WordPress plugin/theme readme file standard. Readme.txt
The point of a change log is to make it easier for users and contributors to see precisely what notable changes have been made between each release (or version) of the project.
A changelog is a file which contains a curated, chronologically ordered list of notable changes for each version of a project. The difference with a historical file is in the historical files you write all the commit logs.
You whant to make sure everybody understand which changes are in the project. Not just for the developers of the projes, also for the end users of the software. A well curate list of changes incourage to the people to do the same and make easy to the people to jump and contribute.
This is not a new or revolutionary idea. In fact, you probably do something close to this already. The problem is that “close” isn’t good enough. By giving a name and clear definition to the commit logs, it becomes easy to communicate your intentions to the users of your software. Once these intentions are clear, it became a prevented measure avoiding missunderstandings, because if the file is update ofthen, the file became the center of the repository, not the develoopers by helping the people how use the software and saving you time and hassle.
If all of this sounds desirable, all you need to do to start using CMS Changelog is to declare that you are doing so and then follow the rules. Link to this website from your README so others know the rules and can benefit from them.