There's no need for that. Users/contributors will do whatever they want with the source already. That includes hacking the source for private purposes only. Github is the pinnacle of that attitude (which in my opinion is not social coding at all -- but I digress).

Of course, the articles misses an important point: talking to the maintainer/author first. If you were about to do a big change, would you know if there were any chance to be integrated first? Maybe knowing if someone is already working on it? (heavy refactoring comes to mind). I've gained precious insights about design by simply talking to authors before starting to work on a contribution, saving my time countless times.

If your intention is doing a change no matter what, then you're not really interested in _contributing_.