Social overload

So, just how many Rails social sites are out there? Seems everyone and his dog is in the process of creating a new one. I suppose this shouldn't be really surprising given how deeply entwined Rails is with the "Web 2.0 revolution"... but still.

Here is a shortlist of my current profiles:

Working With Rails

By far the best of the lot. It seems to have been around the longest - and if you're not on it, you're not anybody. This is the site that features the luminaries of the Ruby and Rails world. It also seems to be in active upgrade mode atm. They've just added a whole bunch more features.

Network of Ruby Freelancers

You can't access this site without registering. The concept is that this site marrys up freelancers with firms looking to hire. It's still a bit rough-and-ready, but it's only really just been launched. Still, there are already over 50 freelancers listing on it. They also cater for sub-contracting, allowing you to quote your sub-contract rate so other freelancers can pass their work on if they're overloaded.

Rails for all

I find this site to be way too complicated. I really like the navigation options (something that WWR is missing), but once you start trying to get to actual data, things aren't intuitive. It's also not as stable as it could be (the search fell over for no reason). There's a lot of potential here, but I think the developers tried to swallow too much at once. It has about the same level of functionality as WWR, but is far less dependable.

Freelancers on rails

Not a social-site per se, but a google-group intended for conversations about freelance rails contracting. Mentoring, tips and experiences. The members are pretty helpful and the topics cover a wide range of issues within freelancing. Worth joining if you're a freelancer.

Technorati

Ok, so this definitely isn't a rails-specific social site, but there are a lot of rails-specific blogs available here. I probably don't need to say more.