Formalized our contribution policy which we're currently applying

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+# Contributing to BIRD
+
+We welcome a broad range of contributions to BIRD with some limitations and
+caveats.
+
+BIRD is highly optimized for performance in both memory and computation time.
+We generally don't accept obviously inefficient code and even though the
+quality of the existing codebase quite varies, there should be good reasons
+why to commit something slow or greedy.
+
+There are several basic rules for contributing:
+
+- your branch must have understandable commit messages
+- your branch must be either:
+  - rooted in the current thread-next, aiming for inclusion in BIRD 3
+  - or rooted in the master branch; in this case, we may refuse your patch
+    if it's completely unmergeable with thread-next
+- when incorporating proposed fixes, you may have to rebase your branch
+- please add automatic tests (see below)
+- upfront and continuous consultation with the development team gives you a
+  fast track for merging
+- don't forget to update documentation
+
+## Security issues
+
+Please contact us on bird-support@network.cz for private disclosure of any
+security issues. This includes any crash in or related to filters, induced by
+CLI or by receiving a malformed message by a protocol.
+
+## How to contribute
+
+You can either send a patch (prepared by git format-patch) to our mailing-list
+bird-users@network.cz, or you can send just a link to your repository and the
+commit hash you're contributing.
+
+## What if your contribution isn't mergable
+
+If your code needs minor updates to align with our standards / taste, we'll
+just do these modifications ourselves and either add these as a separate commit
+or just update your commit noting this fact in the commit message.
+
+If your code has some major flaws, misses the point or introduces another
+problem (e.g. performance issues), we'll refuse your patch. Then we'll either
+try to tell you how we prefer to reach the goal, or we may reimplement your
+ideas ourselves. We'll mention your original contribution in the commit message.
+
+## Specific kinds of contributions
+
+### Substantial updates
+
+If you feel like the BIRD internals need some major changes and you wish to
+implement it, please contact the development team first. We're (as of May 2024)
+developing two versions at once and we have some raw thoughts about BIRD's future
+which we haven't published yet.
+
+Beware that BIRD is more convoluted inside than it looks like on the surface,
+and in many places the learning curve is _very_ steep.
+
+### New protocol implementations
+
+We generally welcome broadening of BIRD capabilities. Upfront consultation is
+very much appreciated to align all parties on the development principles,
+internal APIs, coding style and more.
+
+### Refactoring and reformatting
+
+Please don't send us _any_ refactoring proposals without previous explicit approval.
+
+### Programmer's documentation, user documentation or tutorials
+
+We welcome updates to enhance the documentation, including the algorithmic
+principles, internal libraries and API. We keep our right to reject low quality
+contributions altogether.
+
+### Minor changes
+
+Feel free to propose minor fixes in any part of BIRD.
+
+## Testing
+
+There is another repository, https://gitlab.nic.cz/labs/bird-tools.git, where
+we store our automatic tests in the netlab/ directory. This repository is quite
+messy and you may need some help with it. We're planning to move the Netlab
+suite into the main git repository; after we do that, we'll require every
+contribution to add tests (if applicable, of course).
+
+## Crediting policy
+
+The credits are scattered over all the source code files; in the commentary
+section, you may find typically the original authors of these files or some
+major contributors who felt like adding their names there. Overall, if you feel
+like your name should be there, include this change in your commits please.
+If your name should be changed, please do that change there.
+
+We are planning to centralize the credits one day; we'll then update this file
+accordingly.
+
+## Meta
+
+If some of these rules are breached, you may complain either at the mailing
+list, or directly to CZ.NIC who is currently BIRD's maintainer.
+
+If we don't reply within 3 weeks, please ping us. We don't intend to ghost you,
+we are just overloaded.
+
+This contributing policy also applies to itself.