Contributions of all kinds, including discussion, corrections, additions, and improvements, are welcome! We hope you'll join and help, in small ways or large. We gladly [credit](/AUTHORS.md) all contributors. Here are few notes before you jump in.
- The simplest thing you can do to contribute is [**join the Slack channel**](https://og-aws.slack.lexikon.io/) and **ask or answer questions** or **discuss**, which
helps the community and guides what contributors can focus on.
- [**File issues**](https://github.com/open-guides/og-aws/issues) if it’s clear something needs to be improved and you’re not able to make a pull request.
- [**Pull requests**](https://github.com/open-guides/og-aws/pulls) with changes are always welcome. Please keep them small and focused, so we can add items individually, and review the conventions below. If you want to make a larger change, try to discuss it in Slack.
- **Review** or **comment** on existing issues and pull requests if you have expertise.
- If you have deep expertise, we may ask you to be an **editor** or **expert**. Editors and experts are assigned roles that [help us review](#editorial-process) the Guide. Join Slack to discuss this.
- **Link to references:** If you are adding an item, whenever possible, try to add a link or reference to relevant discussion or reference pages.
- **Be brief:** Avoid long expository paragraphs; it’s better to link to a blog. (We are open to linking to your own blog, if it’s the best source.)
- **Include opinions and common practice:** Thoughtful opinion is helpful. If there are multiple conventions or ideas on something held by experts, mention the different ones.
- **Clarity:** Strive for consistency with conventions listed here, but clarity is most important.
When creating a PR or reviewing one, it’s helpful to consider a few questions:
1. Are relevant docs linked (AWS and third party blogs)?
2. Can more details be added without lengthening it significantly?
3. Can the same information be conveyed with more succinctly or more clearly?
4. Copy editing: Does it match the [writing style](#writing-style) and [conventions](#writing-conventions) (including emoji symbols, punctuation, and grammar)?
5. Are there any other parts of the guide that should be updated at the same time? (Examples are adding new sections to the table of contents, adding new internal links, rows to tables, etc.)
6. Are there additional improvements that should be filed as issues?
### Editorial Process
- Roles:
- **Project leads:** Own overall quality of the Guide, direction, and process.
- **Editors:** Contributors own specific sections or aspects of the Guide, reviewing PRs and/or writing. Requires expert knowledge.
- **Experts:** People with expert knowledge in various areas, who have agreed to review or help on demand with tougher questions or PRs.
- **Contributors:** Everyone who contributes content or helps one way or another.
- All PRs are reviewed by an **editor** and for non-trivial changes, a **project lead**, usually in that order, but it can be reversed for expediency.
- In addition, anyone with relevant knowledge is encouraged to review/comment on PRs.
- Both editors and project leads are responsible for checking for style or problems.
- Trivial changes (including copy editing) may be merged in directly by project leads or editors.
- **Abbreviations:** For AWS service names, we use the abbreviation throughout the guide if it is more common, e.g. EC2 and not Elastic Compute Cloud. We also omit “Amazon” at the front of product names, e.g. EMR and not Amazon EMR. If an abbreviation is convenient but not always used, e.g. AZ instead of Availability Zone, either use the full term once per section/paragraph and abbreviate subsequent usages or do not abbreviate it at all.
- Terms that appear for the first time in **boldface** are defined there in a brief summary, with a link if possible to what is probably the best page for that concept. It’s also fine to boldface **key statements** that guide the eye.
- **Boldfaced headings:** When possible and appropriate, begin bulleted items with a boldfaced summary, as illustrated here. This helps the reader skim the contents.
- Related content that elaborates or gives more detail is included via standard inline hyperlinks within the text.
- References or citations backing some info that is already explained in the text is in [brackets] at the end of the item (with link for web pages, no link for books).
- **Emoji icons:** These icons aid readability; use them whenever appropriate (usually at the start of bulleted items), as listed in the [**legend**](https://github.com/open-guides/og-aws#legend).
Note we keep consistent formatting in Markdown via [markdownfmt](https://github.com/shurcooL/markdownfmt). We run **admin/reformat.sh** to do this, but you don’t have to worry about it unless you really want to.
