### New to GitHub?

We track patches by using GitHub.  GitHub makes it easy to fork the project, and for the project team to monitor the progress of those forks and easily merge those forks back into the mainline.  To get started with GitHub:
 
* You will need a [SSH key](http://help.github.com/key-setup-redirect) to push you changes to GitHub
* Then [create a GitHub account](https://github.com/signup/free)
* Then [configure git so that commits are linked to your GitHub account](http://help.github.com/git-email-settings)

### Already a GitHub User?

* go to the [${project_name} github page](${github_page}) and follow the [Forking Guide](http://help.github.com/forking/) to
  get your own copy of the project.
* hack your copy as much as you like, pushing your local changes back to your git repo on github.

Once your happy with your changes, notify us that that your want your changes merged back:

* click on the pull request button the [${project_name} github page](${github_page}) to let us know you've a patch you'd like to contribute.
* you may want to [create a new Issue in the Issue Tracker](${project_issue_url})
* fire off an email to the [Community](community.html) linking to the issue

When a ticket is created in JIRA it automatically sends an email to the [commit mailing list](community.html) but an email always helps alert folks (as lots of emails are generated from every change to every JIRA).

