v2Configure Git contribution guidelines for github.com

Many open source projects use github.com for their contribution process. Although we mirror the Git core repository to github.com [1] we do not use any other github.com service. This is unknown/unexpected to a number of (potential) contributors and consequently they create Pull Requests against our mirror with their contributions. These Pull Requests become stale. This is frustrating to them as they think we ignore them and it is also unsatisfactory for us as we miss potential code improvements and/or new contributors.

GitHub contribution guidelines and a GitHub Pull Request template that is visible to every Pull Request creator can be configured with special files in a Git repository [2]. Let's make use of this!

[1] https://github.com/git/git [2] https://help.github.com/articles/creating-a-pull-request-template-for-your-repository/

Signed-off-by: Lars Schneider <larsxschneider@gmail.com>
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Hi,

changes since v1:
* mention submitGit
* link to mailing list address instead of mailing list archive
* reformat long lines
* move "read" out of link title
* use kernel.org repo for "A note from the maintainer"
* reference "A note from the maintainer" with the correct name

You can see a preview here: https://github.com/larsxschneider/git/compare/master...larsxschneider-patch-1?quick_pull=1

Thanks, Lars

Notes:
    Base Ref: master
    Web-Diff: https://github.com/larsxschneider/git/commit/c438291da7
    Checkout: git fetch https://github.com/larsxschneider/git contrib-guide-v2 && git checkout c438291da7

 .github/CONTRIBUTING.md          | 19 +++++++++++++++++++
 .github/PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE.md |  7 +++++++
 2 files changed, 26 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 .github/CONTRIBUTING.md
 create mode 100644 .github/PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE.md

On Tue, Jun 13, 2017 at 10:18:07AM +0200, Lars Schneider wrote:

You might want to link to https://git-scm.com/community/, which has a section on the mailing list at the top. It gives the list address but also talks about the archive, that you can send to it without subscribing, etc.

I think this is OK. For CONTRIBUTING.md, GitHub re-wraps. In the pull request template itself, though, the newlines become hard-wraps. But we wouldn't generally expect those lines to remain in the final PR text anyway, so it shouldn't really matter.

That's actually one annoyance I have with PR and issue templates like this: the submitter has to manually delete them. But there's not really a better way to get people's attention. The link to CONTRIBUTING is by far not enough in my experience (I had to put a template in git/git-scm.com for people to top submitting Git bugs).

The text itself looks good, but two minor grammar nits:

I think the comma after "advised" is unnecessary (you could also drop "that" to turn the first part into an introductory clause, but I think it reads better with as "Please be advised that").

Ditto here.

-Peff

Agreed. I removed the mailing list email address as this is not useful until you have subscribed to the list.

Agreed!

Thank you, Lars

Lars Schneider <larsxschneider@gmail.com> writes:

Wait a minite. As Peff explained above, you *can* send to it without subscribing, so "as this is not useful until you have subscribed" is quite wrong, no?

This I think I've already squashed in to v2 before pushing the result out.

I do not terribly mind what you did in v3 to the list address, and I do agree with Peff that mentioning the "community" page is a good idea. But

     Git community does not use github.com for their contributions. Instead, we use
     a [mailing list](https://git-scm.com/community/) for code submissions,...
     ... and bug reports.

looks quite wrong.  If it were

     Git community does not use github.com for their contributions. Instead, we use
     a [mailing list](mailto:git@vger.kernel.org) for code submissions,...
     ... and bug reports.  See [the community page](https://git-scm.com/community/)
     for further information.

I won't find it questionable at all, though.

Oh, I didn't know that! I "subscribed" before sending my first message :)

Looks good to me (minor nit: maybe s/the community page/our community page/ for a more personal touch?). However, I would apply these changes only to CONTRIBUTING.md. Markdown links wouldn't work in PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE.md as the user would see the Markdown in plain text and not rendered.

Example here: https://github.com/larsxschneider/git/compare/master...larsxschneider-patch-1?quick_pull=1

Thanks, Lars