Ruby on Fails (story and stickers!)

Conferences, PHP 15 September 2008 | Comments

So, a week before PHP|TEK 2008 I came up with the genius idea to take the Ruby on Rails logo, and parody it. I wanted to express my views of Ruby on Rails (though never have using RoR) through this modification.

I took the logo and simply changed the “R” to an “F” using a font that was almost identical to the original (I used WhatTheFont to find a similar font).

I took my FAILS logo and made a bunch of buttons/magnets and brought them to PHP|TEK 2008. Apparently they were a bigger hit than I had prepared for, because I ran out of buttons and still had people asking me for them (note: you can purchase a button & magnet set at my etsy shop http://spooons.etsy.com).

At one of the PHP|TEK 2008 keynotes, Terry Chay included (at the last minute) my new FAILS logo in his The Internet is an Ogre presentation. I also hear that the logo is still in his presentation, to this day! He properly credited me upon the first use, so I am happy!

Well, for ZendCon 2008, I decided to order a batch of my FAILS logos as a sticker! So I re-created the logo in a high resolution format and got them printed, die-cut (the logo has 2 rounded corners), and shipped before the conference started. They came the DAY BEFORE, and looked AMAZING.

So now I have high-quality vinyl stickers, which plenty of people are enjoying, and I will be adding them to my etsy shop shortly. They will be $1 each. You can also purchase a sticker, button, magnet set for $2.25.

UPDATE: Read the comments, including my response. The purpose of “Ruby on Fails” is Satire/Parody. It is meant to be funny, for all – PHP and Ruby developers.

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  • whatman75
    Ignorance is bliss, I suppose. Hope you're not registered to vote...
  • zoot
    I just attended zendcon 2008 and saw your stickers. I don't get it, do you want people to think you are a zealot? Are you a zealot? From a professional developer's point of view, it just comes across as immature and not something appropriate at a conference. I've developed in PHP (and ZF) and in Rails, and I think both are fine. I enjoy using both. And you've even stated you've never tried rails. Try it. See what you think. Make a judgement based on experience.

    I know there are some "rails vs php" commercials, and I think they are equally pathetic.

    Ok, you're probably just having fun and I'm taking it too seriously, which is fine, but it's not something that should occur at a professional conference.
  • Zoot,

    Hello and good evening. While I am entirely biased towards this particular incarnation of ZendCon, I think there's something else happening here. PHP - like the unconference - is Open Source. The people who are there, take an interest, and have the skills/abilities take an active hand in driving it forward. This is the strength of PHP and has caused it to be innovative leaps and bounds beyond much of what else is out there.

    And I believe the PHP Community is much the same way. The community is driven forward by the people who take the time/effort and have the desire to do so. You have people like Ben Ramsey who are organizers and work to coordinate groups. You have people like Elizabeth Smith who are a voice of sanity and remind us that Windows is still out there. You have people like myself who are connectors and introduce people of common goals. And then you have people such as Spoons (Christian) who occasionally kick people and remind all of us to have and keep our sense of humor and have a good time.

    I think the fact that we can disagree with each other and still appreciate each others' opinions makes the community welcoming and a little less intimidating for outsiders and newbies.

    My 0.02.
  • zoot
    Hi Keith

    Fair enough - I know PHP has a great community, it is obvious. I've actually been programming in PHP for a LOT (years and years) longer than Rails, I like PHP, it's good to program in, but so is rails...after you get used to it ;)

    And yes, I understand the humour, maybe it just doesn't appeal to me in that particular environment.

    Funny though, if you read the words in the above photo, it actually says "PHP Fails" ;)

    Thanks for the response.
  • matt
    Hey come on, you never kick a scripting language when it's down!! Apart from that, it's hilarious ;)
  • @zoot, touché re: "PHP Fails". Hahaha.
  • speedmax
    As a long time CakePHP developer, this is beyond childish. take either ruby as a language or rails as a framework. i don't see either one as a failure.


    Yes i do both professionally.
  • I personally do not see how this is childish (re:speedmax) or immature (re:zoot). I took the name of something and did a play-on-words joke regarding it. I have never used RoR, and thus have no experiential basis for my joke. I simply listened to the community (PHP and Non-PHP developers) regarding their views of both the language and the framework surrounding RoR and created a joke (and I was heavily inspired by Terry Chay, who thinks _ALL_ frameworks fail, including PHP frameworks)

    I was also inspired by current memes surrounding twitter, which has/had a front end written in RoR and is notorious for crashing (regardless of whether or not it is RoR causing the downtime -- it is still blamed, reinforcing the meme that Ruby Fails on Rails)

    It is supposed to be funny. Everyone needs to learn to laugh and stop being so serious and 'professional' all the time.

    I have handed these out to RoR developers, who laughed, and found the joke funny (as it is supposed to be). If I was handed clever "Phails" or "PHPhails" or "PoorHorribleParser" or "Pretty Happy Pink" stickers, I would laugh -- and proudly display them. Why? Because it is funny! The "other side" or the "other" will always have a differing opinion. PHP developers have a certain opinion of Ruby,Java,PHP4,etc -- likewise, the others have their opinions regarding other languages... THIS IS WHY YOU CHOSE THE LANGUAGE YOU CHOSE! You preferred it over others, because of personal insight and your level of comfort. No comparison matrix can define, as fact, what language and subsequent framework is "The Best", because said matrices are all biased by personal and community preference.

    In conclusion (and here is where I will act like a child): I am right, and you are wrong. HA, I win.
  • Chris
    I'm a Rails developer and thought these stickers were hilarious.
  • Love it... but I am not sure if I should order one... could be misinterpreted when being a rails developer :D
  • RAILZ IS SRS BZNS. DONUT HATE TEH RAILS.
  • Next up. FAILS case badges. I have a Hackintosh in need of a case badge. :-D

    Great to see they're so popular. I'm going to kepp the stickers in my bag and give them to anyone who asks.
  • P.S. As a long time PHP developer and user of RoR since before any of these peons (trust me), I’m offended!

    Offended, I say!

    (…that I didn’t think of this first.)
  • Actually, "Pretty Happy Pink" isn't that funny...
  • Eric N.
    I sport a Fails vinyl sticker on my laptop -- I also code in PHP and some Fails. Come on, it's funny. Sticklers!
  • I'm sporting one of these on my DVD burner. It is the best. sticker. EVER! hahaha ;)
  • I managed to give all my Ruby on Fails stickers away within moments at my first Web 2.0 function I brought them too. *sigh* All empty. :-(
  • Zing
    The message: Rails fails but PHP is still an elephant.
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