Issue #1263644 by jhodgdon, ultimateboy, Tor Arne Thune: Define what being in MAINTAINERS.txt means.

MAINTAINERS.txt

@@ -1,16 +1,14 @@
 
-Drupal core is maintained by the community.  To participate, go to
-
-  http://drupal.org/contribute
-
-The people listed here have agreed to do more quality assurance work for
-particular areas of Drupal.  All of them are subject to change.
-
+Drupal core is built and maintained by the Drupal project community. Everyone is
+encouraged to submit issues and changes (patches) to improve Drupal, and to
+contribute in other ways -- see http://drupal.org/contribute to find out how.
 
 Branch maintainers
 ------------------
 
-Drupal 7
+The Drupal Core branch maintainers oversee the development of Drupal as a whole.
+The branch mainainers for Drupal 7 are:
+
 - Dries Buytaert 'dries' <http://drupal.org/user/1>
 - Angela Byron 'webchick' <http://drupal.org/user/24967>
 
@@ -18,6 +16,11 @@ Drupal 7
 Component maintainers
 ---------------------
 
+The Drupal Core component maintainers oversee the development of Drupal
+subsystems. See http://drupal.org/contribute/core-maintainers for more
+information on their responsibilities, and to find out how to become a component
+maintainer. Current component maintainers for Drupal 7:
+
 Ajax system
 - Alex Bronstein 'effulgentsia' <http://drupal.org/user/78040>
 - Randy Fay 'rfay' <http://drupal.org/user/30906>