Announcing Open Source Guides
Ok so this is slightly off topic but I guess it still relates because it&#x27;s on the this page. This document has a section on &quot;Code of Conduct&quot;s and it proposes this question and following answer:<p><pre><code>    Q: &quot; Why do I need a code of conduct? &quot;

    A: &quot; A code of conduct is a document that establishes expectations for behavior for your project’s participants. Adopting, and enforcing, a code of conduct can help create a positive social atmosphere for your community. &quot;
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That doesn&#x27;t really, for me, explain what it is or why we need one. To be fair, it follows up with this:<p><pre><code>    &quot; Codes of conduct help protect not just your participants, but yourself. If you maintain a project, you may find that unproductive attitudes from other participants can make you feel drained or unhappy about your work over time.
      A code of conduct empowers you to facilitate healthy, constructive community behavior. Being proactive reduces the likelihood that you, or others, will become fatigued with your project, and helps you take action when someone does something you don’t agree with. &quot;
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That to me doesn&#x27;t make sense. I&#x27;ve never really seen an enviroment that would reasonably make someone &quot;unhappy&quot; or &quot;drained&quot; by my standards nor have I ever seen a reason why someone should want to &quot;take action when someone does something you don&#x27;t agree with&quot;.<p>I feel that if you have an open source project it&#x27;s a rag-tag bag of programmers, designers, and technical people who are working on something that they should all be interested in. The discussion on the modes provided by an open source project&#x27;s forums or whatever should be purely technical. When you have a purely technical medium I don&#x27;t see how anyone would be upset by a convorsation.<p>We all know what the COCs look like, I&#x27;m pretty sure we all know how they can be misued, but one thing we don&#x27;t all know is why you&#x27;d need to use it in the first place (at least I don&#x27;t).<p>If you&#x27;re a BDFL and you have some opinion that disagrees with another person you can just act like a human: talk it out or ignore them. I don&#x27;t see why we need to, or even should, codify that.<p>If I&#x27;m missing something please do correct me on this.<p>PS: I just noticed some people might not understand what I mean, so I&#x27;ll try to explain it with an example. I belive in freedom of speech and press. So a common expression is &quot;I may not agree with what you have to say but I entierly support your right to say it&quot;. In Django&#x27;s COC you will find this section (I&#x27;ll do my best to format it):<p><pre><code>   Be careful in the words that you choose. We are a community of professionals, and we conduct ourselves professionally. Be kind to others. Do not insult or put down other participants. Harassment and other exclusionary behavior aren&#x27;t acceptable. This includes, but is not limited to:

       Violent threats or language directed against another person.
       Discriminatory jokes and language.
       Posting sexually explicit or violent material.
       Posting (or threatening to post) other people&#x27;s personally identifying information (&quot;doxing&quot;).
       Personal insults, especially those using racist or sexist terms.
       Unwelcome sexual attention.
       Advocating for, or encouraging, any of the above behavior.
       Repeated harassment of others. In general, if someone asks you to stop, then stop.
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My concern is the vaugness that is nesessitated by such a controling document. Perticularly I&#x27;m afraid of the &quot;Advocating for, or encouraging, any of the above behavior.&quot; clause. I completely belive people have the right to say all of those things. In effect I am &quot;advocating&quot; for the existance of speech from bad actors indirectly by saying &quot;I may not agree with what you have to say but I entierly support your right to say it&quot;. If I advocate for ALL free speech then I must advocate for ALL free speech. Not &quot;Free Speech<i></i>*&quot;.<p>This includes the vile behavior of bad actors whether or not I like it.<p>Can I be banned for saying &quot;I may not agree with what you have to say but I entierly support your right to say it&quot;? Well as the current COC for Django stands, certiantly a case can be made for my advocacy, to some degree, of these horrible things I don&#x27;t like.