There are also plenty of people here who want to hack on something else and just need a website. That's why free, pre-made, packaged, ready-to-use scripts and templates will always be popular.

Don't see it as a mass-product, just because it was offered to a mass of audience, like the HN Crowd, who certainly bookmarked or shared it with friends. That won't make it a mass-product. The future you have to deal with is that more people jump into the DIY-Bandwagon and given the opportunity present their stuff to a huge audience. Which in return either requires improvements, perfectly deals with it (making it a part of the web-toolchain), or neglects the idea/product.

     • The good thing about this development is that you will get more free stuff that you can try out, remix, fix and break things to your liking (given that's it's opensource).

     • The bad things is that you will have to eat the bugs in your soup, sir. You can scream for a new soup, but there is no guarantee that you'll get a new one, unless many people like you are unsatisfied, or you make your voice heard on the media.

Constant flux is something you have to deal with in IT, but that doesn't mean that your hard learned lessons are gone. They are more valid than ever and you'll be amongst the few who still understand it. The DIY-Culture is only trying to understand this on a personal level and wants independant, more rapid innovation.

The reason for all that bases in our frustration with the world and the internet that allows us to go out and "fix it for the rest of us".

You could build your own webserver and scalable platform too. On the other hand, having a lot of what amounts to infrastructure built for you lets you focus on the real problem you're trying to solve rather than reinventing the wheel.

Sometimes you're more interested in building the higher level part than the lower level part.

If my goal is to build a great CMS for Rails, does it ultimately matter if I chose to use a Start Bootstrap template for my views?

I have lots of experience with CMS and have also contributed to a CMS and still do QA. Yes, Sir it is a very important decision unless you give your users a very easy way to replace it for the front- and backend. People really often come and want to extend things in the backend, that leasds to customizations and some companies prefer white-labeled CMS's.

For me, I built Start Bootstrap from my own personal library of starter templates that I used for my company. Once Bootstrap 3 came around I updated my personal starter templates and figured why not share them with the world.

They serve a purpose as learning tools, inspiration, reference, or a quick way to get a decent looking site out for someone.

I have so much respect for the people out there who can build awesome things from scratch though, the talent of some designers out there blows my mind, and for something to really stand out and be unique I think custom is the only way to go.