Story

Nothing ground-breaking on that list: basically, don't be a jerk. I wonder if this is in response to some unpleasant events, or is a preemptive move so that future asshattery can be swatted down with a "you're not complying with the code" kind of a thing.

Debian does a good job, I think, of being a well-run democratic kind of administration, not an easy thing with so many diverse expectations and personalities, and the need to balance transparency/fairness with getting things done. Lean too far in the direction of democracy and you get mediocrity and "design by committee." Lean too far in the opposite direction and you get dictatorship and complaints of heavy-handedness a la openBSD.

It almost seems too bad to have to put together a code of ethics like this, but sooner or later most teams find it necessary. Then they all make fun of how obvious/stupid it is. I manage a 10 person team and we put together a team charter that essentially came up with these same tenets. Then we occasionally forget and do mean things to each other.

Humans are tough to manage!