<p><pre><code>  Do you have a better explanation for the antagonism many feel (and I
  personally used to feel) towards codes of conduct?
</code></pre>
I think there&#x27;s a varying range of situations in which people feel attacked by codes of conduct.<p>1) People actually <i>want</i> the right to be an asshole. They have come to believe that everyone should be allowed to say anything they want in any situation. They call this freedom of speech. Since a Code of Conduct contradicts this expectation, they blame the CoC because it is telling them to change themselves. Nobody likes to change themself.<p>2) People want to have a strict and narrow definition of what to do and what not to do. In our HN-like group, people want codes of conduct to be like programming languages for humans. Since CoCs must necessarily be vague because it&#x27;s impossible to narrowly codify all human interaction, people feel unsure and fearful. They thus blame the problem on CoCs and would rather prefer anarchy and being allowed to act however they wish, without fear.<p>3) People feel like &quot;their&quot; &quot;community&quot; is being encroached upon by foreign individuals who feel &quot;needlessly&quot; victimised. An analogy of the most common case, the boys&#x27; locker room is now being opened up to everyone, particularly women. Since they cannot openly attack the newcomers, instead they attack their perceived work of authorship: the code of conduct.