What is causing this ActiveRecord::ReadOnlyRecord error?

Rails 2.3.3 and lower

From the ActiveRecord CHANGELOG^{(v1.12.0, October 16th, 2005)}:

Introduce read-only records. If you call object.readonly! then it will
mark the object as read-only and raise
ReadOnlyRecord if you call
object.save. object.readonly? reports
whether the object is read-only.
Passing :readonly => true to any
finder method will mark returned
records as read-only. The :joins
option now implies :readonly, so if
you use this option, saving the same
record will now fail. Use find_by_sql
to work around.

Using find_by_sql is not really an alternative as it returns raw row/column data, not ActiveRecords. You have two options:

1. Force the instance variable @readonly to false in the record (hack)
2. Use :include => :card instead of :join => :card

Rails 2.3.4 and above

Most of the above no longer holds true, after September 10 2012:

• using Record.find_by_sql is a viable option
• :readonly => true is automatically inferred only if :joins was specified without an explicit :select nor an explicit (or finder-scope-inherited) :readonly option (see the implementation of set_readonly_option! in active_record/base.rb for Rails 2.3.4, or the implementation of to_a in active_record/relation.rb and of custom_join_sql in active_record/relation/query_methods.rb for Rails 3.0.0)
• however, :readonly => true is always automatically inferred in has_and_belongs_to_many if the join table has more than the two foreign keys columns and :joins was specified without an explicit :select (i.e. user-supplied :readonly values are ignored — see finding_with_ambiguous_select? in active_record/associations/has_and_belongs_to_many_association.rb.)
• in conclusion, unless dealing with a special join table and has_and_belongs_to_many, then @aaronrustad‘s answer applies just fine in Rails 2.3.4 and 3.0.0.
• do not use :includes if you want to achieve an INNER JOIN (:includes implies a LEFT OUTER JOIN, which is less selective and less efficient than INNER JOIN.)