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Comment by kasbah | Hacker News Reader

I am faced with feeling pressured to add a CoC for one of my own projects in order to apply for funding. I am unsure what to put up. It seems like a massive task to me.

I quite like the CoC of the EMF camp as it seems to the point, un-ambigious and written in language I understand. I may try and adapt it for online interaction. What do others think?

https://www.emfcamp.org/code-of-conduct

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Whatever you choose just make sure that the enforcement is consistent. That seems to be the key. People know when rules exist for the purpose of selective targeting. See this for what happens when CoCs are applied inconsistently https://www.reddit.com/r/node/comments/6whs2e/multiple_coc_v...

I was thinking of this same example.

In the end a CoC will be used to persecute unwanted characters, but wanted violators will not be affected.

In the end it becomes a monument to the organizations hypocrisy.

That's the biggest issue. I was following a certain community recently that had a fairly elaborate code of conduct with very precise language and somehow always managed to manipulate said language so that one of their members could virtually get away with murder, while other people would get moderated/banned/whatever for the slightest mistake.

As long as its impartial (to the extent humans can be impartial...), there's no real problem.

Whatever you choose just make sure that the enforcement is consistent.

That's the important part. How are you going to make sure that the CoC is applied when it comes to people of high status? With another Code of Conduct? You made me laugh.

"People will be mutually respectful. Those incapable of abiding by this expectation will be escorted off the premises. People who need a detailed explanation of the concept of mutual respect might want to just skip this event. We think it isn't that hard to understand and does not require pages and pages of explanation."

Are you quoting something or is this your own mini code of conduct?

I just made it up just now. Based on years and years of being human, fwiw.

https://github.com/domgetter/NCoC might be better.

I feel like that would just be avoiding the issue (burying my head in the sand, so to speak).

That Code of Conduct feels more like it is about burying someone else's head in the sand:

> Have you considered, that they are either having a bad day, are a bad listener, or possibly, you are wrong?

Uh, yeah, great advice to have in the FAQ for what is supposedly your anti-harassment policy. -_-

One of several red flags. Another thing that set off alarm bells was the strawman reference to penis slang. That's not something I've ever seen referenced by someone who is serious about having a conversation about codifying personal conduct expectations.

I mean, kind of the point is to tell people who demand CoC's to piss off. So... sort of?

How does that work? Are your VCs requesting a code of conduct or... what's going on?

No, there is a question on a grant application form to link to the code of conduct if there is one. _Mild_ pressure to have one I should have said maybe.

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