Hyprland is a toxic community

Hyprland is an open source Wayland compositor based on wlroots, a project I started back in 2017 to make it easier to build good Wayland compositors. It’s a project which is loved by its users for its emphasis on customization and “eye candy” – beautiful graphics and animations, each configuration tailored to the unique look and feel imagined by the user who creates it. It’s a very exciting project!

Unfortunately, the effect is spoilt by an incredibly toxic and hateful community. I cannot recommend Hyprland to anyone who is not prepared to steer well clear of its community spaces. Imagine a high school boys’ locker room come to life on Discord and GitHub and you’ll get an idea of what it’s like.

I empathise with Vaxry. I remember being young, smart, productive… and mean. I did some cool stuff, but I deeply regret the way I treated people. It wasn’t really my fault – I was a product of my environment – but it was my responsibility. Today, I’m proud to have built many welcoming communities, where people are rewarded for their involvement, rather than coming away from their experience hurt. What motivates us to build and give away free software if not bringing joy to ourselves and others? Can we be proud of a community which brings more suffering into the world?

Update: Response from Vaxry, Hyprland Developer

lckdscl,

CW: slurs, bigotry

Well this was apparently their chat log. I found the link through the comments on Hacker News. Whatever you think of Drew, he’s not wrong at all, they sound like they just discovered 4chan.

kilgore_trout,

Take every opinion from Drew DeVault with a grain of salt.

xavier666,

Your first mistake was joining a Discord group for a software product. Github pages / bug-tracker or GTFO.

mojo,

this guy just learned about discord general chats lol

they’re all this bad, and also they’re absolutely dogshit for open source software so I have no idea why people make them

moonpiedumplings,

I’m in the max server limit, 100 right now, and many of those are people who treat discord as github, which is so annoying (but many projects are of questionable legality, like Dan’s palace which makes and distributes completed android and vita ports of other games for free).

One time I got excited since there was announcement for the half life 2 android source port discord. I thought it was a big update or maybe a new game, but what I saw was something like:

the memes channel is for memes, not child porn

It’s just discord that has these issues. Matrix or IRC don’t have these problems. Discord just creates a kind of culture that fosters this stuff.

blindbunny,

Nope it’s all over matrix as well.

Dirk,
@Dirk@lemmy.ml avatar
ExLisper,

Who cares about the community? If it’s useful and works I will use it. It’s not like I’m paying for it. If the community is toxic people will not contribute to the project. If they don’t need contributors they can do whatever they like.

spiffeeroo,

Hyprland dev’s response to blog post: blog.vaxry.net/articles/2023-hyprlandsCommunity

rjek,

I struggle to be interested in any bling project written by C++ “coders” since they were 9 who don’t even know how copyright works so use a pseudonym there instead - they’re almost always inexperienced children. And children are almost always sociopaths.

drspod,

Is Hyprland violating someone’s copyright?

RaivoKulli,

It wasn’t really my fault – I was a product of my environment

Riiight.

TeryVeneno,

You kinda left out the next line in which he says

But it was my responsibility

That’s the whole statement and tbh I agree. It’s never anyone’s fault for being a bad person, but it is 100% their responsibility to right their wrongs.

Zamundaaa,

The very next words are “but it was my responsibility”… what exactly is bad about that statement if you don’t intentionally cherry pick a bad quote?

starman,
@starman@programming.dev avatar

As someone on HackerNews said:

I’ve never felt the need for any “community” for my window manager of choice

phario,

Hmmm. If abuse happens, is the right idea to say that “I don’t need this community”?

I’m not sure how that HackerNews comment helps in the slightest. If my university has an obscure basket weaving community and people are getting abused in that community, should I just say “Eh we don’t actually need a basket weaving community”.

It’s also amusing to me that a commenter on a relatively obscure and niche website is complaining that that don’t need (or care about abuse that transpired on) a niche community from another website. And then this comment is echoed in yet another niche community.

starman,
@starman@programming.dev avatar

I just wanted to point out that it’s ridiculous to form some kind religion¹ around a wayland compositor.

Also, I don’t want anybody to think I’m supporting what’s happening there. I just don’t really care about Hyprland’s community because I’m not part of it.

¹Hyprland’s discord server is named “Church of Hyprland”

sky,

[A trans person] joined the Discord server and made a big deal out of their pronouns […] because they put their pronouns in their nickname and made a big deal out of them because people were referring to them as “he” [misgendering them], which, on the Internet, let’s be real, is the default.

Damn I didn’t know women didn’t exist on the internet! Also “making a big deal out of ones pronouns” is almost never the case, it’s always just a normal request for the respect of addressing someone properly.

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