wip open contributions

CONTRIBUTING.md

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+Do you have expert knowledge of some aspect of bitcoin related technology ? Do
+you have an urge to write high-quality articles for
+extremely picky editors and demanding readers, sometimes under
+tight deadlines, for minimal pay? If so, writing for BTW may be for
+you. Please read on for information on how you can participate in
+the creation of BitcoinTechWeekly.
+
+# What we are after
+
+BTW is seeking authors who can contribute
+articles on a free-lance basis. Our needs fall into three areas:
+
+1. Lead-in editorials for the various Weekly Edition categories, based on
+current events.
+
+2. Brief updates and highlights, based on current developments in the
+   mailing lists and community projects.
+
+3. Longer, feature articles that are not so tightly tied to this week's news.
+
+## Lead-in
+
+As of this writing, we are particularly interested in contributions to our
+weekly Protocol, BIPS, Crypto and Lightning pages, but other subjects are
+welcome too.
+
+Contributions to these pages will run in the "lead-in" position at the top of
+the page. They usually cover some topic from recent bitcoin news (a release,
+mailing list discussion, plans made, etc.). Our general guideline is for
+articles to be around 1500 words in length, though somewhat longer or shorter
+can work too. The best articles cover a fairly narrow topic completely, without
+any big omissions or any extra padding. We are generally looking for authors
+who have their own ideas on topics they want to write about. Looking at past
+weekly editions in the Archives is a good way to get an idea of the kinds of
+topics we cover and how we cover them.
+
+First drafts of articles are typically due on Monday, with a (hopefully)
+one-day turnaround for a final draft sometime on Tuesday. Our deadline is early
+Wednesday morning, CEST time (UTC+2), but it is best to not push up against
+that if possible. Articles that are less tightly tied to the news of the week
+can be delivered at most any time, the earlier, the better.
+
+## Briefs
+
+We are looking for contributors to our weekly briefs. The format is shorter
+than usual articles; the recommended length is less than 600 words.
+It can cover an update, release, new announcement or other developments in the
+Bitcoin technology space, and usually includes quotes and citations from the
+covered topic.
+
+The priority sources of news should be the development mailing lists
+bitcoin-dev and lightning-dev as well as other bitcoin tech communities like
+/r/BitcoinDiscussion and bitcointalk forums.
+
+Since brief updates are time sensitive, contributions approval will be faster
+but you need to contact us first to check if the topic is not already covered
+on our upcoming Weekly Release. The time of the news or event covered should be
+in the period *starting from the Thursday of last week to the Wednesday of
+current week* (last day before the release day).
+
+If you want your contribution to be included in the upcoming Weekly Edition
+release, the deadline is a strict early Thursday morning, CEST time (UTC+2).
+
+
+## Feature articles
+
+We are also always on the lookout for standalone feature articles.
+Feature articles can run independently, on the Weekly Edition front
+page, or both. Articles intended for a specific week's front page
+are subject to the same deadline constraints as other Weekly
+Edition material; others can be more flexible in their timing.
+
+Please note that we are, as a general rule, not looking for "how
+to" articles; there are plenty of other outlets for such content on
+the net. We're more interested in the current news and in informing
+our readers of interesting developments in the community that they
+may not have previously heard of.
+
+We are especially interested in authors who follow an area well
+enough to propose topics for articles and follow through quickly.
+
+# How to contribute
+
+There are two ways to submit contributions:
+
+## Open Contributions
+
+If you just wish to contribute your writing in an open way you should head over our [Github repo](https://github.com/sp4ke/bitcointechweekly.com). 
+
+We encourage open contributions as they are more transparent and much easier to
+review. The contribution process works this way:
+
+1. Submit a *PR* including the *title* and a *brief summary* of your writing.
+
+2. You PR is reviewed and will accept or reject your proposal at our discretion, based on the topic relevance and other factors.
+
+3. If you PR is accepted you will be able to work on your drafts updates over PRs which we will review until the article is ready for publication.
+
+4. Your article is published under the "Open Contribution" section on BitcoinTechWeekly.com
+
+When you start a draft you need to use the [TEMPLATE](TEMPLATE.md) provided in the github repository and fill in
+the metadata at top of the template. (See [Formatting](#formatting))
+
+Open contributors will have the opportunity in the future to receive payments through community donations.
+If you wish to receive compensations for your contribution you should include your BTC or Lightning address in the metadata section.
+
+## Direct Submissions
+
+If you wish to send us directly your writings, the first order of business
+is to contact us (at authors@bitcointechweekly.com) or
+[on our matrix room](https://matrix.to/#/!CbOXWmBuZVDBBmPKdT:matrix.bitcointechweekly.com)
+to discuss your interests. Please do not just send articles without talking to
+us first. We'll discuss subjects and timelines and come to a determination on
+if and where your contributions fit into BTW.
+
+*Submission must be done done in Markdown format*. Please read our writing
+style and formatting information (below) to understand the kind of content we are
+looking for.
+
+
+# BTW style guide
+
+One can find on the interweb an abundance of Bitcoin related journalism. BTW is
+trying to distinguish itself from the lot through (1) a high degree of respect
+to its readers, (2) a significant level of technical accuracy and (3)
+top-quality writing. Contributors to BTW must aim for those goals. To that end,
+we will edit contributions before publication if necessary (though we
+much prefer writing which requires little to no editing), and we must reserve
+the right not to publish work which, in our opinion, does not belong to BTW.
+
+Furthermore, BTW is a *Bitcoin* technology magazine, not the run-of-the-mill
+"everything Blockchain" website you will find elsewhere. We will reject
+any "click-bait" writing in the form of "10 reasons you need a Blockchain"
+and make sure to ignore such a contributor.
+
+We will likewise reject any contribution which, at its substance, tends to
+primarily focus on price behavior or market predictions, unless the technical
+subject of the writing is tightly linked to the economics aspect (such as
+mining incentives, block rewards, transaction fees,  etc.). 
+
+*Audience*. You must assume BTW's readers to be be highly educated and strongly
+technical. Some of them will likely be participants in the projects you are
+writing about. Should you feel the urge to "dumb down" material, that urge
+should be resisted. Our readers are most certainly not "dummies". If you talk
+down to them, or only tell part of the story, they will call you on it.
+
+# Formatting
+
+Our preferred format is *Markdown*. For direct submissions we will prioritize contributions in this format. 
+
+For [Open Contributions](#open-contributions), markdown is the only format accepted. 
+
+If you prefer any other specific markup language, let us know we might be able to accommodate you.
+
+"Word" documents should be avoided at all costs; we will still consider contributions in this format but 
+we strongly advise against it as it makes the review process much slower.
+
+
+# Compensation
+
+Compensation can be made in BTC and Lightning. Let us know if you want to get paid in an alternative crypto-currency.
+
+There are two ways to get paid for your writing.
+
+## Compensation On Open Contributions
+
+For [open contributions](#open-contributions) you need to provide a bitcoin (or LN[^1]) address in
+the metadata section. The readers will have the opportunity to make direct
+donations to each article. Half of every donation will be distributed to the original author. The 
+other half is reserved to the costs of running the website and  the BTW editors team.
+
+## Direct submissions
+
+For direct submissions which are accepted, there will be a "one time only" payment. Those 
+contributions are not elligible to donations from the readers. If you wish to receive donations
+directly from the readers consider making an [open contribution](#open-contributions).
+
+Compensation starts at $200 for well-done articles from new authors. Those
+figure do go up quite substantially for authors who, over time, establish a
+record of good writing and on-time contributions. We'll entertain proposals for
+in-depth articles (or a series of articles) of greater complexity at a higher
+price; please contact us if you have an idea you would like to pursue.
+
+
+# Copyrights and further reproduction
+
+Authors retain the copyrights for their work. We ask that you grant BTW
+exclusive rights to publish your work during up to two weeks after publication.
+Thereafter, we retain the right to publish the material, and release it under
+the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license ([CC BY-SA
+4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)). After the exclusive
+rights period, authors may republish their work however they wish. 
+
+
+# Still interested ?
+
+Drop us a [mail](mailto:contact@bitcointechweekly.com) or join us on [matrix](https://matrix.to/#/!CbOXWmBuZVDBBmPKdT:matrix.bitcointechweekly.com) and let's talk.
+
+[^1]: {{< footnote >}}
+For lightning payments you need to establish a LN channel with us. We are still setting up our LN node and will soon give 
+more details for this procedure.
+{{< /footnote >}}
+

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+TODO