It's easy to see that in some quarters this is certainly true. People are allowed —even encouraged— to smack people down if they're being ridiculous... But this

It's easy to see that in some quarters this is certainly true. People are allowed —even encouraged— to smack people down if they're being ridiculous... But this isn't the rule. http://www.ubuntu.com/about/about-ubuntu/conduct http://www.ubuntu.com/about/about-ubuntu/conduct As an Ubuntu member, I'm expected to behave. In our derivative communities, we try to ensure that people adhere to these principles too. Ask Ubuntu (part of Stack Exchange, not Canonical), for example, also requires people to adhere to the Ubuntu CoC. Ubuntu Forums and IRC have similar behaviour guidelines. Does that mean it's always civil? Of course not... But it does mean that nobody's surprised when people are tossed out for being needlessly rude and the non-technical flame wars of the late 90s just don't happen.