How do I get an account to let me contribute to the CVS version of GNOME?

If you plan on contributing code to the project, then you will need an account on the CVS server. Miguel de Icaza ( miguel@nuclecu.unam.mx) determines who gets accounts on the CVS server; if you would like one, then send him a message detailing what code you plan on writing, along with with a crypted password. You can get that by doing the following:

perl -e 'print crypt ("YourPassword", "salt");'

Where the "salt" string preferably should be a random 2-char string.