Most of the advice about reading the docs is relevant. GitHub didn't invent those conventions, the whole README/CONTRIBUTING/LICENSE thing has been around for a long time. I remember being so impressed with Perl back in the mid 90's because it was so freakin simple to install, get up and running, and get help when you needed it.
After that, you should email the lead dev(s) and ask how you can contribute. Many projects have a mailing list and that's usually the best place to start.
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What should I do if the open source project I want to contribute to isn't on GitHub?
Most of the advice about reading the docs is relevant. GitHub didn't invent those conventions, the whole README/CONTRIBUTING/LICENSE thing has been around for a long time. I remember being so impressed with Perl back in the mid 90's because it was so freakin simple to install, get up and running, and get help when you needed it.
After that, you should email the lead dev(s) and ask how you can contribute. Many projects have a mailing list and that's usually the best place to start.
Copy the project's code into a GitHub repository that uses the project's name and start hacking on it there, and then release your own fork.
Oh, wait, that's exactly what you shouldn't do. :)
Why not? That's what I would have guessed.