alt.hn

5/14/2026 at 1:06:18 AM

SQLite Code of Ethics

 https://sqlite.org/codeofethics.html

by zdgeier

5/15/2026 at 9:53:54 AM

Every now and then someone in software communities brings this up and while I hate christians but use sqlite regardless because it's not that big of a deal that it's maintainers are christians, I do find it weird how this rarely gets brought up when conversations about politics in software development are had.

Just weird to me that nobody seems to care about that one when people complain about other less political but more politicized identities fairly often

by ____mr____

5/14/2026 at 3:41:42 PM

4 years ago, 379 comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31886687

My favorite bit about this is that it was adopted because the corporations buying sqlite insisted on having a code of conduct/ethics... And it's amazing that they'll check the box with this!

by datadrivenangel

5/14/2026 at 10:02:27 AM

One could probably argue that, if interpreted in a certain way, most of these laws/rules could be good. Even the god praising could be seen positively if one subtly transforms "god" into something like "that which is good," as many secular philosophers have done.

However, this rule cannot be shown to be universally good, regardless of interpretation:

"Obey in all things the commands of those whom God has placed in authority over you, even though they (which God forbid) should act otherwise, mindful of the Lord's precept, 'Do what they say, but not what they do.'"

It’s just not logical or empirically coherent. We could deconstruct this stupidity extensively, but it would not fit within the margin of this thread.

by jtrn

5/14/2026 at 6:29:07 PM

> if one subtly transforms "god" into something like "that which is good," as many secular philosophers have done.

It's the other way around. The word god describes "that which is good" a priori and then people discovered, that he is a person and not a principle.

by 1718627440

5/15/2026 at 9:46:12 AM

she*

by ____mr____

5/14/2026 at 6:34:04 PM

[dead]

by cindyllm

5/14/2026 at 12:19:59 PM

> However, this rule cannot be shown to be universally good, regardless of interpretation

Subordinate yourself to those with authority in all things, except things that break or undermine any of the other rules.

by danhau

5/14/2026 at 1:25:35 PM

“No one is required to follow The Rule, to know The Rule, or even to think that The Rule is a good idea. The Founder of SQLite believes that anyone who follows The Rule will live a happier and more productive life, but individuals are free to dispute or ignore that advice if they wish.”

by empthought

5/14/2026 at 11:04:15 AM

I believe it's adapted from the Rule of Saint Benedict[0] so regardless of your own objections to its practicality, communities of monks have been living by more-or-less these rules for centuries.

[0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_Saint_Benedict

by ForHackernews

5/14/2026 at 10:03:11 PM

"With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil — that takes religion."

― Steven Weinberg

by johnbarron

5/14/2026 at 12:07:16 PM

It's nice to see some humble people inside the tech space.

Too many of us believe we are gods as we command our machines to do our will. That was me once.

by deadeye

5/14/2026 at 9:51:08 AM

Regardless of my own view on these ethics, the quality of SQLite is for me a testament to the usefulness of truthfully adhering to a (sub)set of noble precepts.

by kh_hk

5/15/2026 at 4:24:46 AM

Unexpected to see one of the most widely used databases grounding its ethics in a 1,500-year-old framework. The longevity angle is interesting.

by mindmesh

5/14/2026 at 5:40:03 PM

Least harmful CoC

by mmaniac

5/14/2026 at 10:43:55 AM

After so many variations of “don’t be evil” (but when it suits us we’ll just let that go) - I’m indifferent to these kinds of ethics statements.

by JSR_FDED

5/14/2026 at 7:36:14 AM

excuse me, what

by grozmovoi

5/14/2026 at 7:44:33 AM

The people with commit bits to SQLite are a known, fixed, small set of individuals, all Christians. They decided to dispense with the usual Contributor Covenant derived code of conduct and adopt their own based on their shared value system. Unfortunately it doesn't actually meet the requirements for an open source code of conduct.

by bitwize

5/14/2026 at 9:19:50 AM

Whose requirements? for a code of conduct?

I would have thought its up to each project to decide on their requirements. There is no central authority that decides how to run an open source project.

by graemep

5/14/2026 at 1:02:37 PM

Exactly. Even more true when contributions are not open: https://sqlite.org/copyright.html#:~:text=Open%2DSource%2C%2...

by d1sxeyes

5/14/2026 at 1:23:59 PM

You can fork it

by whattheheckheck

5/14/2026 at 2:27:50 PM

If you fork it you can have your own code of conduct for your fork.

by graemep

5/14/2026 at 11:25:54 AM 

  52. Guard your tongue against evil and depraved speech.
  53. Do not love much talking.
  54. Speak no useless words or words that move to laughter.
  55. Do not love much or boisterous laughter.
No love for stand-up comics then, huh?

by byte-sized-snac

5/14/2026 at 8:45:18 AM

Uhhh, wasn't April 1st like a month and a half ago?

EDIT: Nevermind. Seems like this nonsense has been on their website since at least October 2018 (https://web.archive.org/web/20181024184950/https://sqlite.or...). How off putting.

by Defletter

5/14/2026 at 1:15:43 PM

As the first section notes, the only reason they posted this is to fulfill a checklist requirement for certain commercial users. The external requirement for a code of conduct, which requesters never read and don’t actually care about, is the actual nonsense here.

by empthought

5/14/2026 at 6:20:48 PM

Hardly. It may be annoying for commercial users to require a checkboxy code of conduct from the software they choose to use, but taking that opportunity to shove religion down people's throats is very strange behaviour. It also makes me suspicious of SQLite: if they're that brazen, do I need to look out for potential implementations of these rules within the code? Will certain words, like "gay", cause queries to fail? I don't think so and I hope it never will. But this is a SQL database engine and they chose to publicly affiliate it with religion. That's concerning.

I've been considering switching to H2 for a while now to avoid depending on a fat-jar full of binaries. This nonsense has persuaded me to make that switch.

by Defletter

5/15/2026 at 3:38:42 AM

The source code is in the public domain. You can inspect it, fork it, and redistribute it as you like.

Nothing is being shoved down anyone’s throat.

by empthought

5/15/2026 at 7:26:56 AM

I'd rather just not use the thing than maintain a fork just to monitor for the influence of its official religion in its code.

by Defletter

5/14/2026 at 11:37:26 AM

I could not disagree with you harder but I don't think you should be downvoted for a negative reaction like this.

by AussieWog93

5/14/2026 at 8:15:18 PM

Yeah, it’s worth reminding people every so often that the guys who run SQLite are weirdos. Even if it is, hands down, the best product in its class.

And yes, it’s basically a paraphrase of the Rule of St Benedict.

by moomin