Bug #163
READMEs and websites should reference "Contributing" wiki page
100%
Description
The READMEs and websites should link to a "Contributing" or "How to Contribute" wiki page, so we don't have to update all of them whenever we need to make changes. This presupposes the existence of such a page, which should at least include information on using the bug tracker, mailing lists, and IRC channel, and how merges are handled. We also need to have a link to a contributor agreement that contributors can download, sign, and mail/fax/scan+e-mail/whatever.
Related issues
History
Updated by Stephen Burrows almost 13 years ago
Updated by Perhaps this should be a documentation page instead of a wiki page.
Updated by Stephen Burrows almost 13 years ago
Also, why do we need a contributor agreement? Django doesn't.
Updated by Joseph Spiros almost 13 years ago
Updated by Stephen Burrows wrote:
Also, why do we need a contributor agreement? Django doesn't.
I require one for legal reasons, both anticipated and unanticipated.
Two examples would be to allow for relicensing in the future, and to allow legal action to be taken by iThink Software against violators of the license, both of which would otherwise need or benefit from the cooperation of every contributor. And that gets very messy as time goes on. For example, what happens if someone dies? Or, if someone just disappears?
Another example is that some people adopting open source software would like to be able to purchase a license for their own protection. Even SQLite offers this, despite being public domain.
Some more information is available on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contributor_License_Agreement
Mind you, I am not a lawyer, so if you actually want to know about this stuff you should contact one.
Updated by Stephen Burrows almost 13 years ago
- Category set to Documentation
- Assignee set to Joseph Spiros
Added a contribution page to the docs in my develop branch with c79bb6f20ff4100201f23a5d521aaa39dfc1c291. Meant more as an initial effort rather than a final word. For example, it doesn't have a link to the CLA because I don't have a copy and there's no set procedure (that I know of).
Just for the record, I think it might be worthwhile to limit the CLA to "significant contributions"... I'm concerned that the stark requirement might scare away potential contributors. shrug
Updated by Joseph Spiros over 12 years ago
- Status changed from New to Resolved
- % Done changed from 0 to 100