> What matters is that people are operating in good faith.
Any asshole can claim to be acting in good faith, regardless of what they've done.
Any asshole can claim to be acting in good faith, regardless of what they've done.
A good moderator will shut that nonsense down immediately, but a good moderator wouldn't need a CoC to do it. All the CoC does is give the troublemaker a tool to start playing rules lawyer, in the hope that the moderator will get tired of it and give in.
Some people think the answer is to have a CoC that's too simple for rules lawyering, like a one line "Be excellent to each other." But even that can be twisted, so it would be better as a project motto than as an official CoC.
Sooner or later it boils down to someone reasonable enforcing some boundaries, with or without a CoC.