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

  • michaelmelanson@lemmy.caEnglish
    1419·
    10 months ago

    This is a good enough reason to fork a project and establish a new community with new norms.

    • dinoEnglish
      31·
      10 months ago

      I mean if he is the lead dev, then I doubt this makes much sense.

      • michaelmelanson@lemmy.caEnglish
        19·
        10 months ago

        Hyprland is itself a fork of wlroots, a project that the author of this post created, so this has happened before and they definitely have the skills to bootstrap a new project.

        • orangeboats@lemmy.world
          20·
          10 months ago

          It’s not a fork of wlroots. wlroots is a library to assist developers in creating Wayland compositors.

        • aard@kyu.de
          8·
          10 months ago

          Hyprland is itself a fork of wlroots, a project that the author of this post created

          No, it is not. wlroots is plumbing containing parts a compositor commonly would need to implement, and many compositors - including hyprland - sit on top of that to avoid reinventing the wheel over and over again.