I think there's a place for Codes of Conduct, and there's places where they don't make sense. In a large organizational ecosystem, you probably need them. In a

I think there's a place for Codes of Conduct, and there's places where they don't make sense. In a large organizational ecosystem, you probably need them. In a close group of friends, you can probably discuss religion and politics, and even display your favorite type of bigotry, without getting anyone mad. In communities where people can build reputations, whether quantified (like online social network "karma") or unquantified (like real-life networks or facebook), people with stronger reputations tend to be better behaved. You don't really want a code of conduct. It's just that some communities aren't well insulated from jerks, so in some cases, you need those rules to get jerks to either behave or leave. What you really want is a community where people act like mature adults.