diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md
index eb41c798e..008359da1 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTING.md
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -97,32 +97,41 @@ Unless explicitly stated, we follow all coding guidelines from the Go
 community. While some of these standards may seem arbitrary, they somehow seem
 to result in a solid, consistent codebase.
 
+It is possible that the code base does not currently comply with these
+guidelines. We are not looking for a massive PR that fixes this, since that
+goes against the spirit of the guidelines. All new contributions should make a
+best effort to clean up and make the code base better than they left it.
+Obviously, apply your best judgement. Remember, the goal here is to make the
+code base easier for humans to navigate and understand. Always keep that in
+mind when nudging others to comply.
+
 The rules:
 
 1. All code should be formatted with `gofmt -s`.
 2. All code should pass the default levels of
    [`golint`](https://github.com/golang/lint).
-3. All code should follow the guidelines covered at
-   https://github.com/golang/go/wiki/CodeReviewComments.
+3. All code should follow the guidelines covered in [Effective
+   Go](http://golang.org/doc/effective_go.html) and [Go Code Review
+   Comments](https://github.com/golang/go/wiki/CodeReviewComments).
 4. Comment the code. Tell us the why, the history and the context.
 5. Document _all_ declarations and methods, even private ones. Declare
    expectations, caveats and anything else that may be important. If a type
    gets exported, having the comments already there will ensure it's ready.
-6. Variable name length should be proportional to it's context and no longer.
-   noALongVariableNameLikeThisIsNotMoreClearWhenASimpleCommentWouldDo. In
-   practice, short methods will have short variable names and globals will
+6. Variable name length should be proportional to its context and no longer.
+   `noCommaALongVariableNameLikeThisIsNotMoreClearWhenASimpleCommentWouldDo`.
+   In practice, short methods will have short variable names and globals will
    have longer names.
 7. No underscores in package names. If you need a compound name, step back,
    and re-examine why you need a compound name. If you still think you need a
    compound name, lose the underscore.
 8. No utils or helpers packages. If a function is not general enough to
-   warrant it's own package, it has not been written generally enough to be a
+   warrant its own package, it has not been written generally enough to be a
    part of a util package. Just leave it unexported and well-documented.
 9. No, we don't need another unit testing framework.
 10. Even though we call these "rules" above, they are actually just
     guidelines. Since you've read all the rules, you now know that.
 
 If you are having trouble getting into the mood of idiomatic Go, we recommend
-reading through [`Effective Go`](http://golang.org/doc/effective_go.html). The
+reading through [Effective Go](http://golang.org/doc/effective_go.html). The
 [Go Blog](http://blog.golang.org/) is also a great resource. Drinking the
 kool-aid is a lot easier than going thirsty.