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Contributing guidelines
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<p>Contributing guidelines, also called Contribution guidelines, the CONTRIBUTING.md file, or software contribution guidelines, is a <a href="/facts/Text_file/zYW4JmES">text file</a> which project managers include in <a href="/facts/Free_and_open-source_software/1cHtjLCB">free and open-source software</a> packages or other open media packages for the purpose of describing how others may contribute <a href="/facts/User-generated_content/StMc2PQH">user-generated content</a> to the project. </p><p>The file explains how anyone can engage in activities such as formatting code for submission or submitting <a href="/facts/Patch_(computing)/sIHVBPls">patches</a>. </p><p>The existence of the file in a package should increase the chance of a project receiving crowdsourced contributions. But in many cases, the received contributions do not follow the instructions in the file. </p><p>Having a contributions file greatly contributes to the success of projects which depend on user contributions. </p>