I just saw a github blog post about contributing guidelines. If you place a CONTRIBUTING.txt (or .rst, or .md etc) in the root of your github repository, github will show a link to that file when someone adds an issue to the bug tracker (or when opening a pull request).
Seems like a reasonable suggestion! So I tried it out in one of my open source projects.
My main goals:
- I want it to sound friendly and welcoming. We actually want feedback and bug reports.
- Just sending an email is often easier and nicer. Especially if you just want to ask a question instead of adding a full-blown issue.
- When you're about to fix something yourself, I want to float a link to the developer information right in your face. How to run the tests. Explanation of the dependencies that are needed. That sort of stuff.
So... this is my first try. Do you've got comments or tips? Do you think github's idea is handy?