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About this guidebook

This guidebook is written by and for all employees of CivicActions. Everyone is encouraged to contribute to continuously improve it.

A common reason to create or edit documentation is to "scratch an itch" that's felt when we come across a lack of information or spot an error. We invite you to act on that impulse when you can. You can also ask a practice lead if you are not sure. This way we keep the guidebook working as a valuable resource for new hires as well as veteran team members.

We have a Trello board to manage the guidebook backlog. Feel free to pick something off the backlog to work on (unless it's already been assigned to someone).

We also use the #docs channel in Slack to communicate.

Steps for a successful contribution

When making a contribution to the guidebook:

  1. If you have an idea for improving the guidebook but don't have time to research and/or write new content, you can open a new Trello card with a suggestion for the backlog.
  2. You can chat about your suggestion in #docs in Slack and ask for help if you're not sure how to resolve any issues.
  3. Take 10 minutes to review:
    1. The writing style for guidebook content (to maintain consistency).
    2. How to do Markdown.
    3. How to edit content using Git
    4. Who approves pull requests (PRs) when you make changes
  4. Create a new page or edit an existing one in GitHub.
  5. Make any needed changes to the guidebook navigation.
  6. Have someone review your page and code.
  7. Merge the code to make it available publicly.
This page was last updated on November 3, 2023.