Now, I'm not equipped to perform a statistically valid sampling of all conference talks, but pervasive anecdotal evidence lends credence to this notion.
There are more, but I don't think I need to internet-sleuth the entire set of well-known Ruby / Web personalities to demonstrate the point: a base lack of professionalism abounds.
Even thirty more examples would not neccessarily mean Rubyists are "often" like this. There are tens of thousands of them.
If ruby-talk, #ruby-lang, ruby-core, and Ruby conference talks were typically littered with swearing, there'd be a point. As it is, it's a generalisation formed off the back of a handful of cases. Stereotyping, if you will.
I've been covering the news in the Ruby world for about 6 years now, almost full time. People are inventing these silly stereotypes as a way to discredit the language and it's users, it's not based in reality.
Postel's law (gently reformulated) is important when you have one-to-many communication. "be conservative in what you send, be liberal in what you accept".
Heh, I really liked the analogy with Postel's law, and I guess you're right. The main criticising I've received about the blog post has been about the swearing, so I guess I could skip that next time.
Having swearing as a personal signature is like having a tattoo. It doesn't make you any "cooler", and everyone does it so it's not much of a signature.
It's not that it's offensive, it just says you are unable to convey the strength of your argument without the vulgarities. You lose critical (logical) thinkers when you resort to crass language; primarily because it says your argument relies on emotion, not logic.
In a discipline such as computer science, appeals to emotion are inherently untrustworthy and distracting. A reader shouldn't have to shift through pandering rhetoric to find the kernel of a supportable argument.
I'm sure you're very tough and edgy but that doesn't change the fact that incessant swearing is childish and annoying. It also makes choice words too common, further reducing their punch.
I'm no spring chicken, mind you, I wasn't offended by the swearing - it was just mildly annoying and distracting from the (pretty well thought-out) message. :)