I didn't see self-marketing in their words. Rather, I read a promise: > The founder of SQLite and all current developers have pledged to follow the spirit of T

I didn't see self-marketing in their words. Rather, I read a promise: > The founder of SQLite and all current developers have pledged to follow the spirit of The Rule to the best of their ability. They view The Rule as their promise to all SQLite users of how the developers are expected to behave. This is a one-way promise, or covenant. In other words, the developers are saying: "We will treat you this way regardless of how you treat us." So far as I've seen, SQLite's developers have lived up to their words. They practice what they preach, while most other software communities do not. Rather, most of the popular ones align with your insinuation: pseudo-religious values and holier-than-thou attitudes cloaking misbehavior. On a side note, this topic inspired me to buy a copy of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_Saint_Benedict https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_Saint_Benedict, the original source of SQLite's ethic.