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Update contributors guide#789

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edwardchalstrey1 wants to merge 8 commits intomasterfrom
fix/786
Open

Update contributors guide#789
edwardchalstrey1 wants to merge 8 commits intomasterfrom
fix/786

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@edwardchalstrey1 edwardchalstrey1 commented Feb 27, 2026

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Description of the changes in this PR

  • This PR adds a code of conduct, note for new contributors and policy on AI-assisted contributions to the contributors guide
  • Also updates the index page of the docs linking to this clearly, and the README

How to review this PR

  • Click the generated readthedocs link in the CI
  • Look at the new sections on the contributors page
  • Check the index/readme and whether the policies are easy enough to find

We are committed to fostering a welcoming and harassment-free environment for everyone, regardless of background or identity.
Please be kind and considerate in your interactions. We are all here to build a better tool for game theory research and education.
Disagreements may happen, but they should be handled with respect and a focus on constructive resolution.

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@tturocy @rahulsavani Do you want to be named as points of contacts in any disputes arising here?

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Would that be good practice? It would make sense, although in our case we are a sufficiently small group right now that there's a chance that we would be the ones someone had beef with (not that we would be discourteous, but someone could allege we were being too brusque towards them or otherwise being discriminatory).

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A few nitpicks and devils-advocate thoughts.

We are committed to fostering a welcoming and harassment-free environment for everyone, regardless of background or identity.
Please be kind and considerate in your interactions. We are all here to build a better tool for game theory research and education.
Disagreements may happen, but they should be handled with respect and a focus on constructive resolution.

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Would that be good practice? It would make sense, although in our case we are a sufficiently small group right now that there's a chance that we would be the ones someone had beef with (not that we would be discourteous, but someone could allege we were being too brusque towards them or otherwise being discriminatory).

Before you start working on a contribution, we encourage you to familiarize yourself with the project.
Gambit is a mature and complex codebase. Even issues marked as "good first issue" may require some understanding of the context and how different parts of the project interact.

We have always valued thoughtful contributions. A common issue for open-source projects is receiving pull requests that are not well-aligned with the project's needs or coding standards. To avoid wasted effort on your part and on ours, we strongly encourage you to engage with us before you spend a lot of time on implementation.
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"unproductive effort"?

We recognize that generative AI tools can be a useful aid in software development. We also expect authentic and thoughtful engagement from our contributors.

- **You are responsible for your contributions.** If you use generative AI to help you write code or documentation, you must fully understand the output. You should be able to explain the changes and why they are the correct approach for the project.
- **Add value.** Simply taking a prompt, feeding it to an AI, and posting the result as a contribution is not helpful. We expect you to use your own expertise to verify, test, and refine any AI-generated content. To preserve precious developer time, we reserve the right to rigorously reject low-value contributions, whether AI-generated or not.
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"Out of respect for everyone's time"? Or something like that?

- **You are responsible for your contributions.** If you use generative AI to help you write code or documentation, you must fully understand the output. You should be able to explain the changes and why they are the correct approach for the project.
- **Add value.** Simply taking a prompt, feeding it to an AI, and posting the result as a contribution is not helpful. We expect you to use your own expertise to verify, test, and refine any AI-generated content. To preserve precious developer time, we reserve the right to rigorously reject low-value contributions, whether AI-generated or not.
- **No AI-generated comments.** Please do not post output from Large Language Models (LLMs) or similar tools as comments on GitHub issues or pull requests. Such comments are often generic and do not add to the discussion.
- **No bots.** It is strictly forbidden to use automated tooling, such as bots or agents, to post AI-generated content to issues or pull requests.
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Again devil's advocate: I could imagine hypothetically that we might have some automated tools which do something on PRs, and given that "AI" isn't strictly speaking well defined, we might fall foul of our own stated guideline. Do we want to add something like "without the advance approval of the core development team"?

construction and analysis of finite extensive and strategic games.
We recommended most new users install the PyGambit Python package and read the associated documentation, which includes tutorials and a complete API reference.

- **Users:** We recommended most newcomers install the PyGambit Python package and read the associated documentation, which includes tutorials and a complete API reference.
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"recommend" (-ed)

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