One of my favorite Rails bloggers has just announced what is the only good news I’ve heard thus far about RailsConf 2008. I’ll let Courtenay put it in his own words:

In May, if you don’t want to cough up almost a thousand dollars to go learn things you already know, but want to come to Portland to network with skilled Rails coders from all over the world, instead of hanging out in the lobby at the Lloyd Center like I did last year, come to Caboose Conf.

I completely agree: the conference last year was way overpriced and the content utterly unenlightening. I actually enjoyed RailsConf 1, but I found the O’Reilly version much less fun. It turned into an enterprisey schmooze-fest, with all us small-time folks wandering around looking to make individual connections in the vestibule. I’m not opposed to a bit of business, but I certainly am when it comes at the expense of authenticity, aesthetics, and social experience—which it certainly did last year.

My Rails consultancy was already scheming a RubyRags gathering at the super-swank Jupiter Hotel, which we were planning to bill as a sort of unRailsconf Railsconf party. (Sign up on our announcement list to get an invite and details in the next few weeks.) I’m guessing the folks interested in Cabooseconf are going to be fairly like-minded to the RubyRags crowd, so hopefully we’ll find some way to dovetail our events.

I’ll keep you posted.