Maintainer removed all contributors and deleted CoC with commit 'reclaim polymc from the leftoids.' All contributors forked in 48h.
PolyMC (and Prism Launcher) is a custom Minecraft launcher that allows users to manage multiple Minecraft instances, install mods, modpacks, and resource packs, and configure Java settings. It was itself a fork of MultiMC, another Minecraft launcher. The launcher simplifies the complex process of managing modded Minecraft installations.
Of all the forks in open-source history, Prism Launcher might have the most dramatic origin story. On October 17, 2022, PolyMC maintainer Lenny McLennington went full supervillain, committing a change titled "reclaim polymc from the leftoids" that deleted the project's Code of Conduct, then proceeding to revoke access for every other contributor to the GitHub organization. It was a one-person hostile takeover of an open-source project, and it happened in real time.
PolyMC was a popular Minecraft launcher — a fork of MultiMC that had gained a dedicated user base. The Code of Conduct that Lenny deleted contained provisions protecting users from transphobic, homophobic, and racist abuse. The commit message made the political motivation crystal clear. Within hours, the entire development team found themselves locked out of their own project.
But here's where the story gets satisfying: the evicted developers didn't waste time arguing. Within 48 hours, they had regrouped, forked the code, established new governance, and launched Prism Launcher. The speed of the response was remarkable — they had a working project with builds, CI/CD, and community infrastructure before most people had even finished reading the drama threads.
PolyMC's development collapsed almost immediately. Without the contributors who actually wrote the code, the project stagnated into irrelevance. Meanwhile, Prism Launcher thrived, establishing itself as the go-to open-source Minecraft launcher with transparent governance, an active development community, and regular releases.
The Prism Launcher fork is a near-perfect parable about open-source governance: one person with admin access can destroy a project overnight, but they can't destroy the community. The code is free, the contributors are the real asset, and when you kick them all out, they just rebuild somewhere else — usually better.
Lenny McLennington commits 'reclaim polymc from the leftoids,' deletes CoC, revokes all contributor access
All PolyMC contributors locked out of the GitHub organization
Prism Launcher announced by the evicted development team
Prism Launcher establishes governance, CI/CD, builds within days
PolyMC development effectively ceases; Prism Launcher becomes the dominant Minecraft launcher
“reclaim polymc from the leftoids”
Prism Launcher became one of the most successful "emergency forks" in open-source history, going from zero to dominant in its category within weeks. It proved that in open source, the contributors are more valuable than the repo — admin access is temporary, but community trust is everything.
The incident also became a widely-cited example of why open-source projects need proper governance structures, multiple administrators, and clear succession plans. One person should never hold unilateral power to destroy a project.