simplify contributing info

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+Getting Involved
+----------------
+
+Development is coordinated almost entirely on our [Github] page.
+For quick help or a friendly chat you are welcome to pop into our IRC channel #alot on [Freenode].
+
+
+Bug reports and feature requests
+-----------------------------------
+Are more than welcome via our [issue tracker][Issues].
+Before you do, please be sure that
+
+* you are using up to date versions of alot and notmuch
+* your bug/feature is not already being discussed on the [issue tracker][ISSUES]
+* your feature request is in scope of the project. Specifically *not in scope are
+  features related to contact management, fetching and sending email*.
+
+
+Licensing
+---------
+Alot is licensed under the [GNU GPLv3+][GPL3] and all code contributions will be covered by this license.
+
+You will retain your copyright on all code you write.
+By contributing you have agreed that you have the right to contribute the code
+you have written, that the code you are contributing is owned by you or
+licensed with a compatible license allowing it to be added to alot, and that
+your employer or educational institution either does not or cannot claim the
+copyright on any code you write, or that they have given you a waiver to contribute to alot.
+
+
+Pull Requests
+---------------
+You are welcome to submit changes as pull requests on github.
+This will trigger consistency checks and unit tests to be run on our CI system.
+
+To ensure timely and painless reviews please keep the following in mind.
+
+* Follow [PEP8]. You can use [automatic tools][pycodestyle] to verify your code.
+
+* Document your code! We want readable and well documented code.
+  Please use [sphinx] directives to document the signatures of your methods.
+  For new features also update the user manual in `docs/source/usage` accordingly.
+
+* Unit tests: Make sure your changes don't break any existing tests (to check
+  locally use `./setup.py test`). If you are fixing a bug or adding a new
+  features please provide new tests if possible.
+
+* Keep commits simple. Large individual patches are incredibly painful to review properly.
+  Please split your contribution into small, focussed and digestible commits
+  and include [sensible commit messages][commitiquette].
+
+
+[Github]: https://github.com/pazz/alot
+[Issues]: https://github.com/pazz/alot/issues
+[Freenode]: https://freenode.net
+[GLP3]: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.en.html
+[PEP8]: https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0008/
+[pycodestyle]:https://github.com/PyCQA/pycodestyle
+[sphinx]: http://sphinx.pocoo.org/domains.html#info-field-lists
+[commitiquette]: https://chris.beams.io/posts/git-commit/