Well, I certainly wasn't speaking about you specifically. However, did you not say that language promotion is what you do and that you quit Mozilla for not paying you enough for it here: https://steveklabnik.com/writing/thank-u-next ?
"promotion" doesn't appear in that post. My job was writing documentation. I did say that I was considering moving into evangelist/growth roles. My next job wasn't those two though, it was PM.
I guess you were trying to disparage Yehuda, then?
I mean that you are one of several. Hence the running joke is the "Rust Evangelism Strike Force" and not "that one rust guy."
An evangelist/growth focused role is exactly what a promoter is. If you spend large numbers of typical work-hours, which I'm assuming you're paid for, on social media to promote something, like Rust, or you go to conferences and events to speak publicly in promotion of something like Rust, then a "paid promoter" seems like a pretty accurate description.
Is that disparaging? Is that not what you are doing right now?
Given a 15 year retrospective, would you say that Rails lived up to the hype? If you think so, then there is nothing “disparaging” in that comment at all. If you don’t think so, then doesn’t that mean a reader should not regard such promotion with confidence? No need to be defensive.