Feedback on Contributing.md

[kariljordan]

Greetings,

I reviewed Contributing.md and offer the following bullet points as feedback. I put it in a checklist format in case you want to tackle these one at a time and check them off when completed.

• Contributors: I recommend reviewing the text in your grant agreement to ensure the attribution language is accurate. Also, Josh Greenberg is a Program Director and Liz Vu is a Senior Program Associate. I'd check with them to ensure their names/titles are listed properly (i.e., Liz vs. Elizabeth).
• Contributor Agreement: Here is more fleshed out language that you could use to be a bit more explicit. Feel free to use some or all (or none!) of it:

Our lessons are community-driven. By submitting your work, you agree to license it under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license. You retain copyright, but grant The Carpentries the right to use, modify, and redistribute your contribution under this license. In return, we commit to reviewing contributions promptly, providing constructive feedback, and supporting your participation in our community. All contributions must follow The Carpentries’ Code of Conduct, which ensures a respectful and inclusive environment.

• What and how to contribute: The text below improves structure for readability, lowers barrier to entry, and clarifies roles:

There are many ways to contribute, and we’d love for you to get involved:

Substantial changes
If you have an idea for a bigger change (like adding or re-working lesson content), please start by opening an issue. This gives us a chance to discuss how your idea fits with the lesson goals before you spend time writing. You don’t need to write the lesson yourself if you don’t want to. Sharing the idea is already valuable.

• When suggesting new exercises or material, please estimate how long they would take to teach.
• Also let us know what you would remove to make space. This helps us keep lessons focused and realistic.

Small fixes
Typos, broken links, or quick improvements? Go ahead and open a pull request with the fix. If you’re not sure how, just open an issue or email the maintainers and we’ll help.

Comments & Reviews
Feedback is as important as new content. Commenting on issues or reviewing pull requests helps improve lessons for everyone. Fresh eyes are especially useful—novices often notice what experienced users overlook.

Website Template
If you’d like to change the lesson website template itself, please see The Workbench documentation. Lesson maintainers handle content only, not the template.

• Roles and Recognition: Some of the roles are noted "important" in this section and others aren't.

• Contributors: If someone sends an email to a maintainer and the result of that exchange changes the lesson, but they never submit a GitHub issue, are they also a contributor?

• Lastly, there may be individuals who are not GitHub savvy. You may also want to be transparent about what not to include in contributions. For inspiration, check out contributing.md from The Carpentries' git novice lesson.

[jlcohoon]

the first contributors point has been addressed by #3

[Erioldoesdesign]

I did make a PR for the first checkbox but then i thought about the complexity of the other changes/suggestions that are in this issue and how they might need individual issues for them should they be disputable or need discussion

[kariljordan]

That's a great point. Let me know if you need support with opening any other issues, or if you plan to open new issues and close this one.

[jlcohoon]

Jenny's PR addressed most of this, adding something about what not to include is the last point.

Personally, I wouldn't include that content given we're not inundated with PRs and could introduce that kind of language if it becomes an issue. Adding it ahead of time feels like it could introduce a barrier to entry. If others have opinions I'm open to them.

[jlcohoon]

Any other opinions on Kari's last check box from the @carpentries-incubator/ux-design-strudel-maintainers team? If not we can close this issue

[jlcohoon]

Closing by lazy consensus :)