I know you've been burned, but let's be fair. It's not an "interest" issue, or a "refusal" issue but one of available time. alterego has simply had other (vastly more important) priorities to focus on than the Ruby packaging. But, really, this just goes to illustrate exactly why having things in Extras is so important. When you have source packages available you're not beholden to a single maintainer to continue maintaining things. If they get hit by a bus, somebody else can step up in their place and everyone depending on them isn't left SOL.