Add contributing guidelines

[sheabunge]

Quite a few people are opening issues which have been resolved before, such as using multiple <h1> tags per page, and adding support for old versions of IE.

I suggest we add a contributing guidelines file to this repositiory, and include a list of common issues that people might be tempted to bring up again.

When people go to open an issue or pull request, they will see this notice:

…which will link to the CONTRIBUTING.md file in the root of this repo.

[ScottSmith95]

Perfect! I'd also add something about the purpose of Underscores so potential contribs can check that their suggestions or pull requests follow this goal.

[sheabunge]

Of course, I fully intend that for the guidelines to be built on, either by the maintainers of this repo or through additional pull requests. These are just a base set built from recurring issues I've noticed in this repo.

[joshmcrty]

+1 to this idea. I think I remember reading somewhere that _s will support the latest two major browser versions and the latest two WordPress releases.

[ianstewart]

Neat!

[michiecat]

Another +1 for the contributing guidelines.

It might be a good idea if the guidelines could advise people to search the repository before contributing to make sure their issue hasn't already been submitted and/or resolved.

[obenland]

This could prove to be a double edged sword. On the one hand it might help preventing more h1-tickets, on the other hand, it might discourage potential contributors from creating a ticket by its mere existence.

I can see us adopting it in the near future, the guidelines should be very positively worded though.

[obenland]

@bungeshea The first guideline would be that we only accept PRs from contributors with a proper gravatar ;)

[ScottSmith95]

@obenland I agree completely (with your previous comment.) The guidelines should be encouraging and positive. They should be easy to digest and not just for GitHub experts. If this is accomplished then the contributing guidelines can assure people that this is a project that they are able to chip in on and instill confidence in the potential contributor.

[sheabunge]

The suggested contributing guidelines included in this PR are only intended as an example - take them or leave them, your choice.

[karmatosed]

I like the idea of contributor guidelines if they do not get in the way of contributing. I think with a little bit of editing and possibly by using wiki links, we can create something useful and encouraging.

I’d first suggest we reduce the text. Nobody likes to read a manual before contributing.Perhaps we can start with a thank you message and then lead into things to ask yourself before committing. We could have the following format:

“Thanks for contributing to _s - you rock!
Before you contribute please check our Contribution checklist and Browser support”.

Then we can have a Contribution checklist and Browser support on the Wiki. It adds another step but it solves the problem of a lot of text and encourages proactive contributions and a list we can curate over time.

[mrwweb]

Links to some previous good issues and pull requests would be nice as would a short list of links to popular previously closed "wontfix" issues.

[ianstewart]

@bungeshea Are you up for taking another pass with the ideas above considered?

[sheabunge]

@ianstewart If people are fine with the guidelines in this PR with a few relatively minor adjustments, then I'm fine with another pass. However, if a more substantial rewrite is required, it may be better if the maintainers of this repo wrote the guidelines themselves.

The main purpose of this issue was to draw attention to adding contributing guidelines, and I included a guidelines file purely as a base example.

[ianstewart]

@bungeshea Fair enough. I'm going to close this issue for now.