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Hyprland-toxicity.md (10282B)

    

  1. ---
  2. title: Hyprland is a toxic community
  3. date: 2023-09-17
  4. ---
  6. [Hyprland][0] is an open source Wayland compositor based on [wlroots][1], a
  7. project I started back in 2017 to make it easier to build good Wayland
  8. compositors. It's a project which is loved by its users for its emphasis on
  9. customization and "eye candy" -- beautiful graphics and animations, each
  10. configuration tailored to the unique look and feel imagined by the user who
  11. creates it. It's a very exciting project!
  13. [0]: https://hyprland.org/
  14. [1]: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/wlroots/wlroots
  16. Unfortunately, the effect is spoilt by an incredibly toxic and hateful
  17. community. I cannot recommend Hyprland to anyone who is not prepared to steer
  18. well clear of its community spaces. Imagine a high school boys' locker room come
  19. to life on Discord and GitHub and you'll get an idea of what it's like.
  21. I became aware of the issues with Hyprland's community after details of numerous
  22. hateful incidents on their Discord came to my attention by way of  the
  23. grapevine. Most of them stem from the community's tolerance of hate: community
  24. members are allowed to express hateful views with impunity, up to and including
  25. astonishing views such as endorsements of eugenics and calls for hate-motivated
  26. violence. Such comments are treated as another act in the one big inside joke
  27. that is the Hyprland community -- the community prefers not to take itself "too
  28. seriously". Hate is moderated only if it is "disruptive" (e.g. presents as
  29. spam), but hate presented with a veneer of decorum (or sarcasm) is tolerated,
  30. and when challenged, it's laughed off as a joke.
  32. In one particular incident, the moderators of the Discord server engaged in a
  33. harassment campaign against a transgender user, including using their moderator
  34. privileges to edit the pronouns in their username from "they/she" to
  35. "who/cares". These roles should be held by trusted community leaders, and it's
  36. from their behavior that the community's culture and norms stem -- they set an
  37. example for the community and define what behaviors are acceptable or expected.
  38. The problem comes from the top down.
  40. Someone recently pitched a code of conduct -- something that this project sorely
  41. needs -- in a [GitHub issue][2]. This thread does not have much overt hate, but
  42. it does clearly show how callous and just plain *mean* the community is,
  43. including its leadership (Vaxerski is the original author of Hyprland).
  44. Everything is a joke and anyone who wants to be "serious" about anything is
  45. mercilessly bullied and made fun of. Quoting this discussion:
  47. [2]: https://web.archive.org/web/20230917015135/https://github.com/hyprwm/Hyprland/issues/3209
  49. > I think [a Code of Conduct] is pretty discriminatory towards people that
  50. > prefer a close, hostile, homogeneous, exclusive, and unhealthy community.
  52. > First of all, why would I pledge to uphold any values? Seems like just
  53. > inconveniencing myself. [...] If I'd want to moderate, I'd spend 90% of the
  54. > time reading kids arguing about bullshit instead of coding.
  56. > If you don't know how to behave without a wall of text explaining how to
  57. > behave online then you shouldn't be online.
  59. I am not someone who believes all projects need a code of conduct, *if* there
  60. exists a reasonable standard of conduct in its absence -- and that means having
  61. a community that does not bully and harass others for expressing differing
  62. points of view, let alone for simply having a marginalized identity.
  64. I would have preferred to address these matters in private, so I reached out to
  65. Vaxry in February. He responded with a lack of critical awareness over how
  66. toxicity presents in his community. However, following my email, he put out a
  67. poll for the Discord community to see if the community members experienced
  68. harassment in the community -- apparently 40% of respondents reported such
  69. experiences. Vaxry et al implemented new moderation policies as a result. But
  70. these changes did not seem to work: the problems are still present, and the
  71. community is still a toxic place that facilitates bullying and hate, including
  72. from the community leaders.
  74. Following my email conversation with Vaxry, he appeared on [a podcast][3] to
  75. discuss toxicity in the Hyprland community. This quote from the interview
  76. clearly illustrates the attitude of the leadership:
  78. [3]: https://invidious.mnus.de/watch?v=nskemNa_Kn4
  80. > [A trans person] joined the Discord server and made a big deal out of their
  81. > pronouns [..] because they put their pronouns in their nickname and made a big
  82. > deal out of them because people were referring to them as "he" [misgendering
  83. > them], which, on the Internet, let's be real, is the default. And so, one
  84. > of the moderators changed the pronouns in their nickname to "who/cares". [...]
  85. > Let's be real, this isn't like, calling someone the N-word or something.
  87. Later he describes a more moderated community (the /r/unixporn discord server)
  88. as having an environment in which everyone is going to "lick your butthole just
  89. to be nice". He compared himself to [Terry Davis][4], the late operating system
  90. developer whose struggles with mental illness were broadcast for the world to
  91. see, citing a video in which he answers a phone call and refers to the person on
  92. the phone by the N-word "ten times" -- Vaxry compares this to his approach to
  93. answering "stupid questions".
  95. [4]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_A._Davis
  97. It really disappoints me to see such an exciting project brought low by a
  98. horribly mismanaged community of hate and bullying. Part of what makes open
  99. source software great is that it's great for everyone. It's unfortunate that
  100. someone can discover this cool project, install it and play with it and get
  101. excited about it, then join the community to find themselves at the wrong end of
  102. this behavior. No one deserves that.
  104. I empathise with Vaxry. I remember being young, smart, productive... and mean. I
  105. did some cool stuff, but I deeply regret the way I treated people. It wasn't
  106. really my fault -- I was a product of my environment -- but it was my
  107. responsibility. Today, I'm proud to have built many welcoming communities, where
  108. people are rewarded for their involvement, rather than coming away from their
  109. experience hurt. What motivates us to build and give away free software if not
  110. bringing joy to ourselves and others? Can we be proud of a community which
  111. brings more suffering into the world?
  113. **My advice to the leadership** begins with taking a serious look in the mirror.
  114. This project needs a "come to Jesus" moment. Ask yourself what kind of community
  115. you can be proud of -- can you be proud of a community that people walk away
  116. from feeling dejected and hurt? Yours is not a community that brings people joy.
  117. What are you going to do about it?
  119. A good start will be to consider the code of conduct proposal seriously, but a
  120. change of attitude is also required. [My inbox][mail] is open to any of the
  121. leaders in this project (or any other project facing similar problems) if you
  122. want to talk. I'm happy to chat with you in good faith and help you understand
  123. what's needed and why it's important.
  125. [mail]: mailto:sir@cmpwn.com
  127. To members of the **Hyprland community**, I want each of you to personally step
  128. up to make the community better. If you see hate and bullying, don't stay
  129. silent. This is a community which proclaims to value radical free speech: test
  130. it by using your speech to argue against hate. Participate in the community as
  131. you think it should be, not as it necessarily is, and change will follow. If you
  132. are sensitive to hate, or a member of a marginalized group, however, I would
  133. just advise steering clear of Hyprland until the community improves.
  135. If the leadership fails to account for these problems, it will be up to the
  136. community to take their activity elsewhere. You could set up adjacent
  137. communities which are less toxic, or fork the software, or simply choose to use
  138. something else.
  140. To the **victims of harassment**, I offer my sincere condolences. I know how
  141. hard it is to be the subject of this kind of bullying. You don't deserve to be
  142. treated like this. There are many places in the free software community where
  143. you are welcome and celebrated -- Hyprland is *not* the norm. If you need
  144. support, I'm [always available][mail] to listen to your struggles.
  146. To everyone else: please share this post throughout the Hyprland community and
  147. adjacent communities. This is a serious problem and it's not going to change
  148. unless its clearly brought to light. The Hyprland maintainers need to be made
  149. aware that the broader open source community does not appreciate this kind of
  150. behavior.
  152. I sincerely hope that this project improves its community. A serious attitude
  153. shift is needed from the top-down, and I hope for the sake of Vaxry, the other
  154. leaders, and the community as a whole, that such change comes sooner rather than
  155. later. When Vaxry is older and wiser, I want him to look back on the project and
  156. community that he's built with pride and joy, not with regret and shame.
  158. ---
  160. Vaxry has published [a
  161. response](https://blog.vaxry.net/articles/2023-hyprlandsCommunity) to this post.
  163. I was also privately provided some of the enusing discussion from the Hyprland
  164. Discord. Consider that this lacks context and apply your grain of salt
  165. accordingly.
  167. ![Screenshot of a Discord channel with the initial reaction to this post. A user
  168. called "slave labor" responds with "no way", "the computer reddit woke up"](https://l.sr.ht/1k-4.png)
  170. ![Screenshot of a Discord channel with Vaxry's initial reaction to this post.
  171. "Really, right as I wanted to take a day off because of health reasons I have to
  172. reply to this?". Another user responds "wow this is quite... shallow", "almost
  173. as if it recycles very limited context to get more clicks"](https://l.sr.ht/9hS_.png)
  175. I apologise to Vaxry for interrupting their rest, and wish them a speedy
  176. recovery.
  178. ![Screenshot of a Discord channel. Some notable quotes include "LGBTQ is fucking
  179. trash anyways" (someone else responds "fuck off" to this) and "for reclaiming
  180. polymc from the leftoids". The discussion as a whole lacks any sembelance of
  181. professionalism.](https://l.sr.ht/RwC-.png)
  183. [Here](https://paste.sr.ht/~sircmpwn/093af570609ec87e987af6cc69c59e9624c2b280)
  184. is a plain text log which includes some additional discussion.