use YAML rather than JSON for configuration files

JSON is an excellent tool for simple data interchange between servers,
but is a royal pain as a configuration file format which must also be
written and read by human beings.  The difference between valid and
invalid JSON is often down to a single character in hard-to-spot places:

    { "valid_json?":
      { "lets":
        ["play",
         "spot",
         "the",
         "syntax",
         "errors",
       ]
      },
    }

(It gets even worse if you want to _generate_ valid JSON in the context
of, say, an ERB/moustache template file: ugly logic must be invoked to
make sure that lists are terminated correctly.)

Even worse: correct JSON does not allow for comments. And while you can
certainly do:

    { "this_dict": {
        "has": "values",
        "and": "a",
        "comment": "which is me!" }
    }

...it's much harder to do something like this:

    { "this_dict": {
        # TODO: restore when bug #7 closes
        # "has": "values",
        # "and": "a",
        "comment": "which is me!" }
    }

...whereas all of the above strings are valid and correct YAML.
Merge pull request #25 from memory/yaml-conf

use YAML rather than JSON for configuration files
add contributor guidelines