Bump pylint to 3.0.0a7, update changelog
diff --git a/CONTRIBUTORS.txt b/CONTRIBUTORS.txt
index 6bc4dc8..74db0dd 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTORS.txt
+++ b/CONTRIBUTORS.txt
@@ -15,8 +15,8 @@
 -----------
 - Pierre Sassoulas <pierre.sassoulas@gmail.com>
 - Daniël van Noord <13665637+DanielNoord@users.noreply.github.com>
-- Marc Mueller <30130371+cdce8p@users.noreply.github.com>
 - Jacob Walls <jacobtylerwalls@gmail.com>
+- Marc Mueller <30130371+cdce8p@users.noreply.github.com>
 - Hippo91 <guillaume.peillex@gmail.com>
 - Mark Byrne <31762852+mbyrnepr2@users.noreply.github.com>
 - Andreas Finkler <3929834+DudeNr33@users.noreply.github.com>
@@ -100,20 +100,20 @@
 - Joseph Young <80432516+jpy-git@users.noreply.github.com> (jpy-git)
 - Tim Martin <tim@asymptotic.co.uk>
 - Ollie <46904826+ollie-iterators@users.noreply.github.com>
+- Zen Lee <53538590+zenlyj@users.noreply.github.com>
 - Tushar Sadhwani <tushar.sadhwani000@gmail.com> (tusharsadhwani)
 - Nicolas Chauvat <nicolas.chauvat@logilab.fr>
 - orSolocate <38433858+orSolocate@users.noreply.github.com>
-- Zen Lee <53538590+zenlyj@users.noreply.github.com>
 - Radu Ciorba <radu@devrandom.ro>: not-context-manager and confusing-with-statement warnings.
 - Holger Peters <email@holger-peters.de>
 - Cosmin Poieană <cmin@ropython.org>: unichr-builtin and improvements to bad-open-mode.
+- Yilei "Dolee" Yang <yileiyang@google.com>
 - Steven Myint <hg@stevenmyint.com>: duplicate-except.
 - Peter Kolbus <peter.kolbus@gmail.com> (Garmin)
 - Luigi Bertaco Cristofolini <lucristofolini@gmail.com> (luigibertaco)
 - Glenn Matthews <glenn@e-dad.net>:
   * autogenerated documentation for optional extensions,
   * bug fixes and enhancements for docparams (née check_docs) extension
-- Yilei "Dolee" Yang <yileiyang@google.com>
 - Vlad Temian <vladtemian@gmail.com>: redundant-unittest-assert and the JSON reporter.
 - Julien Jehannet <julien.jehannet@logilab.fr>
 - Boris Feld <lothiraldan@gmail.com>
@@ -245,6 +245,7 @@
 - xmo-odoo <xmo-odoo@users.noreply.github.com>
 - tbennett0 <tbennett0@users.noreply.github.com>
 - omarandlorraine <64254276+omarandlorraine@users.noreply.github.com>
+- crazybolillo <antonio@zoftko.com>
 - craig-sh <craig-sh@users.noreply.github.com>
 - bernie gray <bfgray3@users.noreply.github.com>
 - Wes Turner <westurner@google.com> (Google): added new check 'inconsistent-quotes'
@@ -327,9 +328,12 @@
 - mar-chi-pan <mar.polatoglou@gmail.com>
 - lrjball <50599110+lrjball@users.noreply.github.com>
 - laike9m <laike9m@users.noreply.github.com>
+- kyoto7250 <50972773+kyoto7250@users.noreply.github.com>
 - kriek <sylvain.ackermann@gmail.com>
+- kdestin <101366538+kdestin@users.noreply.github.com>
 - jaydesl <35102795+jaydesl@users.noreply.github.com>
 - jab <jab@users.noreply.github.com>
+- gracejiang16 <70730457+gracejiang16@users.noreply.github.com>
 - glmdgrielson <32415403+glmdgrielson@users.noreply.github.com>
 - glegoux <gilles.legoux@gmail.com>
 - gaurikholkar <f2013002@goa.bits-pilani.ac.in>
@@ -364,6 +368,7 @@
 - VictorT <victor.taix@gmail.com>
 - Victor Jiajunsu <16359131+jiajunsu@users.noreply.github.com>
 - ViRuSTriNiTy <cradle-of-mail@gmx.de>
+- Val Lorentz <progval+github@progval.net>
 - Trevor Bekolay <tbekolay@gmail.com>
   * Added --list-msgs-enabled command
 - Tomer Chachamu <tomer.chachamu@gmail.com>: simplifiable-if-expression
@@ -439,6 +444,7 @@
 - Michael Hudson-Doyle <michael.hudson@canonical.com>
 - Michael Giuffrida <mgiuffrida@users.noreply.github.com>
 - Melvin Hazeleger <31448155+melvio@users.noreply.github.com>
+- Mehdi Drissi <mdrissi@hmc.edu>
 - Matěj Grabovský <mgrabovs@redhat.com>
 - Matthijs Blom <19817960+MatthijsBlom@users.noreply.github.com>
 - Matej Marušák <marusak.matej@gmail.com>
@@ -462,6 +468,7 @@
 - Kian Meng, Ang <kianmeng.ang@gmail.com>
 - Kevin Phillips <thefriendlycoder@gmail.com>
 - Kevin Jing Qiu <kevin.jing.qiu@gmail.com>
+- Kenneth Schackart <schackartk1@gmail.com>
 - Kayran Schmidt <59456929+yumasheta@users.noreply.github.com>
 - Karthik Nadig <kanadig@microsoft.com>
 - Jürgen Hermann <jh@web.de>
@@ -492,6 +499,7 @@
 - Jacques Kvam <jwkvam@gmail.com>
 - Jace Browning <jacebrowning@gmail.com>: updated default report format with clickable paths
 - JT Olds <jtolds@xnet5.com>
+- Iggy Eom <iggy.eom@sendbird.com>
 - Hayden Richards <62866982+SupImDos@users.noreply.github.com>
   * Fixed "no-self-use" for async methods
   * Fixed "docparams" extension for async functions and methods
@@ -556,8 +564,6 @@
 - Arun Persaud <arun@nubati.net>
 - Arthur Lutz <arthur.lutz@logilab.fr>
 - Antonio Ossa <aaossa@uc.cl>
-- Antonio <antonioglez-23@hotmail.com>
-- Antonio <antonio@zoftko.com>
 - Anthony VEREZ <anthony.verez.external@cassidian.com>
 - Anthony Tan <tanant@users.noreply.github.com>
 - Anthony Foglia <afoglia@users.noreply.github.com> (Google): Added simple string slots check.
diff --git a/doc/whatsnew/3/3.0/index.rst b/doc/whatsnew/3/3.0/index.rst
index 68ccddc..aabf777 100644
--- a/doc/whatsnew/3/3.0/index.rst
+++ b/doc/whatsnew/3/3.0/index.rst
@@ -12,6 +12,13 @@
 Summary -- Release highlights
 =============================
 
+Note Bene for alpha users: Do not upgrade unless you want to
+test things out. Some changes will require a configuration change,
+that won't be compatible with 2.x. For example some extensions
+were removed in favor of a builtin message (``compare-to-zero``
+and ``compare-to-empty-string``). We'll make a configuration
+upgrade tool available before 3.0.0 is out.
+
 Pylint now provides some important usability and performance improvements,
 along with enacting necessary breaking changes and long-announced deprecations.
 
diff --git a/pylint/__pkginfo__.py b/pylint/__pkginfo__.py
index 5a86f05..8a016d8 100644
--- a/pylint/__pkginfo__.py
+++ b/pylint/__pkginfo__.py
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@
 
 from __future__ import annotations
 
-__version__ = "3.0.0b1"
+__version__ = "3.0.0a7"
 
 
 def get_numversion_from_version(v: str) -> tuple[int, int, int]:
diff --git a/script/.contributors_aliases.json b/script/.contributors_aliases.json
index f77b993..807f28e 100644
--- a/script/.contributors_aliases.json
+++ b/script/.contributors_aliases.json
@@ -189,6 +189,10 @@
     "mails": ["anjsimmo@gmail.com", "a.simmons@deakin.edu.au"],
     "name": "Andrew J. Simmons"
   },
+  "antonio@zoftko.com": {
+    "mails": ["antonio@zoftko.com", "antonioglez-23@hotmail.com"],
+    "name": "crazybolillo"
+  },
   "areveny@protonmail.com": {
     "mails": [
       "areveny@protonmail.com",
diff --git a/tbump.toml b/tbump.toml
index a660c29..550ebb4 100644
--- a/tbump.toml
+++ b/tbump.toml
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 github_url = "https://github.com/pylint-dev/pylint"
 
 [version]
-current = "3.0.0b1"
+current = "3.0.0a7"
 regex = '''
 ^(?P<major>0|[1-9]\d*)
 \.