guide/CONTRIBUTING.md

# Contributions Welcome!

The maintainers of this Copyleft Guide project encourage contribution from
the community.  Part of the impetus for this project was to create a
community around a "copyleft codebase" for information about copyleft.  In
other words, this project is a tutorial project about Copyleft that is like a
Free Software project.

## Who Is In Charge?

Currently, [Bradley M. Kuhn](http://ebb.org/bkuhn/) is the editor-in-chief of
this Guide project.  However, many other contributors have given patches and
improvements to the text.  Review the
[commit log in the Git repository](https://gitorious.org/copyleft-org/tutorial/commits/master)
for more details on who has contributed to the project.

## How Do I Get Involved?

The Guide is maintained in a copylefted distributed version control system called
[Git](http://git-scm.com/).  Currently, the project utilizes the services of
a  Git hosting website called [Gitorious](https://gitorious.org). (The
software which runs Gitorious is, itself, copylefted, too.)

Those who are comfortable with Gitorious can submit
[merge requests on copyleft.org's gitorious site](https://gitorious.org/copyleft-org/tutorial/merge_requests).
See the section "Merge Request and Patch Workflow" below for more information
on the details of doing that.

However, lack of Git and/or LaTeX knowledge is *not a barrier* for
contribution to this project.  Useful contributions will be accepted by the
following means as well:

  * Patches posted to
    [the mailing list](http://lists.copyleft.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss).

  * New sections of text or simply ideas and input emailed to
    [the mailing list](http://lists.copyleft.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss).

  * Ideas and suggestions mentioned on the
    [irc channel #copyleft on freenode](irc://irc.freenode.net/#copyleft).

Please, do not worry if your patches or new sections of text are not properly
formatted as patches and/or are not formatted in LaTeX properly.  Indeed,
feel free to offer patches that break LaTeX formatting, or to just write up
your suggestion in an email.  If the content is appropriate for the Guide,
the editor-in-chief or someone else will format your contribution properly
for LaTeX.

Note: by submitting contributions via any of these means, you agree to the
"Author's Certificate of Origin" (see below).

## How Do I Figure Out What To Contribute?

If you're looking for something to fix, just grep the *.tex files for "FIXME"
and you'll find plenty.  Many of them are simple and easy to do.  Some of
them are writing, and some of them are simply formatting-related.

If you want a larger, more involved writing project, take a look at the
[TODO list in this repository](TODO.md).  That list has bigger items that
other contributors have identified as necessary.  (BTW, the project
contributors are considering various possible copylefted bug-tracking
solutions, but admittedly haven't picked a bug-tracker yet.)

There is also a [TODO list on the website](https://copyleft.org/todo/), which
are mostly related to formatting, layout and infrastructure, but if you'd
like to help there, such help is also welcome.

## Merge Request and Patch Workflow

Currently, the main location for work on this project is
[on Gitorious](https://gitorious.org/copyleft-org/tutorial), and active new
development on the project happens on the
['next' branch](https://gitorious.org/copyleft-org/tutorial/source/next:)
(which is
[auto-published on the copyleft.org/guide-next URL](https://copyleft.org/guide-next/)).
Here is a suggested workflow for submitting patches — first doing so
*with* the Gitorious infrastructure and second *avoiding* the Gitorious
infrastructure.