| Internet-Draft | contributing.txt | October 2022 |
| Binotto | Expires 4 April 2023 | [Page] |
Open source projects rely on the cooperation of third parties. Other websites also rely on user feedback, for example, when bugs occur. There are various platforms that enable effective collaboration. However, this diversity also presents a challenge. Where should users who have discovered an error report it? Or how can third parties participate in a project? This document presents one way to communicate such information in a consistent manner.¶
This note is to be removed before publishing as an RFC.¶
The latest revision of this draft can be found at https://github.com/valentinbinotto/id-valentin-contributingtxt/. Status information for this document may be found at https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-valentinbinotto-contributingtxt/.¶
Discussion of this document takes place on the V434 Project External Working Group mailing list (mailto:rfc-ext@v434project.com), which is archived at https://github.com/valentinbinotto/id-valentin-contributingtxt/tree/main/mailing-list.¶
Source for this draft and an issue tracker can be found at https://github.com/valentinbinotto/id-valentin-contributingtxt.¶
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Currently, there are various platforms for collaboration on projects or communication with users of websites, services and so on. This creates opportunities, for example in open source projects, to work with contributors and exchange information. However, such opportunities differ from project to project. Users who are interested in participating in a project need to be aware of these different procedures. This can be a challenge due to the inconsistent form of the information and might also lead to users deciding not to participate because they cannot find a contact point.
At the same time, there is a need for "bug reports" in other forms of websites as well. Users are expected to point out bugs to the person in charge and thus lead to a better user experience for all users. Unfortunately, the ways and procedures for such "bug reports" also differ from website to website. These differences mean that users might not be able to find a contact person to report a bug, and thus fail to report it.¶
The goal of this document and the proposed form of communication in the "contributing.txt" file is:¶
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in BCP 14 [RFC2119] [RFC8174] when, and only when, they appear in all capitals, as shown here.¶
This document defines a file called "contributing.txt", which provides information about possible contribution to a project or website. The file format of "contributing.txt" MUST be plain text (MIME type "text/plain") (Section 4.1.3 of [RFC2046]) and MUST be encoded using UTF-8 ([RFC3629]).¶
The file "contributing.txt" MUST be placed directly under the domain (for example: https://example.com/contributing.txt).¶
The file "contributing.txt" MUST contain at least:¶
Admin: Valentin Binotto Bugs: bugs@example.com
OPTIONAL the following paragraphs can be added to the "contributing.txt" file:¶
Open Source: github.com/valentinbinotto License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Int. Public License Guidelines: github.com/valentinbinotto/v434/guidelines.txt
OPTIONAL, comments can be added to the "contributing.txt" file. Each line of the comment must start with "#" (%x23).¶
# Hello, world!
The specified paragraphs MUST be placed in the following order:¶
Admin: Valentin Binotto Bugs: bugs@example.com Open Source: github.com/valentinbinotto License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Int. Public License Guidelines: github.com/valentinbinotto/v434/guidelines.txt # Hello, world!
Because of the use of URIs, security considerations of [RFC3986] apply here.¶
This document has no IANA actions.¶