Why I Leave Ruby Central This is a detailed personal account by a contributor named simi explaining their decision to leave the Ruby Central organization due to a governance and community conflict. The gist is an open letter elaborating on the situation, its causes, and personal reflections. --- Overview Ruby Central, a non-profit entity managing core Ruby infrastructure, took unilateral action to remove maintainers from projects like RubyGems, Bundler, and RubyGems.org. The action was justified privately as removing “dangerous operators” but effectively served to assert corporate control over the projects. The contributor sees this as a dictatorial move, disconnected from community-driven open source governance. This takeover has fractured the community and left critical projects mostly unmaintained. The contributor no longer wishes to cooperate with Ruby Central, particularly since future contributions might require signing a Contributor License Agreement (CLA). --- Key Points What Actually Happened Ruby Central, operating through service operators, took over the entire RubyGems GitHub organization. Maintainers were removed regardless of their actual role or behavior. This replaced community stewardship with centralized control. Shopify is identified as the main sponsor, though the contributor expresses respect towards Shopify but criticizes their influence on governance. Personal Conclusion The contributor tried to unify the community and find a resolution. After discussions and meetings, it became clear Ruby Central is unwilling to restore community control. The unilateral control of RubyGems' organization is unacceptable. The contributor’s preferred solution was to finalize a governance model and invite all parties into a community cooperative, but that was rejected. The takeover was supported by corporate sponsorship pressures, described as bordering on blackmail. Ruby Central’s Failure The takeover did not happen in a vacuum but is a failure of Ruby Central and its board. The board consists largely of Shopify-affiliated members and others lacking deep community understanding. Ruby Central ignored warnings about risks to RubyGems.org. The notion of "MINASWAN" (Matz is nice and so we all are) as a guiding philosophy is described as a myth. Leadership figures previously admired are revealed to have human flaws detrimental to community trust. Empty Statements and Real Danger Official Ruby Central statements are labeled as lies. Instead of improving stewardship, their actions put RubyGems.org in a dangerous, mostly unmaintained state. Rather than admitting mistakes, they published vague corporate messaging instead of truth and calls for help. The contributor argues the removal targeted specific maintainers, not just "dangerous operators." Board Without Community Understanding Ruby Central board members are criticized for lacking community knowledge and only expressing love for Ruby as qualification. The board is accused of prioritizing corporate interests over community needs. Ideal board composition would include people with strong community investment, governance knowledge, and courage to protect community over corporations. Corporate Interests Over Community Ruby Central prioritized corporate sponsorship needs over community health. The community was "thrown overboard" for corporate benefit. RubyGems.org has been left mostly unmaintained rather than compromise on corporate demands. The only directly involved security maintainer was removed, leaving no replacement. Understanding Problems, Rejecting the Approach The contributor acknowledges conflicts in the community and valid reasons for change. However, Ruby Central’s heavy-handed method was wrong. Such a “hand of God” deus ex machina intervention is contrary to open source principles. The contributor is leaving cooperation with Ruby Central and