Code of Conduct

In lecture we looked at different codes of conduct from multiple sources including the Go project, the Contributor Covenant, Eclipse, Sugar Labs Project, and MatplotLib. Each code of conduct shared many similarities as they all aimed to achieve the same goal. However, some have more emphasize on different issues such as healthy arguing in the Go project, condemnation of retaliation in the Eclipse code of conduct, and step-by-step guidlines for enforcement of rules in the Matplotlib Code of Conduct. Beyond a few extra policies and some being more harsh than others, these codes of conducts have the same outlines.

Personal Opinion

From what I have seen, I think that having a code of conduct in a project is a positive thing. However, I do not beleive it is very important for a project. Many codes of conduct seem a bit like a paper tiger as although they have long blocks of text stating their rules, they lack consequences of breaking said rules. I feel that many people could skip reading the entire code of conduct and have no issues while working on a project. I would be willing to work on a project that does not have a code of conduct for those reasons. I would rather the project I work on to have a code of conduct but it would not be a dealbreaker especially if I am highly interested in the project. The only realistic way of enforcing the Code of Conduct for a given project would be to include harsh consequences for breaking the most important rules of the code. For example, prohibiting contributions from a member who violated the code of conduct.