diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 26858e61e..bac9cd40f 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -18,6 +18,9 @@ instructions.
 You are welcome to contribute, add to and extend Diaspora however you see fit.  We
 will do our best to incorporate everything that meets our guidelines.
 
+Please make your changes on a topic branch in your repo and submit your pull request
+from there, so that commits you don't want to submit aren't included.
+
 Please do not rebase our tree into yours.
 See [here](http://www.mail-archive.com/dri-devel@lists.sourceforge.net/msg39091.html)
 for when to rebase.