It would be great if we lived in a world where this wasn't necessary. However, a long list of incidents at Cons demonstrates that there is a need to lay down expectations so that one person's accustomed behaviour doesn't become another person's harrassment experience.

Codes of Conduct are to me a relatively recent arrival. They've certainly been in place at all the Cons I've attended this century, but I don't recall them from Cons in the 80s (I had a gap of attendance during the 90s). They didn't sprung unbidden into existence, but as a sensible response to issues and incidents that had previously occurred.

I certainly wish that the expectations of acceptable behaviour Codes of Conduct make clear had been around in the 1980s. I recall a variety of upsetting incidents that some people (including Con organisers) thought were not cause for concern because female Con attendee should have been wary of people like the "old gropers" and it was their fault for no being sufficiently aware that this was how a small subset routinely behaved at such events. They didn't want to upset the regulars, etc.

We have moved on from that. Let's not go back there. It wasn't a good place.