policy: added contribution policy

Policy originally by @isaacs and @othiym23, submitted by @mikeal,
committed fresh by @rvagg because .. #22 is kind of a mess

PR-URL: https://github.com/iojs/io.js/pull/22
Reviewed-By: Mikeal Rogers <mikeal.rogers@gmail.com>
Reviewed-By: Fedor Indutny <fedor@indutny.com>
Reviewed-By: Rod Vagg <rod@vagg.org>

1 files changed, 160 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md
index 4f41eeb24a..2abf528fd1 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTING.md
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -165,3 +165,163 @@ not send out notifications when you add commits.
 [IRC]: http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=node.js
 [project maintainers]: https://github.com/joyent/node/wiki/Project-Organization
 [node-forward discussion repository]: https://github.com/node-forward/discussions/issues
+
+# Contribution Policy
+
+Individuals making significant and valuable contributions are given
+commit-access to the project. These individuals are identified by the
+Technical Committee (TC) and discussed during the weekly TC meeting.
+
+If you make a significant contribution and are not considered for
+commit-access log an issue and it will be brought up in the next TC
+meeting.
+
+Internal pull-requests to solicit feedback are required for any other
+non-trivial contribution but left to the discretion of the
+contributor.
+
+Pull requests may be approved by any committer with sufficient
+expertise to take full responsibility for the change, according to the
+"Landing Patches" protocol described below.
+
+## Landing Patches
+
+- All bugfixes require a test case which demonstrates the defect.  The
+  test should *fail* before the change, and *pass* after the change.
+- Trivial changes (ie, those which fix bugs or improve performance
+  without affecting API or causing other wide-reaching impact) may be
+  landed immediately after review by a committer who did not write the
+  code, provided that no other committers object to the change.
+- If you are unsure, or if you are the author, have someone else
+  review the change.
+- For significant changes wait a full 48 hours (72 hours if it spans a
+  weekend) before merging so that active contributors who are
+  distributed throughout the world have a chance to weigh in.
+- Controversial changes and **very** significant changes should not be
+  merged until they have been discussed by the TC which will make any
+  final decisions.
+- Always include the `Reviewed-by: Your Name <your-email>` in the
+  commit message.
+- In commit messages also include `Fixes:` that either includes the
+  **full url** (e.g.  `https://github.com/iojs/io.js/issues/...`),
+  and/or the hash and commit message if the commit fixes a bug in a
+  previous commit.
+- PR's should include their full `PR-URL:` so it's easy to trace a
+  commit back to the conversation that lead up to that change.
+- Double check PR's to make sure the person's **full name** and email
+  address are correct before merging.
+- Except when updating dependencies, all commits should be self
+  contained.  Meaning, every commit should pass all tests. This makes
+  it much easier when bisecting to find a breaking change.
+
+# Governance
+
+This repository is jointly governed by a technical committee, commonly
+referred to as the "TC."
+
+The TC has final authority over this project including:
+
+* Technical direction
+* Project governance and process (including this policy)
+* Contribution policy
+* GitHub repository hosting
+* Conduct guidelines
+
+## Membership
+
+Initial membership invitations to the TC were given to individuals who
+had been active contributors to io.js, and who have significant
+experience with the management of the io.js project.  Membership is
+expected to evolve over time according to the needs of the project.
+
+Current membership is:
+
+```
+Ben Noordhuis (@bnoordhuis)
+Bert Belder (@piscisaureus)
+Fedor Indutny (@indutny)
+Isaac Z. Schlueter (@isaacs)
+Nathan Rajlich (@TooTallNate)
+TJ Fontaine (@tjfontaine)
+Trevor Norris (@trevnorris)
+```
+
+TC seats are not time-limited.  There is no fixed size of the TC.
+However, the expected target is between 6 and 12, to ensure adequate
+coverage of important areas of expertise, balanced with the ability to
+make decisions efficiently.
+
+There is no specific set of requirements or qualifications for TC
+membership beyond these rules.
+
+The TC may add contributors to the TC by unanimous consensus.
+
+A TC member may be removed from the TC by voluntary resignation, or by
+unanimous consensus of all other TC members.
+
+Changes to TC membership should be posted in the agenda, and may be
+suggested as any other agenda item (see "TC Meetings" below).
+
+If an addition or removal is proposed during a meeting, and the full
+TC is not in attendance to participate, then the addition or removal
+is added to the agenda for the subsequent meeting.  This is to ensure
+that all members are given the opportunity to participate in all
+membership decisions.  If a TC member is unable to attend a meeting
+where a planned membership decision is being made, then their consent
+is assumed.
+
+No more than 1/3 of the TC members may be affiliated with the same
+employer.  If removal or resignation of a TC member, or a change of
+employment by a TC member, creates a situation where more than 1/3 of
+the TC membership shares an employer, then the situation must be
+immediately remedied by the resignation or removal of one or more TC
+members affiliated with the over-represented employer(s).
+
+## TC Meetings
+
+The TC meets weekly on a Google hangout. The meeting is run by a
+designated moderator, currently `Mikeal Rogers (@mikeal)`. Each
+meeting should be published to Youtube.
+
+Items are added to the TC agenda which are considered contentious or
+are modifications of governance, contribution policy, TC membership,
+or release process. The intention of the agenda is not to approve or
+review all patches, that should happen continuously on GitHub (see
+"Contribution Policy").
+
+Any community member or contributor can ask that something be added to
+the next meeting's agenda by logging a GitHub Issue. Any TC member or
+the moderator can add the item to the agenda by a simple +1. The
+moderator and the TC cannot veto or remove items.
+
+Prior to each TC meeting the moderator will email the Agenda to the
+TC. TC members can add any items they like to the agenda at the
+beginning of each meeting. The moderator and the TC cannot veto or
+remove items.
+
+TC may invite persons or representatives from certain projects to
+participate in a non-voting capacity. These invitees currently are:
+
+* A representative from [build](https://github.com/node-forward/build)
+  chosen by that project.
+
+The moderator is responsible for summarizing the discussion of each
+agenda item and send it as a pull request after the meeting.
+
+## Consensus Seeking Process
+
+The TC follows a [Consensus
+Seeking](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consensus-seeking_decision-making)
+decision making model.
+
+When an agenda item has appeared to reach a consensus the moderator
+will ask "Does anyone object?" as a final call for dissent from the
+consensus.
+
+If an agenda item cannot reach a consensus a TC member can call for
+either a closing vote or a vote to table the issue to the next
+meeting. The call for a vote must be seconded by a majority of the TC
+or else the discussion will continue. Simple majority wins.
+
+Note that changes to TC membership require unanimous consensus.  See
+"Membership" above.