No Code of Conduct: A Code of Conduct for Adults in Open Source Software
github.com
github.com
The main reason is that "common sense" is more a matter of culture than it is "sense". For most people, "common sense" is the thing that you don't think about, don't question, don't investigate alternatives to... because it is "common sense". Probably you can see where I'm going with this.
"Common sense" is a big heading for all the things I believe strongly in, and wish that everyone agreed with me. If someone disagrees, it practically begs ridicule because how can someone disagree with common sense? And yet, it is also the thing we do not question.
"Being an adult" is very similar. Adults have a code of conduct. It is obvious. For example you don't belittle other people. You don't ignore to other points of view. You don't drink alcohol at lunch time during a work day. You don't show up to work late. You don't wear running shoes to the office. You don't act friendly to the cleaning staff (what if they got uppity?) And... you see where I'm going. Somebody thinks that various of these things are obviously "Adult behaviour". Somebody will not. And both of those people will be adults.
Such a code of conduct will invite unbelievable flame wars in my experience, because you will have people naively thinking that everybody thinks the same way as they do. When they find out that it is not true they will ridicule the others for not being "an adult"... and the "fun" begins.
Doesn't it say it all?
Doesn't matter if you wear running shoes to the office, we don't care. If people have a problem with that, we don't care. If you have a problem with people doing it, we don't care.
How would a flame war begin? "He said left-handed people can't program!" -> we don't care. "She said dogs are better than cats!" -> we don't care. "They say we should use vim instead of emacs!" -> we don't care.