improve readme and add contributing

CONTRIBUTING.md

@@ -0,0 +1,77 @@
+# Contributing Guide
+
+## A small thank you
+
+Thanks for your interest in contributing to DCS Real Weather! This project
+started a personal hobby project for my own group's DCS server, and despite
+never advertising the project, it's now grown to a small community of users.
+The feedback from everyone who has used this tool has helped to improve it
+across the board, so your interest in continuing that trend is greatly
+appreciated.
+
+## Why this guide exists
+
+This is a small project with a maintaining team of one (me), so reading these
+guidelines will help me efficiently implement your feedback and increase the
+chances of your feature request being added.
+
+## Ways to contribute
+
+There are many ways you can contribute to this project, and experience
+programming is not required to be helpful! Ways of contributing include
+improving the documentation, opening issues with bug reports or feature
+requests, and writing code to be included in the next release of DCS Real
+Weather.
+
+### Documentation improvements
+
+Documentation is a crucial aspect of any successful project, and unfortunately
+I haven't spent much time creating a comprehensive guide on how to use DCS Real
+Weather. If you would like to help make the tool easier for others to understand
+and use, please feel empowered to do so. You can do this in multiple ways:
+
+1. Add directly to the README.md and create a pull request. This may require
+some understanding of GitHub and Git, but if you are familiar and would like
+to get credit in the contributors section of GitHub, this is a great way to
+do so!
+2. Unsure how to create a pull request but stil want to suggest some
+improvements to the README? That's OK too! You can always create a new issue
+and suggest edits or additions there.
+3. Go the extra mile and create a text or video guide and post it wherever!
+This project could definitely benefit from someone willing to write a detailed
+guide on how to set up DCS Real Weather and incorporate it into a server. If you
+do this, please let me know by opening an issue and linking to your guide, and
+if it's useful, I may include a link to it in the project README :-).
+
+### Bug reports and feature requests
+
+This is probably the easiest way to contribute to the project. If you are a user
+of DCS Real Weather and think of a way to improve the tool, or if you encounter
+a bug in your use, please let me know about it by creating an issue. For bug
+reports, please be detailed! At minimum it is helpful if you can post the
+following information:
+
+- What did you do?
+- What did you expect to happen?
+- What actually happened?
+- Please upload any relevant files to the issue (e.g. your mission file, log
+file created by real weather, screenshots, etc. -- Do NOT upload your
+config.json unless you remove your API key first).
+
+For feature requests, please layout your request with sufficient detail and
+take the time to explain why you believe your feature would improve the tool.
+Additionally, please understand that this is still a hobby project for me, and
+if you request a large or hard-to-implement feature, it may not get done for a
+long time, or at all. If this is the case, it may be better for you to take a
+go at implementing the feature yourself, and opening a pull request ([see
+contributing code](#contributing-code))
+
+### Contributing code
+
+Have some experience programming and want to contribute directly? Pull requests
+are welcome. When creating your pull request, please still follow the
+guidelines in [bug reports and feature
+requests](#bug-reports-and-feature-requests) if you are opening a PR to fix a
+bug or add a new feature. Additionally if your changes are large in scope, it
+may be best to open an issue first to discuss what you plan to change prior to
+doing the work.

README.md

@@ -1,5 +1,9 @@
 # DCS Real Weather Updater
 
+[![Downloads](https://img.shields.io/github/downloads/evogelsa/DCS-real-weather/total?logo=GitHub)](https://github.com/evogelsa/DCS-real-weather/releases/latest)
+[![Latest Release](https://img.shields.io/github/v/release/evogelsa/DCS-real-weather?logo=GitHub)](https://github.com/evogelsa/DCS-real-weather/releases/latest)
+[![Discord](https://img.shields.io/discord/1148739727990722751?logo=Discord)](https://discord.com/invite/mjr2SpFuqq)
+
 ## About
 
 This program is a simple utility meant to be incorporated into a DCS server's
@@ -60,4 +64,20 @@ can use a script to automate the process. Some examples are provided in
 | logfile             | string | name of log, "" will disable logfile          |
 | metar-remarks       | string | remarks to add to metar, for logging only     |
 
+## Contributing
+
+Interested in helping to improve this project? Please see the [contributing
+guide](CONTRIBUTING.md) for guidelines on making suggestions, opening new
+issues, or contributing code. Thanks for your interest!
+
+## Enjoying this project?
+
+Please consider starring the project to show your support. If you
+would like to get more involved, read the [contributing guide](CONTRIBUTING.md)
+to see how you can improve DCS Real Weather. This started as a small personal
+project and has grown to a small user base over the past couple years. Feel
+free to spread the love by posting about DCS real weather or by sharing with
+friends. Also join our small [Discord](https://discord.com/invite/mjr2SpFuqq)
+community for support, announcements, and camaraderie.
+
 [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_profile_power_law