# No Code of Conduct

*TL;DR:* This project  does **NOT** have a so called  Code of Conduct,
nor will it ever have one.

## The Rant

The reasons are somewhat complicated and  I'll try my best to document
them here.

Ethical codes  or rules come  along like laws.  But how is  ethical or
moral behavior defined? And who  defines which behavior is ethical and
which is not? Certainly not me.

Unless  you  live  in  a  dictatorship (and  more  than  half  of  the
population on  planet earth  do as  of this  writing), laws  come into
existence by democratic procedures. Laws  cover almost every aspect of
live in  a society. Laws allow  and forbid behavior and  laws sanction
infringements.

A software project like  this one on the other hand  is not a society.
There   are   not   enough   people  involved   to   form   democratic
structures. And there will always be  a minority of users who have the
right to commit or reject code. How could any maintainer of a software
project dare to decree rules upon  others? Actually, am I, the current
maintainer of this very project authorized to do so?

I think the anser to this question clearly is NO.

The  issue  is  being  complicated  by  the  fact,  that  open  source
development these days  happens on a planetary scale.  And this planet
houses hundreds if not  thousands of different cultures, philosophies,
ideologies and worldviews.  The answer  to many ethical questions will
in most cases be vague and nebulous.

Ones joke will always be another ones insult.

Then there  is the  problem of  language. I myself  am not  an english
native, but I publish everyting using  the english language. I am able
to communicate with  most people in the open  source community because
of that.   But I am  certainly not  able to understand  everything and
everyone. There  might be nuances to  a sentence I don't  sense, there
might be  sarcastic connotations I  don't understand or  references to
historical figures, events  or traditions I don't know  and never have
heard of.

Judging over other  peoples online behavior looks like  a titanic task
to me. It is just not my job  to judge others, I am not legitimized or
authorized to do so and I am not interested in this kind of business.

Another huge  problem with ethical rules  is that you need  to outline
and enforce sanctions  on those who violate the rules.  But since I am
not an  elected authority  how would I  be able to  do this?   I don't
know.  And  what happens if  someone complains about myself?   Shall I
remove myself from my own project? Come on!

Last but  not least there's  the law. So,  let's say someone  in india
writes something  insulting to some  other developer in an  issue.  Of
course  german law  does not  apply  to indian  people. Moreover,  the
insult might actually not be an  insult in india.  In the end, nothing
would   happen.   Under   normal   circumstances,  maintainers   would
eventually delete the posting, ban  the user or remove push privileges
etc.

But then, is there a way for  the offending user to defend himself? Of
course not, since neither indian or german law alone applies. I cannot
go to  a german court  and sue the  guy and he  cannot do the  same in
india. Or -  we possibly could but the judges  in both countries would
just laugh and close the case.

That  being said,  I  don't have  the  power nor  the  tools, nor  the
authority to enforce serious sanctions  of any meaningful kind against
others. Therefore I cannot outline any rules whatsoever.

And let's not  even start talking about  these undemocratic "comitees"
many projects are  forming to circumvent this  problem.  Some projects
even  include  external entities  like  a  lawyer or  some  bureaucrat
somewhere  just to  have the  ability  to complain  against a  comitee
member. What a mess!



## So, what are the ethical rules within this project then?

Well, there are none.

This project is  about code, not society. It doesn't  matter where you
come from,  how you look,  how you think,  what you believe,  who your
friends are, whay you  said or did sometime in the  past. I don't even
care if you are a human being. You are an alien so bored that you need
to submit code on github? Fine with me. You're a convicted criminal? I
don't give a shit!

**The only thing I am interested here is Code and only Code.**

So if anyhing happens  here I don't like or I  am obliged by (german!)
law to act on, I will decide on  a case to case basis what to do.  And
unfortunately,  since this  is the  nature  of a  github project,  you
cannot complain, object or protest. I am very sorry!

If you will, let's at least  outline these:

- Please - just please -  behave towards others as you'd expect others
  to behave towards yourself.

- Don't judge others for any reason.

- Only judge the code.

But these are not rules, only a  friendly appeal to you as a developer
and user.


Thanks a lot!
