diff --git a/.github/CONTRIBUTING.md b/.github/CONTRIBUTING.md
index 46a06e9..48ed109 100644
--- a/.github/CONTRIBUTING.md
+++ b/.github/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -2,3 +2,13 @@ This will eventually have more information for both contributing to this project
 
 At the very least, all contributors must have a Contributor License Agreement.
 If not, please sign up [here](http://devprogress.us/#joindp).
+
+When starting a new repository:
+
+1) Please copy "gitignore_template" to ".gitignore" (the leading "." is important) at the root level of your repository. [Git ignore documentation](https://git-scm.com/docs/gitignore). Then execute:
+
+    git add .gitignore; git commit -m"gitignore"
+
+in your shell.
+
+2) Please only put "secrets" (passwords, API keys and such) in a file named "secrets.txt" at the root level of your repository AFTER you have created the gitignore file. This will prevent you from publishing DevProgress passwords to the entire world.
diff --git a/.github/gitignore_template b/.github/gitignore_template
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b1d2421
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/gitignore_template
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+secrets.txt
+.DS_Store