I’m going to RailsConf 2006 in Chicago next month: 
The interesting thing about this is that I signed up before I knew how popular it would be – it sold out in a few days, so the pent-up demand must have been remarkable. More remarkable is that it sold out long before the full list of speakers and talks was released (or even existed). Me and 500 other people didn’t even need to know what/who would be there, to decide to go. For me, that is because I have a project going that uses Rails, and I generally enjoy software conferences, and this one is close.
But maybe there is more. Is Ruby+Rails a fad? A cult? I nearly always enjoy the Ruby on Rails Podcast, but its intro music proudly and bizarrely claims that “we’re building a religion”.
I don’t know who “we” are, but I’m not on board with that.