Why Heavy Codes of Conduct Are Unnecessary for Open Source Projects
4 hours ago
- #Code of Conduct
- #Open Source
- #Community Governance
- Debate over Codes of Conduct (CoC) in Open Source projects is intensifying, with figures like DHH and ESR criticizing strict CoCs like the Contributor Covenant.
- CoCs originated to address personal attacks in technical disagreements, with early effectiveness seen in Ubuntu's adoption to counter Debian's stagnation.
- The Ada Initiative shifted CoC focus from productivity to participant safety, leading to widespread adoption at conferences post the 'Donglegate' incident.
- The Contributor Covenant, created in 2014, became a standardized, legalistic CoC template, adopted by major projects including the Linux kernel.
- Strict CoCs have led to governance issues, exemplified by the Rust moderation team's resignation and the RubyGems incident, highlighting potential for abuse.
- ESR advocates for minimal or no CoC, emphasizing meritocracy, while DHH praises Ruby's simple, principle-based CoC for fostering a respectful community.
- The article concludes that a 'right-sized' CoC, tailored to a project's scale and culture, like Ruby's, is preferable to one-size-fits-all templates.