CONTRIBUTING.md

Contributing

Thanks for considering contributing to this awesome list! There are far too many resources out there for a single person to keep track of them all. Your support will help keep this a great resource.

Guidelines

Please take a moment to read these guidelines before contributing.

Unfortunately, not every biblical (and related) resource can be considered and listed here. The goal is to provide a concise list of noteworthy resources for developers working with biblical texts and related resources. This is not a comprehensive listing of tools that can help people study the Bible. This means that the suggested resources are:

• Technical. These resources are designed for software/web developers, computer/data scientists, linguists, translators, publishers, and other specialists or enthusiasts (e.g., file formats, standards, frameworks, libraries / APIs, "raw" corpora, structured annotations / markup, etc.).
• Available. While proprietary and non-free resources are acceptable, they must be licensed in such a way that developers (who don't work for the company that develops/maintains the related software) can actually use them for practical applications (even if only in association with a specific software product). In general, free and open source resources are preferable except where commercial resources are used widely or generally accepted in related fields (e.g., technical resources that are compatible with digital library applications such as Logos/Verbum, Accordance, or SWORD Project modules; translation software such as Paratext, etc.).
• Functional. Resources that have been tested or validated and have been used in pragmatic applications are preferable to lone repositories with questionable accuracy, completion, etc. Projects and resources that are maintained and supported are preferable to those which are not, with the exception of legacy resources that are still used widely in related fields, or static resources with inherent value (e.g., corpora).
• Documented in the English language. There are many great resources in a number of languages (especially since a primary purpose associated with many biblical developer resources is to empower Bible translation and to make biblical study resources available globally). However, this list is only for resources with documentation available in English.
• Useful to a broad community. This is highly subjective, but will be interpreted and applied in such a way as to include resources used by many people or with utility in a variety of applications. In limited cases, this may include resources that can only be used with a single software product if that product is itself widely used or generally accepted. Niche resources with limited applicability may be excluded from this list at the discretion of its maintainer.

How to contribute

There are a couple options for contributing:

• Create a new issue with your proposed change(s). If approved, I'll apply it/them after reviewing the issue.
• Submit a pull request with your proposed change(s).
  • Follow the existing Markdown formatting (don't substantively change the formatting of existing or new items).
  • Check your grammar and spelling.
  • Keep descriptions straightforward and unbiased. It's good to link to associated organizations and to include a link to the actual source repo(s) if distinct from the main project website.
  • Terminate descriptions with appropriate punctuation (which will almost always be a period: .).
  • Do not include trailing white space (except for one blank line at the end of the file).
  • Do not change line endings (be aware if your text editor or git configuration does this automatically).
  • Where known and not simply a copyright, include the applicable badge for the license(s) associated with the resource(s).

Self-promotion is generally frowned upon and will be more critically scrutinized, but your proposal may be accepted if it meets the guidelines.

Thank you for contributing!