Losing Ezra hit me pretty hard. He was a founder at Engine Yard, and I was a customer for many years. He landed me as a customer because he came out and met me, and without any sort of discussion about business or anything, he just dove into helping architect a solution. I was sold immediately.
Years later I worked closely with him on helping him get his 3D printer company off the ground. Sadly though, he died right in the middle of a very challenging time for him and his company.
The Ruby community has certainly lost a lot of people like Chris and Jim (yet another selfless giant) and Ezra.
The only consolation I can think of is how many more selfless people are in the Ruby community still. And not just the Ruby community, but so many communities just like it.
It never hurts to reach out to people, even if you think they won't respond. If you appreciate someone, tell them. It doesn't need to be over the top praise (unless it is over-the-top-praise-worthy).
It can be simple. For example, I just sent this to someone who I was thinking about just now: "<name>, thank you for taking the time to patiently respond to comments in the PR I submitted. You helped clear up some confusion that I wasn't even aware I'd introduced when describing <the implementation of a complicated thing>. You freed up at least a few hours of my day, which I'm really grateful for."
