.