I don't know. I helped organize a conference where we were required to use a code of conduct by the parent organization (to be fair, we'd probably have put a code of conduct up either way).<p>From my point of view, as someone who is likely not going to be subject to bad behavior, I felt like a lot of it was standard HR boilerplate feel-good stuff. Not that there's anything wrong with that - it's good to signal quite clearly the behavior you think is right and wrong.<p>But I think that in some cases it helped more than that. It really <i>does</i> give you specific benefits:<p>1. It gives you something to aspire to. Yes, our CoC included accessibility issues. No, we weren't amazing at dealing with them, since it was our first time and it's not an easy topic to take care of. But the CoC certainly helps make it a priority, if only because people may (rightly!) call you out on failings. Most people will be understanding with you even if you don't get everything right, as long as you're trying.<p>2. I think specifying specific contacts (male and female) in case of certain abuse situations is a good thing. Of <i>course</i> whoever is the contact is not necessarily trained in dealing with trauma - but that's usually not the situation we're talking about. If someone is raped or physically asaulted, it's a matter for the police. We're talking about much lighter but still problematic cases, where hopefully the victim wants something done, but doesn't need a trauma specialist or anything.<p>The idea of the CoC isn't to be <i>instead of</i> law enforcement, it's to be another layer on top of that providing specific rules about what is and isn't considered professional behavior in this kind of conference. No more, no less.