What Brian said.
As I have said repeatedly over many years, things happen at RIPE Meetings that the community does not, or should not, want to happen. The previous system gave the victims of those things someone to talk to, which is important, but little more than that. A CoC provides a means of recourse, which has been proven to work in communities around the world.
At the age of 51, I am now learning that I'm not (and probably never have been) neurotypical. Part of my self-education has been learning that more of the things that I think are funny, sometimes are offensive to others in interesting ways. (more often, fortunately, they just come across as obscure). Attempts to communicate clearly and unambiguously sometimes come across as passive aggressive. So, one of the reasons I like the CoC step for most things is that it can provide a way for me to learn of my mistakes without making situations more awkward. [And I see that I've just done a tangent before the point communication again] -- Michael Richardson <mcr+IETF@sandelman.ca>, Sandelman Software Works -= IPv6 IoT consulting =-