Code of conduct (COC), also *code of coercion* or *code of [censorship](censorship.md)*, is a [shitty](shit.md) invention of [SJW](sjw.md) [fascists](fascism.md) that's put up in projects (e.g. software) and which declares how developers of a specific project must behave socially (typically NOT just within the context of the development but also outside of it), generally pushing toxic woke concepts such as forced inclusivity, exclusivity of people with unapproved political opinions or use of [politically correct](political_correctness.md) language ([newspeak](newspeak.md)). Sometimes a toxic COC hides under a different name such as *social contract*, *code of "ethics"* or *mission statement*, though not necessarily. COC is typically placed in the project repository as a `CODE_OF_CONDUCT` file, but some projects (for example Google's [Go](golang.md) language) strategically hide it elsewhere so as to firstly satisfy those who want a COC and trick at least some of those who don't want it into thinking it's not there -- don't be fooled into thinking this is just a matter of chance, it's a matter of public relations and marketing teams who make highly calculated decisions about where to place the COC, how to name the file etc. so as to maximize the number of supporters of the software -- to a corporation this is a decision more important than for example actual quality of the software. In practice COCs are used to establish dictatorship and allow things such as kicking people out of development because of their political opinions expressed anywhere, inside or outside the project, and to push political opinions through software projects. COCs are an indication of [tranny software](tranny_software.md). See also http://techrights.org/2019/04/23/code-of-coercion/.
**COCs are extremely controversial and opposed by many**, for example [Alexandre Oliva](alexandre_oliva.md), one of the top people at [Free Software Foundation](fsf.md), the maintainer of [Linux libre](linux_libre.md) who was a serious candidate of the FSF president, himself identifying as "neurodivergent" and being rather [politically correct](political_correctness.md), has expressed extreme criticism ([here](http://www.fsfla.org/ikiwiki/blogs/lxo/2023-09-28-objections-to-binutils-CoC.en.html)) of forcing a COC into GNU Binutils. He criticized not only forceful push of the decision to put a COC (they basically just announced it without asking if people agree with it), but also stated very true observations such as that "[the power of] enforcement and exclusion tends to attract people with authoritarian leanings" and that he himself feels "vulnerable and unsafe" -- again, someone who basically plays by the pseudoleftist rules. Expanding on the guillotine comparison, Oliva knows that the French revolution (and all other revolutions) devoured many of its children, and though he probably feels part of this revolution, he still criticized the guillotine.
**Code of conduct is a purely political statement**, its purpose is solely to make a statement that the project embraces certain harmful political views, it has no legal value because it states things such as "it is forbidden to harass others", which is something that is already illegal, it doesn't need to be stated. It is as if it stated "it is forbidden to kill black people" -- of course it is forbidden, it is illegal to kill anyone, the statement here probably means something like "you are not welcome if you show hostility towards black people". Including a COC is the same thing as mentioning "personal pronouns" or greeting other people with "Heil [Hitler](hitler.md)", it's only meant to signify belonging to a certain fascist group.
**[LRS](lrs.md) must never employ any COC**, with possible exceptions of anti-COC (such as NO COC) or parody style COCs, not because we dislike genuine inclusivity, but because we believe COCs are bullshit and mostly harmful as they support bullying, censorship and exclusion of people.
Anyway it's best to avoid any kind of COC file in the repository, it just takes up space and doesn't serve anything. We may simply ignore this shitty concept completely. You may argue why we don't ignore e.g. [copyright](copyright.md) in the same way and just not use any [licenses](license.md)? The situation with copyright is different: it exists by default, without a license file the code is proprietary and our neighbors don't have the legal safety to execute basic freedoms, they may be bullied by the state -- for this we are forced to include a license file to get rid of copyright. With COC there simply isn't any such implicit issues to be solved (because COCs are simply inventing their own issues), so we just don't try to solve non-issues.
**As of 2024 every [mainstream](mainstream.md) project has a COC** -- if it's a collaborative, non-uderground project, you have to assume it is fascist software until proven otherwise. The only software without COC now are small, usually one man projects such as [suckless](suckless.md) and [LRS](lrs.md) programs.
**Should you avoid software with COC?** Well, yes if possible, though it's very difficult today, it is forced on you and more often than not there are no alternatives. A COCed software is not really legally non-free, you can really [fork](fork.md) such project and just delete the COC file, there is no problem in that; the issue is not the file itself but more what it signifies -- it indicates a very toxic community around the project and often also harmful properties of the projects which is most likely [tranny software](tranny_software.md) and therefore [bloat](bloat.md) using shit languages like [Rust](rust.md) etc. Even if you can legally take a copy of the software from the toxic community and "make it your own", strip it off their propaganda, you probably won't rewrite it from scratch. Even if you do something with the software you are legally allowed to do, the community may bully you online because well, they are just toxic. COC is just a sign of trouble to come and a smell of bad technology. Rather seek for something better.
