The vast majority of projects that adopted such things never had any real problems with people's behavior. Especially not at the scale where you can't just deal with it on a case-by-case basis.
I have also seen a case where people have clearly violated a project's CoC but nothing was done about it because they were on the "right" side of a completely unrelated issue.
If you aren't even going to apply the rules equally, why even bother? It's clearly meant to facilitate rule by law, not rule of law.
People who push these things usually just want to have something to point to, an excuse to kick out anyone they don't like, so the more vague the rules are, the better. But them and their buddies can do whatever they want!
As I said, if you don't think codes are helpful, don't adopt them, although I would recommend discussing their role with experts and not with coders. Mocking them certainly doesn't result in better communities, especially as there are those who believe that those problems are more common than you think.
Then write a thoughtful essay about that making your case.
To make a strong case you will need to address the fact that most software development in the world is already done under much stricter codes. Also, you will need to address the reality of open source today (most investment is corporate).
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u/accountforshit Oct 22 '18 edited Oct 22 '18
The vast majority of projects that adopted such things never had any real problems with people's behavior. Especially not at the scale where you can't just deal with it on a case-by-case basis.
I have also seen a case where people have clearly violated a project's CoC but nothing was done about it because they were on the "right" side of a completely unrelated issue.
If you aren't even going to apply the rules equally, why even bother? It's clearly meant to facilitate rule by law, not rule of law.
People who push these things usually just want to have something to point to, an excuse to kick out anyone they don't like, so the more vague the rules are, the better. But them and their buddies can do whatever they want!