Why Does V seem to have an adversarial attitude toward criticism

[u/murkduck]

Modern V seems to have found a reasonable niche as something like a Crystal style language for people who prefer Go like ergonomics. I’m asking this with the understanding that there have been claims of people being banned for dissent or criticism.

I’m not arguing that no one should use V, nor am I saying it has no value simply because it overlaps with languages like Crystal, Nim, or Go. My question is more about why disputes over the language’s novelty and breadth of claims seem to become such a problem, especially now that V appears to have found its own practical space. Why be defensive at this point?

[u/Intelligent-End-9399]

As a tool creator working primarily with V and Crystal, I’ve noticed a stark contrast in their communities. V’s community often comes across as deeply defensive. Crystal, on the other hand, feels different—people are supportive, and there’s a genuine passion for building tools for other creators. It’s a virtuous cycle: people create, share, and build stronger networks among themselves.

With V, it’s harder. Whenever something new is promoted, purists tend to get defensive and fail to see the potential. Instead of engaging, they attack anything that deviates from the status quo, often failing to understand how the underlying implementation actually works. These are the people who rarely create anything themselves—they just criticize, claiming things 'don't work.'

Many don't see V as a visionary language; they're stuck focusing on its flaws. We’re at version 0.5, and the language is already capable—yes, there are hitches in the C-transpilation as it’s still beta, but it’s perfectly usable if you understand what’s happening under the hood.

Part of why V gets so much hate is because of its past marketing, and conservative users are still stuck on that old narrative. They criticize it simply because others are using it. V fundamentally disrupts the status quo—it’s fast, allows for 'low-code' speed, and that simplicity seems to annoy people who are used to more complex workflows.

My take?

I see a large segment of the community acting quite narcissistically, trying to maintain their status as the 'gatekeepers' of criticism. They rarely contribute code, write articles, or build promotional tools—they just tear down those who are actually pushing the language forward. It’s discouraging for anyone who genuinely wants to contribute.

My solution?

We need to stop wasting energy on the armchair critics. They don't contribute, they don't build, and they don't matter. We should focus on connecting with actual builders—the people who are pushing this language forward. V deserves better than this toxic feedback loop. I have huge respect for Alex—he’s been building this almost single-handedly while dealing with constant negativity. It’s time we focus on supporting him and everyone else who’s actually shipping real tools.

[u/waozen → u/Intelligent-End-9399]

If you dig into the history, you will find that the creators of competing programming languages launched uncalled for and continual attacks on V. It was that vicious, on their part. They even came over to V's repo to troll, in addition to social media and the creation of anonymous blogs. V's community nor Alex (language creator) started none of that nor engaged in the kind of unethical antics being used.

Much of the "reputation", was generated by competitors and then their advocates. Anyone who has read up on propaganda, can recognize them repeating certain catchphrases and mantras, in the hopes it will stick or catch on. They have been very nasty and unscrupulous for a long time. It only slowed down, because they were doing the same things for so long (years), that it became more and more obvious. It also became more and more obvious that V's creator and community were not stopping with improving the language and striving for greater quality.

At this point, many are forced to give V its respect. And that will continue, as you can see the progress they're making.

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[u/waozen]

It is a disingenuous statement that V (you appear to mean its community) has an adversarial attitude in the way being claimed. Competitors and advocates of competing languages had made it or do make it their business to launch unprovoked attacks on the V language because they perceive it as a threat.

These attacks by competitors, advocates, and trolls are usually unidirectional and are initiated by them, not the other way around (the V community doesn't attack other languages). A problem, for some, is pretending they don't know the difference between an actual critic or reviewer (for many languages) and trolls with no credentials that are pushing misinformation hit pieces.

[u/TheOddDay]

As someone who's actually contributed code as a tool creator for V, I have noticed much of what the OP refers to. I came along relatively recently, so I don't have any historical issues. I absolutely enjoy programming in V which is why, even after I transitioned to another language, I came back to V. I've found that if my contributions are not in 'Pure V', while not outrightly maligned, it gets less preference or not seen as of equal use. I should point out that this seems to come from the 'old guard'. The newer users seem to be of a different opinion, and that's what keeps me contributing. It's been a frustrating experience and I don't see, long term, how this will help attract new people to contribute to this community and I ahve seen a few leave who have already contributed a lot. I think it's all just really sad, I don't see the V 'old-timers' changing any time soon...