Back in July 2024, I published my last post on this blog. Since then, I’ve been quiet — at least here. Behind the scenes, I’ve been busy building something I’ve wanted for a long time: a dedicated platform for Ruby developers to stay up to date, share resources, and connect.
That platform is ActiveRubyist.com, and in this post, I’ll walk you through what it’s become, how it started, what I’ve learned from building it solo — and where it’s heading next.
From idea to working product
The idea for ActiveRubyist was born around mid-2023. I was starting a new job and found myself wishing for a central place to keep up with news, tutorials, blog posts, and tools from the Ruby and Rails ecosystem.
The first version of ActiveRubyist was extremely simple — it pulled content from a handful of RSS feeds and presented them in a basic interface. I built it using Ruby on Rails 7.0, PostgreSQL as the database, and Tailwind CSS with a pre-made theme that I lightly customized. It was deployed on Hetzner using Hatchbox.
Then, life happened. My new job demanded most of my attention, and the project sat idle for several months. But in fall 2024, I returned to it with fresh motivation and a desire to bring it to the next level.
By then, Rails 8 had been released, along with a new deployment tool: Kamal. It felt like the right moment to modernize the app and explore what the latest version of Rails had to offer.
Technical stack and development choices
Working with Ruby and Rails has never felt better. Rails has evolved into a full-stack framework that allows you to build powerful applications without constantly reaching for third-party tools or JavaScript-heavy solutions.
ActiveRubyist is now a Progressive Web App (PWA) with Hotwire-based interactivity. For authentication, I use devise, and for real-time notifications, noticed. Where possible, I lean into default Rails features: for background jobs, I use Solid Queue instead of Sidekiq, keeping everything aligned with the Rails way.
This project also became a playground. I tried out new gems, explored new APIs, and dove into areas I rarely get to touch at work — from performance tuning to monitoring production errors. One unexpected challenge? Dealing with spam bots registering fake accounts. I quickly integrated Cloudflare Turnstille - a verification tool to replace CAPTCHAs, which worked surprisingly well.
In short: this app became not just a project, but a real-world sandbox. And real-world problems always teach you more than toy apps ever can.
No community? No problem (yet)
One thing I haven’t focused on - yet — is building a user base or community around the project. ActiveRubyist isn’t promoted, doesn’t have a social media presence, and doesn’t even collect emails.
But there is one integration that’s live and active: every blog post on dev.to tagged with ruby is automatically aggregated and displayed on the ActiveRubyist posts page. So if you’re blogging about Ruby here, you’re already contributing to the platform — thank you!
Down the line, I’d love to create ways for users to submit content, recommend resources, and maybe even form local or topic-based groups. But for now, this remains a personal, ongoing project.
The most important lessons
Over the past year, I’ve learned more than I ever expected — not just about Rails, but about product building in general.
- Build for production early. The sooner your app is running in production, the sooner you’ll hit the kinds of issues that never show up locally — real-world traffic, bot attacks, caching quirks, performance bottlenecks.
- Keep things boring (and stable). Using default Rails solutions like Solid Queue instead of external dependencies reduces friction and increases focus. I spend less time configuring and more time shipping.
- End-to-end ownership is invaluable. From infrastructure and deploys to user experience and error monitoring, I now understand how much goes into running even a small app — and how satisfying it is to see it work.
Most of all, I gained confidence: that I can take an idea, build it, deploy it, and iterate on it without waiting for permission, a team, or a perfect plan.
Where ActiveRubyist is heading next
Today, ActiveRubyist is more than just a news aggregator. It now includes:
- Community groups
- Event creation and discovery
- Calendar with map integration
- Ticket generation for events
- Support for user-submitted RSS feeds
Users can already submit their own feed sources, which are summarized and linked directly to the original articles. This keeps credit where it's due, while still surfacing great content in one place.
I’m currently working on external platform integration: the idea is to allow event organizers to post once on ActiveRubyist and have their events sync across other calendars and platforms.
Beyond that, I plan to return to blogging more regularly. I want to share what I’m learning — not just about Ruby and Rails, but about the full lifecycle of building and maintaining software as a solo developer.
Final thoughts
This past year wasn’t a break from coding — it was a deep dive into independent development, platform design, and production responsibility. I built something I wanted to use, learned from every mistake along the way, and still have a long roadmap ahead.
If you’d like to see where the project goes next, feel free to check out activerubyist.com.
And if you’re writing Ruby content on dev.to — your posts are already on the site. 😉
Got feedback, questions, or just want to say hi? Drop a comment below or reach out. I'm always happy to connect with fellow Rubyists!
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