The Code of Crap: Ruining our software

I always say that if a modern day Hitler wrote the best goddamn sorting algorithm anyone has ever seen, I would use it regardless of the man behind it. This isn't to excuse the actions of the man, but to seperate him from his work. Would an end user prefer I cripple my own work by throwing out this algorithm for nothing but my own disagreements of opinion?

"Code of Conduct" is often the label for "the rules to even associate with us" when it comes to open projects. While its an okay idea on the surface, many project maintainers and collaborators use this as a means to shove out anybody with differing opinions or politcal incorrectness for "hatespeech". This is effectively cutting their program down from the knees and saying that the legs would've prevented a safe space.

If you know me, you know I'm a firm advocate for the freedom of speech and expression. On the Internet, everyone has the means to shut out anybody they don't want to talk to or engage with, but they seem to "forget" of this advantage so that they can whine and complain instead. The least restrictive environment is the most natural and most efficient, as there is no fear of being cancelled for your words, only the focus for doing the best work. The Code of Conduct puts everyone in bars with the maintainers, moderators, and members all walking outside ready to hit anybody with a stun baton.

The Code of Conduct from one of the worst programming languages known as Rust is also insufferably terrible. Have a look:

• We are committed to providing a friendly, safe and welcoming environment for all, regardless of level of experience, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, personal appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, age, religion, nationality, or other similar characteristic.
• Please avoid using overtly sexual aliases or other nicknames that might detract from a friendly, safe and welcoming environment for all.
• Please be kind and courteous. There’s no need to be mean or rude.
• Respect that people have differences of opinion and that every design or implementation choice carries a trade-off and numerous costs. There is seldom a right answer.
• Please keep unstructured critique to a minimum. If you have solid ideas you want to experiment with, make a fork and see how it works.
• We will exclude you from interaction if you insult, demean or harass anyone. That is not welcome behavior. We interpret the term “harassment” as including the definition in the Citizen Code of Conduct; if you have any lack of clarity about what might be included in that concept, please read their definition. In particular, we don’t tolerate behavior that excludes people in socially marginalized groups.
• Private harassment is also unacceptable. No matter who you are, if you feel you have been or are being harassed or made uncomfortable by a community member, please contact one of the channel ops or any of the Rust moderation team immediately. Whether you’re a regular contributor or a newcomer, we care about making this community a safe place for you and we’ve got your back.
• Likewise any spamming, trolling, flaming, baiting or other attention-stealing behavior is not welcome.

It looks as if calling somebody by a funny name would be enough to get blacklisted from the entire project. You have to be on thin ice at all times if you want to even submit a bug fix. What about this "Cititzen Code of Conduct" that Rust uses instead of describe what "harassment" is themselves?

"A primary goal of [COMMUNITY_NAME] is to be inclusive to the largest number of contributors, with the most varied and diverse backgrounds possible."

There we go. Translating this, it means "we do not actually give a shit about anybody, we just want to look good". This does not breed an efficient community full of decent contributors, this leads to closed echo-chamber full of nothing but people too sensitive to hear the slightest of critisms.

Although Rust is one of the worst examples, plenty of projects out there have a generic Code of Conduct in which they use to run off contributors. Running off contributors effectively slows down or ruins progress on a project but if they only care about maintaining a positive image and bashing all who they oppose, it doesn't matter.

A recent example that hit the latest updates for my "Shit to Avoid" list is an OBS member refusing to support Kick as a streaming platform on its software because it "does not meet our requirements because the platform supports and encourages detestable and vile content and creators". The kicker is that this decision was made by someone whos only crowning achievement is the Code of Conduct.

Another prime example that incredibly demonstrates the only real purpose to a Code of Conduct is Srid vs. NixOS. The NixOS team kicked off Srid for 'wrongthink', requiring him to leave or remove many links on his own page that they disagreed with. Mind you that his site is in no way affiliated with NixOS, yet they decided they had fully authority to moderate it. When he didn't take anything down, the NixOS team made shit up regarding his behavior to paint him in an incredibly bad light. If this isn't a prime example of the Code of Conduct being used to defame and cancel somebody, I don't know what is.