Ruby is stabilizing, but it's stabilizing in a bad way. It's establishing itself as a language for people who throw tantrums, claim they would never hire a person who does not use a mac, and whose cat-fighting would put cats to shame.
Python, on the other hand, is establishing itself as a serious tool for serious programmers. Python developers don't get calls from crazy teenagers and blog about it.
People like that are swimming in a pond, and they are holding such long discussions about the state of the water in the pond, that they don't notice the rivers, lakes and oceans around them.
It's somewhat hard not to stereotype them when the loudest among them behave like ill-behaved 8 year-old children.
I know there is a lot of very serious people using Ruby (and Rails), but the community that builds businesses around the technology needs to deliver a message to the kids: that they should behave or their toys will be taken away.
I use Python most of the time I have to program. For the past months, my working tools have been Outlook, Project, Word and Excel, so, my impact on the art of programming is negligible. On occasion, I have been seen coding in C, C++, C#, Java, Forth, Perl, PHP, Dataflex (on Unix), Mantis (on IBM/370s - I miss the 3278 terminals), several different BASIC implementations (back all the way to Apple IIs and Sinclair ZX series), various flavors of SQL and even Bash when the need arises. During my higher education, I used FORTRAN several times. I learned OOP on Smalltalk and made some simple programs in Actor (a ALGOL-ish language very much inspired by Smalltalk).
Feel free to avoid any language you want. The point I was making is that I have no energy to deal with childish behavior of toxic community leaders and their abandoned minions. Life is too short and my to-do list is way too long. :-)
I am not saying I will not use Ruby or Rails - it's a very nice stack. But, most certainly, I will not invest much time contributing to it unless the rest of the community sheds away its more toxic members.
It's funny that the reputations used to be reversed; that the Python community was insular and unfriendly to newcomers, and the Ruby community was welcoming and helpful.
What you can clearly see between the tenors of the two communities is that there is more surface-level drama in the Ruby community.
What that has to do with anything professional, I have no idea. I read Ruby blog posts and mailing list entries, but I don't write them; I write code (and here) instead.
Python might not have as many bloggers as a hip language like Ruby, but by community I mean people contributing to open source python projects, writing papers that use python, etc.
Python, on the other hand, is establishing itself as a serious tool for serious programmers. Python developers don't get calls from crazy teenagers and blog about it.
People like that are swimming in a pond, and they are holding such long discussions about the state of the water in the pond, that they don't notice the rivers, lakes and oceans around them.
I would still not bet any money on Ruby.