Add first draft CONTRIBUTING.md

CONTRIBUTING.md

@@ -0,0 +1,61 @@
+# Contributing guidelines
+
+Welcome! If you would like to contribute to [C4-PlantUML](https://github.com/plantuml-stdlib/C4-PlantUML/), you have come to the right place!
+
+There are different ways you can contribute:
+
+- Ask questions (or answer them)
+- Give feedback (or discuss feedback given by others)
+- Report issues (or resolve them)
+- Request new feature (or build them)
+- Help create a release
+
+## Questions
+
+When you have a question about something related to C4-PlantUML, first [search the issue](https://github.com/plantuml-stdlib/C4-PlantUML/issues?q=) to see if a similar question has already been answered.
+If no issue is found that answers your question, [open a new issue](https://github.com/plantuml-stdlib/C4-PlantUML/issues/new?title=[Question]&labels=question) and ask.
+
+Provide as much context and detail as needed. The higher the quality of the issue, the easier it is to get an answer.
+Don't worry about this too much, though, if anything is unclear, or more information is needed, you'll be asked to provide specifics.
+
+Your question could be of interest to other users, in which case it might even be added to the project documentation!
+
+Sometimes, the answer might be that either we don't know, or the question is not really about this project, but more about C4 or PlantUML (or other tools and techniques).
+Maintainers and contributors will try to answer any question as best they can, but please be respectful if your question remains unaswered or you are directed elsewhere.
+
+To keep things organised, if an issue with a question is inactive for a longer period of time, it will be marked as "stale". Shortly thereafter, the issue will be closed, regardless of the answer.
+
+## Feedback
+
+To keep things organised, if an issue with feedback is inactive for a longer period of time, it will be marked as "stale". Shortly thereafter, the issue will be closed, regardless of the answer.
+
+## Issues
+
+To keep things organised, if an issue is inactive for a longer period of time, it will be marked as "stale". Shortly thereafter, the issue will be closed, regardless of the answer.
+
+## Features
+
+To keep things organised, if an issue with a feature request is inactive for a longer period of time, it will be marked as "stale". Shortly thereafter, the issue will be closed, regardless of the answer.
+
+Merge requests are not marked as stale nor automatically closed.
+
+## Release
+
+When creating a release, the following needs to happen:
+
+- [ ] Resolve all open issues related to [the upcoming milestone](https://github.com/plantuml-stdlib/C4-PlantUML/milestones/)<br>
+      <sup>_So all desired features are present in the planned release_
+- [ ] Update the `!include` paths to point to the new release URL<br>
+  <sup>_So users that include `https://raw.githubusercontent.com/plantuml-stdlib/C4-PlantUML/vX.X.X/C4_Component.puml` actually get the related files instead of files from the main branch._
+- [ ] Update the version in [`C4.puml`](https://github.com/plantuml-stdlib/C4-PlantUML/blob/master/C4.puml#L6)<br>
+  <sup>_So user can debug/output the version they are using_ 
+- [ ] Check if anything else that needs changing. Copyright year? Any contrib files? URLS?<br>
+  <sup>_Making everything is in order before the release, so we do not have to make minor releases afterwards_
+- [ ] Open an MR to incorporate the changes needed for version release into the `main` branch.<br>
+  <sup>_So there is a fixed/traceable moment in time that marks the change_
+- [ ] Create [a new release](https://github.com/plantuml-stdlib/C4-PlantUML/releases/new?title=Release%202.X.X&tag=v2.X.X&release-notes=true) of the latest changes (using "Generate Release Notes").<br>
+  <sup>_So there is a fixed/traceable moment in time that marks the change_
+- [ ] Create a merge-request for the release at [PlantUML-stdlib](https://github.com/plantuml/plantuml-stdlib/)<br>
+  <sup>_So PlantUML users also have access to the latest greatest C4-PlantUML_
+
+The easest way to track these tasks, and let others know how a release is progressing, copy/paste the above list into a new issue.