I think the value of a CoC is merely to signal to people who have experienced abuse or disrespect in communities before (which would describe, I think, most women and people of color who have participated in technical communities for more than a short time) that the community is on their side when sexists or racists show up. That has some value. It doesn&#x27;t really matter to the majority, and it doesn&#x27;t actually alter how people behave (generally), nor does it really alter a project leaders ability to excise a toxic person. But, it does say, &quot;We will excise toxic people. We will try to make you feel welcome here, even if you have been made to feel unwelcome elsewhere.&quot;<p>Even if that&#x27;s all it does (which I think it probably is), it is enough to make it worth doing in most cases. (Which reminds me that I don&#x27;t have a code of conduct on any of the open source projects or communities I work on, but I&#x27;ll make it a project for the first quarter of this year.)