Eric S. Raymond, one of the founders of the OSI (Open Source Initiative) and a pioneer of the open-source movement, has spoken out about codes of conduct:
I am going to do something that I believe has never been done before: use all my authority as a person who discovered and documented the rules of open source.
After ten years of drama and foolishness, many people besides me are now ready to publicly announce that 'codes of conduct' have turned out to be a disaster — a kind of contagious social madness that breeds drama, political intrigue, gossip, and negative productivity.
Here’s my advice regarding codes of conduct:
Get rid of it. If your project has such a code, remove it. The only real function it serves is as a tool in the hands of those who enjoy adding fuel to the fire. If you must have such a code for bureaucratic reasons, replace it with the following statement or something similar: 'If you create more trouble than your contributions justify, you will be removed.' Attempts to make codes more specific and detailed do not work. They only provide provocateurs with opportunities to manipulate. Yes, we should strive to be kind to each other. But we must be ruthless and unsparing towards those who try to weaponize 'Let's be kinder!'. Coddling them never ends well.
Source: opennet.ru
