Contributing

Material for MkDocs is an actively maintained and constantly evolving project serving a diverse user base with versatile backgrounds and needs. In order to efficiently address the requirements of all our users, evaluate change requests, and fix bugs, we put in a lot of work.

Our ever-growing community includes many active users, who open new issues and discussions several times a day, evolving our issue tracker and discussion board into a knowledge base – an important addition to our documentation – yielding value to both new and experienced users.

How you can contribute

We understand that reporting bugs, raising change requests, as well as engaging in discussions can be time-consuming, which is why we've carefully optimized our issue templates and defined guidelines to improve the overall interaction within the project. We've invested a lot of time and effort into making our issue tracker and discussion board as efficient as possible.

Our goal is to ensure that our documentation, as well as issue tracker and discussion board, are well-structured, easy to navigate, and searchable, so you can find what you need quickly and efficiently. Thus, when you follow our guidelines, we can help you much faster.

In this section, we guide your through our processes.

Creating an issue

Contributing

Checklist

Before interacting within the project, please take a moment to consider the following questions. By doing so, you can ensure that you are using the correct issue template and that you provide all necessary information when interacting with our community.

!!! warning "Issues, discussions, and comments are forever"

Please note that everything you write is permanent and will remain
for everyone to read – forever. Therefore, please always be nice and
constructive, follow our contribution guidelines, and comply with our
[Code of Conduct].

Before creating an issue

• Are you using the appropriate issue template, or is there another issue template that better fits the context of your request?

• Have you checked if a similar bug report or change request has already been created, or have you stumbled upon something that might be related?

• Did your fill out every field as requested and did you provide all additional information we maintainers need to comprehend your request?

Before asking a question

• Is the topic a question for our discussion board, or is it a bug report or change request that should better be raised on our issue tracker?

• Is there an open discussion on the topic of your request? If the answer is yes, does your question match the direction of the discussion, or should you open a new discussion?

• Did your provide our community with all the necessary information to understand your question and help you quickly, or can you make it easier to help you?

Before commenting

• Is your comment relevant to the topic of the current page, post, issue, or discussion, or is it a better idea to create a new issue or discussion?

• Does your comment add value to the conversation? Is it constructive and respectful to our community and us maintainers? Could you just use a :octicons-smiley-16: reaction instead?

Rights and responsibilities

As maintainers, we are entrusted with the responsibility to moderate communication within our community, including the authority to close, remove, reject, or edit issues, discussions, comments, commits, and to block users who do not align with our contribution guidelines and our Code of Conduct. This role requires us to be actively involved in maintaining the integrity and positive atmosphere of our community. Upholding these standards decisively ensures a respectful and inclusive environment for all members.

Code of Conduct

Our Code of Conduct outlines the expectation for all community members to treat one another with respect, employing inclusive and welcoming language. Our commitment is to foster a positive and supportive environment, free of inappropriate, offensive, or harmful behavior.

We take any violations seriously and will take appropriate action in response to uphold these values.[^1]

[^1]: Warning and blocking policy: Given the increasing popularity of our project and our commitment to a healthy community, we've defined clear guidelines on how we proceed with violations:

1.1. __First warning:__ Users displaying repeated inappropriate, offensive,
or harmful behavior will receive a first warning. This warning serves as a
formal notice that their behavior is not in alignment with our community
standards and Code of Conduct. The first warning is permanent.

1.2. __Second warning and opportunity for resolution:__ If the behavior
persists, a second warning will be issued. Upon receiving the second
warning, the user will be given a 5-day period for reflection, during which
they are encouraged to publicly explain or apologize for their actions.
This period is designed to offer an opportunity for openly clearing out any
misunderstanding.

1.3. __Blocking:__ Should there be no response or improvement in behavior
following the second warning, we reserve the right to block the user from
the community and repository. Blocking is considered a last resort, used
only when absolutely necessary to protect the community's integrity and
positive atmosphere.

Blocking has been an exceptionally rare necessity in our overwhelmingly
positive community, highlighting our preference for constructive dialogue
and mutual respect. It aims to protect our community members and team.

Incomplete issues and duplicates

We have invested significant time and effort in the setup of our contribution process, ensuring that we assess the essential requirements for reviewing and responding to issues effectively. Each field in our issue templates is thoughtfully designed to help us fully understand your concerns and the nature of your matter. We encourage all members to utilize the search function before submitting new issues or starting discussions to help avoid duplicates. Your cooperation is crucial in keeping our community's discussions constructive and organized.

• Mandatory completion of issue templates: We need all of the information required in our issue templates because it ensures that every user and maintainer, regardless of their experience, can understand the content and severity of your bug report or change request.

• Closing incomplete issues: We reserve the right to close issues lacking essential information, such as but not limited to minimal reproductions or those not adhering to the quality standards and requirements specified in our issue templates. Such issues can be reopened once the missing information has been provided.

• Handling duplicates: To maintain organized and efficient communication within our issue tracker and discussion board, we reserve the right to close any duplicated issues or lock duplicated discussions. Opening multiple channels to ask the same question or report the same issue across different forums hinders our ability to manage and address community concerns effectively. This approach is vital for efficient time management, as duplicated questions can consume the time of multiple team members simultaneously. Ensuring that each issue or discussion is unique and progresses with new information helps us to maintain focus and support our community.

  We further reserve the right to immediately close discussions or issues that are reopened without providing new information or simply because users have not yet received a response to their issue/question, as the issue is marked as incomplete.