Added a description about the site to README.md

Fixes #3.

CONTRIBUTING.md

@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Please read the [Contributing to the website](https://github.com/mono/website#contributing-to-the-website) section in the readme.

README.md

@@ -1,4 +1,62 @@
 Mono Project Website
 ====================
 
-This repository contains the files used for generating the Mono Project Website.
+This repository contains the files used for generating the Mono website at http://www.mono-project.com.
+
+The site uses Jekyll (http://jekyllrb.com), a static site generator. GitHub Pages, where the site is hosted, natively supports Jekyll so every time someone pushes to this repository, the website will be built and updated.
+
+Contributing to the website
+---------------------------
+**Note:** Major issues or feature requests should be filed on the [issue tracker](https://github.com/mono/website/issues) first, so we can discuss the implications.
+
+If you want to edit a page, the easiest way is to click the ![Edit page on GitHub](https://cloud.githubusercontent.com/assets/1376924/3712375/a6d7bc42-150f-11e4-9ceb-5230cbbfba3f.png) link under the page title on the website.
+
+This will open the source file on GitHub where you can click the pencil button to start editing:
+![Arrow to pencil](https://cloud.githubusercontent.com/assets/1376924/3712365/121866e2-150f-11e4-90d8-0a65c2b346d4.png)
+
+GitHub's editor shows you both the [Markdown](https://guides.github.com/features/mastering-markdown/) source as well as a preview of the rendered page:
+![Code editor](https://cloud.githubusercontent.com/assets/1376924/3712360/c669c088-150e-11e4-9bc3-d979b0669924.png)
+
+After you've finished your changes, enter a proper summary and description and click the "Propose file changes" button to open a pull request:
+![Change details](https://cloud.githubusercontent.com/assets/1376924/3712364/ed7570aa-150e-11e4-83ca-ec6b90ba6b9b.png)
+
+**Note** When editing or adding links, make sure to prefix them with `{{ site.github.url }}`. This is a special variable that is populated by GitHub Pages with the domain name and ensures the links work even on forks.
+
+Setting up a local copy of the website
+--------------------------------------
+For larger changes, using the web-based editor on GitHub is not really convenient. A better way is to setup a local copy of the website where you can experiment.
+
+###Dependencies:
+ - [Ruby](https://www.ruby-lang.org/) - Jekyll requires Ruby, so you need to install it.
+ - [Bundler](http://bundler.io/) - a package manager for Ruby. Install it by running `gem install bundler`
+
+After you've forked and cloned the repository, run the following commands:
+ 1. `bundle install` - downloads the required libraries
+ 2. `jekyll serve` - builds the website and runs a local webserver on port 4000
+
+**Note:** you can add the `--watch` option when running `jekyll serve` to let Jekyll watch for file changes, which means the site will be rebuilt when a file is modified.
+
+The site should now be running locally:
+![website](https://cloud.githubusercontent.com/assets/1376924/3712425/c1ab2e9c-1513-11e4-9df2-6e69d461c3cf.png)
+
+By pushing the changes to the `gh-pages` branch in your fork you can also view the website at `http://<yourusername>.github.io/website`.
+
+Repository structure
+--------------------
+ - `_includes` - *special folder* contains snippets that can be included via `{% include file.html %}` in other pages
+ - `_layouts` - *special folder* contains the layouts that are shared between pages. Layouts can be inherited, the root layout is `base.html`.
+ - `_posts` - *special folder*, contains the source pages for the blog section, see [Writing a blog post](#writing-a-blog-post)
+ - `_site` - the output of the generated site is stored here by default, this folder only exists after Jekyll built the site
+ - `community` - contains the source pages for the `/community` website section
+ - `css` - contains the main stylesheet
+ - `docs` - contains the source pages for the `/docs` website section
+ - `download` - contains the source pages for the `/download` website section
+ - `images` - stores the images used in pages
+ - `news` - lists the blog pages from the `_posts` directory
+ - `old_site` - content migrated from the old MediaWiki site
+
+Writing a blog post
+-------------------
+Blogging is very easy with Jekyll. Simply add a new Markdown file to the `_posts` folder following the file name convention: `YEAR-MONTH-DAY-title.md`
+
+Make sure to not include special characters in the file name. The blog entry's publishing date is automatically extracted from the file name.

docs/index.md

@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ These docs cover Mono specific topics, like setting up and configuring Mono or i
 
 For general information about the .NET framework and the class libraries you can refer to Microsoft's [MSDN pages](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff361664.aspx).
 
-{% include note.html type='info' message='Our documentation is open source on <a href="https://github.com/mono/website/docs">GitHub</a>. If you find errors or think a page could be improved, just click the "Edit page on GitHub" link beneath the page title. This will take you directly to the correct spot in our GitHub repository where you can edit the page and submit your changes as a pull request. See <a href="https://github.com/mono/website/blob/gh-pages/CONTRIBUTING.md">contributing to the website</a> for more details.' %}
+{% include note.html type='info' message='Our documentation is open source on <a href="https://github.com/mono/website/docs">GitHub</a>. If you find errors or think a page could be improved, just click the "Edit page on GitHub" link beneath the page title. This will take you directly to the correct spot in our GitHub repository where you can edit the page and submit your changes as a pull request. See <a href="https://github.com/mono/website#contributing-to-the-website">contributing to the website</a> for more details.' %}
 
 Getting Started
 ---------------