a simple way to provide informations for contributors
draft-valentinbinotto-contributingtxt-01

WG Working Group                                              V. Binotto
Internet-Draft                                           valentinbinotto
Intended status: Informational                              22 June 2022
Expires: 24 December 2022

         a simple way to provide informations for contributors
                draft-valentinbinotto-contributingtxt-01

Abstract

   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.

About This Document

   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/blob/
   gh-pages/draft-valentinbinotto-valentinbinotto-contributingtxt.txt.
   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 Working
   Group mailing list (mailto:rfc@vauly.net), which is archived at
   https://github.com/valentinbinotto/id-valentin-contributingtxt-list.

   Source for this draft and an issue tracker can be found at
   https://github.com/valentinbinotto/id-valentin-contributingtxt.

Status of This Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF).  Note that other groups may also distribute
   working documents as Internet-Drafts.  The list of current Internet-
   Drafts is at https://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.

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   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
   and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
   time.  It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
   material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."

   This Internet-Draft will expire on 24 December 2022.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2022 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents (https://trustee.ietf.org/
   license-info) in effect on the date of publication of this document.
   Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights
   and restrictions with respect to this document.  Code Components
   extracted from this document must include Revised BSD License text as
   described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions and are
   provided without warranty as described in the Revised BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  Conventions and Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   3.  The Specification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   4.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   5.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   6.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   Author's Address  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5

1.  Introduction

   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

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   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:

   1.  to provide open source or similar projects with the opportunity
       to inform interested parties about the possibilities of
       contributing.

   2.  to offer any kind of website the possibility to define a contact
       person for bug reports etc.

2.  Conventions and Definitions

   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.

3.  The Specification

   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:

   *  Paragraph "Admin" with the name of the administrator or the
      webmaster.

   *  Paragraph "Bugs" with a mail address or a web address to report
      bugs.

   Admin: Valentin Binotto
   Bugs: bugs@example.com

                            Figure 1: Example 1

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   OPTIONALLY the following paragraphs can be added to the
   "contributing.txt" file:

   *  Paragraph "Open Source" with a web address to a suitable platform
      for third party collaboration (for example github.com or
      gitlab.com).

   *  Paragraph "License" with information about the license that
      applies to the content of the website.

   *  Paragraph "Guidelines" with a web address to the guidelines for
      contributing to this project.

   Open Source: github.com/valentinbinotto
   License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Int. Public License
   Guidelines: github.com/valentinbinotto/v434/guidelines.txt

                            Figure 2: Example 2

   OPTIONALLY, comments can be added to the "contributing.txt" file.
   Each line of the comment must start with "#" (%x23).

   # Hello, world!

                            Figure 3: Example 3

   The specified paragraphs MUST be placed in the following order:

   1.  Admin

   2.  Bugs

   3.  Open Source

   4.  License

   5.  Guidelines

   6.  (Comments)
       Only one entry is allowed per paragraph

       However, paragraphs can be reused an unlimited number of times,
       as long as the order of the paragraphs is still as specified.

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   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!

              Figure 4: Example for a "contributing.txt" file

4.  Security Considerations

   Because of the use of URIs, security considerations of [RFC3986]
   apply here.

5.  IANA Considerations

   This document has no IANA actions.

6.  Normative References

   [RFC2046]  Freed, N. and N. Borenstein, "Multipurpose Internet Mail
              Extensions (MIME) Part Two: Media Types", RFC 2046,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC2046, November 1996,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2046>.

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2119>.

   [RFC3629]  Yergeau, F., "UTF-8, a transformation format of ISO
              10646", STD 63, RFC 3629, DOI 10.17487/RFC3629, November
              2003, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3629>.

   [RFC3986]  Berners-Lee, T., Fielding, R., and L. Masinter, "Uniform
              Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax", STD 66,
              RFC 3986, DOI 10.17487/RFC3986, January 2005,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3986>.

   [RFC8174]  Leiba, B., "Ambiguity of Uppercase vs Lowercase in RFC
              2119 Key Words", BCP 14, RFC 8174, DOI 10.17487/RFC8174,
              May 2017, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8174>.

Acknowledgments

Author's Address

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   Valentin Binotto
   valentinbinotto
   Email: valentinbinotto@vauly.net

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