I see. So if I'm understanding correctly, then this policy serves as a kind of "legal ground" from which the maintainers can take action against perpetrators, right?

To add a bit more context, when I was writing the original comment, I was mainly thinking of first-time contributors that don't have any track records, and how the policy would work against them.

> I see. So if I'm understanding correctly, then this policy serves as a kind of "legal ground" from which the maintainers can take action against perpetrators, right?

They aren't government and it's not that bureaucratic. As with any group, if you break the guidelines/rules they just won't want to work with you.

> To add a bit more context, when I was writing the original comment, I was mainly thinking of first-time contributors that don't have any track records, and how the policy would work against them.

No matter what, somebody has to review the contribution. First time contributors get feedback, most of them correct their mistakes and some go on to be regular contributors (like me). Others never respond, and still more others make the same mistakes over and over again.

On the topic, Gentoo has projects like GURU where users can contribute new packages that maybe aren't ready for main tree or where a full developer wouldn't be interested, it's a good place to learn if interested in working towards becoming a developer: https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Project:GURU