gem.coop FAQ

What is gem.coop?

Gem.coop is a service for hosting gems, which are libraries, packages, and tools for the Ruby programming language.

Why use gem.coop?

Use gem.coop because it serves all of the gems available from RubyGems.org, and offers many other features besides. In addition to the full mirror of all public gems hosted at rubygems.org, our other features include security cooldowns, dedicated namespaces for publishing gems, and much more on the way. Check out our roadmap for a preview of what we’re building towards.

In addition to building new features, the gem.coop maintainers have instituted open governance policies. Our members have pledged to never take over control of any project we have hosted, published, or supported, the way Ruby Central did at RubyGems.org.

Who owns and runs gem.coop?

The gem.coop service is operated by the gem.coop maintainers as a cooperative, following the International Cooperative Alliance’s principles of a cooperative. The maintainers group was formed by inviting all contributors to RubyGems.org from the previous 12 months.

Today, the maintainers of the gem.coop project operate a “one maintainer, one vote” governance system, as described in our public governance documents. Once we have incorporated a dedicated legal cooperative, existing project maintainers will become worker-owners of that cooperative.

Who profits from gem.coop?

Today, no one. All income from gem.coop currently goes into the gem.coop open collective, where expenditures are fully public. Income from any source will go towards a future cooperative corporation that will own and operate the gem.coop service. Once the cooperative is set up, any future profits will be shared among the members, as decided by their own votes, based on the work they contribute.

Where is gem.coop’s terms of service and privacy policy?

All of our policies are published at /policies. Our terms of service, copyright policy, code of conduct, name dispute policy, and all of the others are available there.

Our privacy policy is in final revisions, and will be posted as soon as it is complete. We do not collect analytics information beyond the minimum needed to operate the service, and we will not sell any information we collect.