Skip to content

Latest commit

 

History

History
executable file
·
70 lines (43 loc) · 5.93 KB

CONTRIBUTING.md

File metadata and controls

executable file
·
70 lines (43 loc) · 5.93 KB

Welcome!

We’re so glad you’re thinking about contributing to an 18F open source project! If you’re unsure about something, feel free to submit your issue or pull request anyway. The worst that can happen is you’ll be politely asked to change something. We love all friendly contributions and questions.

We want to ensure a welcoming environment for all of our projects. Our staff follow the 18F Code of Conduct and all contributors should do the same.

We encourage you to read this project’s CONTRIBUTING policy (you are here), its LICENSE, and its README.

If you have any questions or want to read more, check out the 18F Open Source Policy GitHub repository, or just shoot us an email.

How to contribute

Where to submit a pull request

Submit pull requests to the 18f-pages-staging branch. This is the main branch of Methods. If you’re not sure how to submit a pull request, feel free to submit an issue and we will try to address it ourselves.

What to include in a pull request

Including these will help us be faster and better at responding.

  • Changes: a list, preferably bulleted, of what you’re changing
  • Notes: anything that might help us understand the change, like why you’re doing it or alternative approaches you tried
  • Screenshots: if your pull request will affect layout or interaction, to show us what you’re fixing or changing

Issues and labels

If there’s anything you’d like to understand about Methods, submit an issue about it. If you see something that should be fixed but don’t want to do so yourself, submit an issue. If you have an idea for an improvement... well, you get the idea.

This is the list of labels we currently use for different types of issues. It should give you some idea of the sorts of issues we expect. (You can also apply these labels to pull requests.) But if you want to raise something else, go for it.

  • bug tells us that Methods is doing something it probably should not. Try to keep this to interactive, layout, or visual design issues for the digital version. Print design issues should go under print cards.
  • copy edit denotes changes to language, which tells us we need to make the change twice: in the digital version and on the printable method cards. Even if the issue only exists in one place, we want to check it in both.
  • duplicate suggests that this issue might be the same as another issue. If you tell us what issue that is, we will look into it and decide whether to combine them.
  • enhancement means you’re suggesting a way to make Methods better. This is different from bug because it’s not suggesting there’s something wrong with the current state.
  • help wanted is a request for assistance, usually by 18F to the world, but if you just can’t figure something out about something you’re trying to do with Methods, feel free to use this label.
  • invalid comes after the fact to say the issue is either inaccurate or misplaced.
  • new method tells us you are submitting a design research method that we don’t currently describe.
  • print cards is for design changes to the printable cards that may require a bit more time from an 18F visual designer to address.
  • question raises any kind of question at all you have about Methods.
  • wontfix should come from 18F staffers. It acknowledges the issue — usually a bug or enhancement — but says we are not going to do something with it. You should expect an explanation if we apply this label.
  • work in progress means we are in the process of addressing this issue.

What to include in an issue

Not all of these will apply to all issues. But when they do, it’s very helpful to see them (special thanks to @ondrae for the suggestion of this list).

  • Description: okay, this one does apply to all issues. :)
  • How to reproduce: if your issue is a bug, any information about how we can see it ourselves
  • Screenshots: similarly, so we can see what you’re seeing
  • Files: anything with helpful information about the issue
  • To dos: if your issue is an enhancement, a list of improvements or steps to help us meet the goal of the enhancement

Before you submit content edits

Please review the Methods content editing checklist. We’re trying to keep the style and structure consistent, so we’ll check contributions against this guide anyway. Might as well check beforehand! If you’d rather just call our attention to something that seems off, go ahead and file an issue and we’ll review the checklist as part of our edits.

What we do with contributions

We regularly review all pull requests and issues. We merge pull requests into 18f-pages-staging as soon as we can.

Once a week, we incorporate any staged copy edits into the files for the printed cards, also on 18f-pages-staging. We then merge all changes from 18f-pages-staging into master — code and copy, digital and print. You’ll see your change reflected on methods.18f.gov after that pull into master.

We leave issues and pull requests open until we have decided what to do and then actually done it. Any time we close an issue, you’ll see something that explains why we’re closing it (such as a comment, a merged pull request, or a reference to another issue).

Public domain

This project is in the public domain within the United States, and copyright and related rights in the work worldwide are waived through the CC0 1.0 Universal public domain dedication.

All contributions to this project will be released under the CC0 dedication. By submitting a pull request, you are agreeing to comply with this waiver of copyright interest.