&quot;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. &quot;<p>If a COC becomes a baseline requirement for people to run projects and attract contributors, ISTM the people who don&#x27;t care  will just add COC&#x27;s, and never enforce them.<p>You say &quot;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;&quot;<p>It does not actually do that. It&#x27;s one level removed from that.  It&#x27;s &quot;we <i>say</i> we will excise toxic people.&quot;.  It in fact, may be the case that you go to ask them to enforce it, and they say &quot;sorry, don&#x27;t care&quot;, even with a COC.<p>Then you are back to square 1. You essentially are trying to use the COC as a proxy for &quot;communities that will care enough to put a stop to things&quot; and i&#x27;m pretty much 100% it will not achieve this goal.