Antipattern: Service Object Soup

The smell

• app/services/ full of verb-named *Service classes (CreateUserService, UpdateUserService, SendWelcomeEmailService)
• Each has def self.call(...) or def initialize; def call
• Models are inert — services orchestrate every change
• Tests stub the service collaborators rather than exercising the model
• Discoverability: "where does X happen?" → "search services/"

Why it hurts

• Models become anemic (anemic-domain-model)
• Verb-named classes don't compose — DI gymnastics needed to chain them
• Encourages procedural code in OO clothing
• DHH/Manrubia: "Vanilla Rails is plenty." Concerns + POROs + AR verbs cover most cases