Add contributing.md with basic info + versions

README.md

@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ database file.
 - [Input and Output](#input-and-output)
 - [Installation](#installation)
 - [Usage](#usage)
+- [Feedback and Contributions](#feedback-and-contributions)
 - [About tidy_tweet](#about-tidy_tweet)
 
 ## Collecting Twitter data
@@ -77,6 +78,14 @@ with sqlite3.connect('ObservatoryTeam.db') as connection:
     print(f"There are {db.fetchone()[0]} tweets in the database!")
 ```
 
+## Feedback and contributions
+
+We appreciate all feedback and contributions!
+
+Found an issue with tidy_tweet? [Find out how to let us know](contributing.md#filing-an-issue)
+
+Interested in contributing? Find out more in our [contributing.md](contributing.md)
+
 ## About tidy_tweet
 
 Tidy_tweet is created and maintained by the [QUT Digital Observatory](https://www.qut.edu.au/digital-observatory) and

contributing.md

@@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
+# Contributing to tidy_tweet
+
+Issues (both bug reports and feature requests/discussions) are always welcome on our GitHub, as are pull
+requests!
+
+We very much appreciate any help with our documentation - if you found an error or something was unclear
+to you, we'd love either an issue for us to fix or a pull request with your own changes :)
+
+## Filing an issue
+
+Please file [issues on our GitHub](https://github.com/QUT-Digital-Observatory/tidy_tweet/issues) if you
+encounter any bugs in tidy_tweet, if our documentation is unclear or missing information, or if you have
+a feature request!
+
+We will do our best to respond to all issues, and appreciate your time and feedback.
+
+## Development notes
+
+### Version numbers
+
+We use [setuptools_scm](https://github.com/pypa/setuptools_scm/) to manage our version numbers, so hopefully
+the only place we ever have to enter a version number is when we create a tag in git.
+
+This does mean that when running tidy_tweet from code (as opposed to installing it with pip), the version
+number may not be easily visible or programmatically accessible - most notably, this impacts the metadata
+generated when data is processed.
+
+To ensure the version number is available when working from code, we recommend the following workflow:
+
+```bash
+# In your shell/terminal, in the root folder of your local tidy_tweet repository
+# Ensure you have all the tags fetched (this assumes your git remote is called 'origin')
+git fetch origin --tags
+# Install your local tidy_tweet in editable mode (note the dot at the end)
+pip install -e .
+```
+
+This installs tidy_tweet in [development mode](https://packaging.python.org/en/latest/guides/distributing-packages-using-setuptools/#working-in-development-mode),
+meaning that you can still make changes to the code and have them used when you run it, but you also have
+the benefits of installation. 
+
+Most notably, after installing tidy_tweet in development mode, the version will be available in
+`src/tidy_tweet/_version.py` for visibility and programmatic use. Please do not commit `_version.py` to git.