What to do if you're falsely accused of breaching Godot's Code of Conduct

[Xrayez]

Have you ever been accused or warned of violating Godot's Code of Conduct throughout your experience contributing to Godot Engine's development or simply by participating in officially maintained Godot's community channels? Perhaps you've been told that what you say hurts Godot's image? Were you previously "advised" to never quote anyone, even yourself?

If yes, then perhaps we can resolve this together. If contacting Godot's Code of Conduct team results in further escalation of the conflict and subsequent punishment, such as:

• Member exclusion
• Permanent banning

It might signify that you're being a victim of undue influence.

According to Godot's project governance model, the following principles must be enforced:

• Open Development
• Open Discussion
• Community-Minded

Because of the above, publicly discussing the project's direction and the governance itself should not be seen as a violation of the Code of Conduct, and should not be frowned upon, like they do when people question whether Godot is really community-driven or not.

I'd like to remind you that you're protected by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In our context, that's articles 18 and 19:

Article 18

Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.

Article 19

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

Update: almost two years later, the official representative of Godot's corrupt CoC team "reminded" of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights via X (former Twitter). In light of Godot's banning people on the basis of wrongthink, their statements exhibit extreme levels of hypocrisy.

---

While there are certainly cases when a particular behavior cannot be tolerated, we're all human beings and are prone to misinterpreting the facts. Furthermore, the emotional aspect tends to kick in, perverting the situations that arise out of real proportions, and what you say may be interpreted as insinuations in the eyes of those who do not assume the best positive intentions. In fact, this is illustrated in Expectations section in Godot's Code of Conduct:

Always assume positive intent from others. Be aware that differences in culture and English proficiency make written communication more difficult than face-to-face communication and that your interpretation of messages may not be the one the author intended. Conversely, if someone asks you to rephrase something you said, be ready to do so without feeling judged.

For example, perhaps you suffer or used to suffer from (severe) social anxiety, and due to lack of experience talking to people in general, what you say may be interpreted as being arrogant, to the point of accusation of bigotry, leading to discrimination, leading to bigotry again, etc. People with social anxiety may also have a strong need to be perfect in order to avoid public shaming, and they may expect people to be perfect as well (while in fact people are not perfect), which may lead to the feeling of injustice.

Due to this, we think that this vicious cycle has to be broken. Because if you think that you should be in Godot, let you be in Godot. 🙂

If you'd like to share your story, feel free to contact me. Read #199 for more information on this topic.