This is an issue completely orthogonal to the git transition, but
also motivated by my concern that the Emacs codebase and project raise
needless barriers to contribution.

/etc is a mess.  Over the years it's become a dumping ground for
miscellany.  There are no fewer that four different files of
miscellaneous jokes! And a cookie recipe! And...stuff.

I think this matters because newbies who try to browse it get lost.
Important things like the GNU Manifesto (yes, I agree it should
be treated as important despite my well-known disagreements with it)
are half-submerged in trivia, clutter, and files that only programs
rather than humans care about.

I propose to fix this with a reorganization.  /etc should be the data
directory for files used by Lisp and programs in the suite.  The files
meant exclusively for human browsing - the jokes, the cookie recipe,
the Manifesto, the hacking guides - should move to a new directory
designated for such content.

That directory should have a proper README of it own mapping the
content, so  newbies can quickly grasp what is there and what they
might want to look at.

Discuss.
--
                <a href="http://www.catb.org/~esr/">Eric S. Raymond</a>

"The power to tax involves the power to destroy;...the power to
destroy may defeat and render useless the power to create...."
        -- Chief Justice John Marshall, 1819.